When Virginia Tech softball takes on Penn State this Saturday at the Moyer Complex in Salem, there will be a face familiar to Hokies fans in the opposing dugout.
Nittany Lions head coach Clarisa Crowell was a standout player for the Hokies who was inducted into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.
“As a very proud Virginia Tech graduate, I am deeply honored to have been chosen for the Hall of Fame,” Crowell said at the time of her induction. “There have been several great players in the program's history, and I am humbled to be a part of such a special group of people. I am grateful for my coaches, teammates and all the support I received from the Hokie athletic family. My time at Virginia Tech is one that I will always cherish.”
While at Virginia Tech, Crowell was an important utility player for the Hokies, pitching, playing third base and seeing some time in the outfield. She was a four-year letter winner and a three-time all-conference performer (twice in the Atlantic 10 and once in the Big East).
In 2000, she was named to the Virginia all-state team as a pitcher and an outfielder as voted on by sports information directors around the Commonwealth, becoming the first player in state history to make the team at two different positions in the same year.
Crowell hit .289 for her career with 16 home runs and 35 doubles. At the same time, she was 65-25 in the circle with a 1.39 ERA and 475 strikeouts. She also threw four no-hitters, which ranks fourth on Tech’s all-time list (tied with Emma Lemley).
Twenty-two years after her graduation, Crowell still stands third all-time at Tech in career winning percentage as a pitcher (.722) and career ERA (1.39), fourth in career shutouts (26) and fifth in career wins (65) and complete games (62). Offensively, she holds the record for most games played in a season (70), third in single season sacrifice hits (14) and ranks seventh in career games played (243) and ninth in career sacrifice hits (23).
Crowell graduated from Virginia Tech in 2002 with a bachelor of science degree in psychology. She earned a master of science in recreation and sports sciences from Ohio University in 2005, where she also began her coaching career.
After two years at Ohio, Crowell joined the Syracuse staff in 2006 before becoming an assistant coach with Oklahoma State a year later. She stayed in Stillwater for six years, working primarily with the pitchers and catchers and making a positive impact on the Cowgirls — which included helping them return to the College World Series for the first time since 1998.
In 2012, Miami (OH) hired her as head coach. At the time, RedHawks athletic director Brad Bates described Crowell as “an exceptional recruiter, a tremendously successful coach, a fantastic leader and an even better person who will make a substantial contribution to our students, staff, alumni and community.”
Crowell had a successful eight-year tenure at Miami, winning over 200 games, making her the winningest coach in program history. She led the RedHawks to the MAC Tournament title in 2016. Three years later, she was named the MAC Coach of the Year after her squad won the regular-season championship.
That success led her to being hired as head coach at Penn State in 2020. Her first season in 2021 was the post-COVID Big Ten conference-only schedule and the Nittany Lions struggled, losing their first 15 games and 19 of their first 20 on the way to a 7-34 mark.
However, Year 2 saw a 25-win improvement, marking the largest single-season turnaround for a team in the country. The momentum continued in 2023 with the Nittany Lions recording their second consecutive 30-win season (31-16 overall, 11-11 Big Ten), the first instance of back-to-back 30-win campaigns at PSU since 2005-06.
Last year was Crowell’s so far in Happy Valley. Penn State finished 35-20 (12-11) while making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 13 years. The 35 wins were also the third-most overall victories in school history while the 12 conference wins were the fourth-most.
The Nittany Lions were led by freshman right-handed pitcher Bridget Nemeth, who was 23-8 with a 1.77 ERA and posted 202 strikeouts in 210 innings. She was named a Freshman All-American last season and was No. 28 in Softball America’s top-100 players entering 2025.
However, Nemeth sustained an injury just four batters into this season. Her absence, combined with the loss of starting catcher Audree Mendoza, has left the PSU shorthanded, which is reflected in the 5-9 start.
Penn State’s schedule has been challenging with losses to No. 7 Duke (7-0), No. 13 Texas Tech (10-9), No. 24 Mississippi State (6-1) and No. 7 LSU (10-1), along with Notre Dame (4-2) and USF (12-4 and 1-0).
It split games St. John’s (4-3 loss, 4-0 win) and Nicholls (10-2 win, 4-6 loss) while registering wins vs. Kennesaw State (9-1), Loyola (12-2) and Southern Miss (4-1).
“I think the pieces are there; we just have to be consistent with how we’re playing,” Crowell told the Daily Collegian, Penn State’s student paper, on Feb. 18. “When you look at this year’s team, it’s a younger team. … We’re dealing with a bit of inexperience. … We have shown signs of being a really good team; we just have to put it all together and roll on all cylinders.”
Virginia Tech will face three other teams in Salem: James Madison, Radford and Villanova. Here’s the team’s schedule for the weekend:
Friday, Feb. 28, vs. Villanova: 3 p.m. ET
Friday, Feb. 28, vs. Villanova: 5:30 p.m. ET
Saturday, March 1, vs. Penn State: 5:30 p.m. ET
Sunday, March 2, vs. James Madison: 12:30 p.m. ET
Sunday, March 2, vs. Radford: 3 p.m. ET
A brief look at the other teams that the Hokies will face at the Moyer Sports Complex:
Villanova (5-8)
The Hokies will open play on Friday with a doubleheader against Villanova. The Wildcats made the NCAA Tournament last year by winning the Big East Conference and then eliminated Arkansas in the Fayetteville regional before falling to No. 17 Arizona in the regional finals.
Although Villanova is just 5-8, the Wildcats registered an impressive 1-0 win over No. 25 Florida Atlantic two weeks ago behind a four-hit shutout by freshman ace Lexi Kobryn (3-3, 2.29 ERA). Proving that performance was no fluke, Kobryn followed with a two-hit shutout of Dartmouth and then a seven-inning shutout of Clemson at McWhorter Stadium — a game which she eventually lost 1-0 in the eighth inning on an unearned run. She will almost certainly start against the Hokies in one game.
However, the Clemson game seemed to demoralize the Wildcats as they lost their next three games — two to Elon (4-3 and 6-2) and one to Marshall (3-2). They arrive in Salem on a three-game losing streak.
Kobry is the only Villanova hurler with an ERA below 5.00 and the Wildcats struggle offensively with a team batting average of .225. Only three of their regular starters have batting averages over .300: Maranda Runco (.382), Ava Franz (.316) and Elizabeth Gray (.313).
James Madison (2-7)
The Hokies and the Dukes will meet in softball on Sunday for the first time since 2019. In that matchup, JMU won the first game of a doubleheader (3-1) before Tech took the nightcap (12-0) behind a perfect game by Keely Rochard. That was the program’s last perfect game before Emma Lemley turned the trick twice this season.
In 2025, the Dukes got off to a challenging start, losing their first five games in Florida and only scoring a total of three runs in the process. Then their home tournament, scheduled for the second week of the season, was cancelled by weather. JMU finally made it into the win column last weekend at the Rocket City Showcase with wins over ETSU (8-0) and Jacksonville State (7-1).
The Dukes, picked fifth by the coaches in the Sun Belt preseason poll, have gotten off to a slow start offensively with a team batting average of .211. Graduate student Kylee Gleason leads the group with a .368 average and senior Abbie Campbell is hitting .316.
Freshman right-handed pitcher Madalyn Johnson (0-3, 4.01 ERA) has started five games for the Dukes while Kirsten Fleet (1-2, 7.70 ERA), who hails from nearby Riner, has started two. Former Hokie Payton List, the 2024 Sun Belt Freshman of the Year, has only thrown 8 ⅓ innings this season and is hitting .261.
Radford (6-9)
Head coach Kevin Fagan — the father of former Hokie Cameron Fagan, who is an assistant on the Highlanders’ staff — is in the process of turning the Radford program around. Among the team’s six wins are victories over Louisville (3-1) and East Carolina (6-5) while two of the losses were by one run to a top-25 Liberty team.
Offensively, the Highlanders are looking for a few more bats with just three players hitting over .300: Amanda Lee (.388), Isabel Harrison (.388) and Kelley Feigen (.318). The other players result in the overall team batting average of .267 with only two home runs.
In the circle, freshman Dakota Redmon (3-2, 3.90 ERA) and sophomore Morgan Cooper (2-4, 3.98 ERA) have gotten 11 of the 15 starts and have seven of Radford’s eight complete games. The Highlanders have a team ERA of 4.07.
Since Pete D’Amour became the head coach at Virginia Tech in 2019, the Hokies are 7-0 against Radford with all the wins coming by run-rule.
Here is the tale of the tape for the Hokies’ opponents in Salem:
