An ACC regular season title and the No. 1 seed for next week’s ACC Tournament are on the line this weekend when No. 7 Florida State visits No. 15 Virginia Tech softball.
The Seminoles (42-7, 16-2 ACC) will clinch the conference title if they win a game at Tech Softball Park. The Hokies (39-8, 17-4) need to sweep all three to earn the top seed.
Tech sits No. 13 in the NFCA poll (up one spot from last week), No. 15 in ESPN/USA Softball (down one), No. 15 in D1Softball (up two), No. 18 in Softball America (the same as last week) and No. 16 in the RPI. On the other hand, Florida State is No. 5 in the D1Softball and Softball America polls, No. 7 in the ESPN/USA Softball and NFCA polls and No. 6 in the RPI.
The schedule for this weekend’s games follows:
Friday, May 2: 6 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
Saturday, May 3: 4 p.m. ET, ACC Network (Senior Day)
Sunday, May 4: 4 p.m. ET, ACC Network
This weekend’s matchup is between the two teams atop the conference’s standings. More broadly, it will feature two of the strongest ACC teams in recent years. Florida State has been a powerhouse in the ACC, accumulating 33 conference titles and 12 Women’s College World Series appearances. The Seminoles most recently won a national title in 2018 and were runners-up in 2021 and 2023.
Both teams will conclude their regular seasons this weekend. The Seminoles have maintained a strong record all year, boasting ranked wins over then-No. 4 Oklahoma State, then-No. 16 Missouri, then-No. 24 Alabama, then-No. 18 Duke and then-No. 2 Florida. Last week, they took two of three games on the road against Louisville — winning 10-9 and 3-0 before dropping the final contest 2-0.
In head coach Pete D’Amour’s tenure, the Hokies are 4-6 against Florida State. The two teams did not meet in 2024, though the Seminoles swept Tech in a three-game set in 2023, plus another win in the ACC Tournament semifinals. The Hokies took two of three in 2021 and 2022 — both seasons when they advanced to a super regional.
Lonni Alameda is in her 17th season as Florida State’s head coach. The Hall of Famer has taken her team to the Women’s College World Series in five of the last nine seasons. The Seminoles have reached the NCAA Tournament each year under her tenure, making them one of seven schools to participate in it every season since 2000.
Five Florida State hitters boast batting averages over .400: shortstop Isa Torres, center fielder Kennedy Harp, left fielder Jahni Kerr, outfielder Addie DeLong and pitcher Ashtyn Danley. Right fielder Katie Dack leads the team with 12 home runs, while third baseman Jaysoni Beachum follows her with 11. The Seminoles pace the ACC with a .359 batting average as a team and are tied with Clemson for first in runs scored with 387.
In the circle, Florida State relies mostly on four arms: Jazzy Francik, Danley, Annabelle Widra and Julia Aspel. Francik (74 ⅓ innings pitched) and Danley (77 ⅔) have tossed the most frames and have earned run averages of 1.70 and 1.71, respectively. Widra has thrown another 64 ⅓ innings and has a 2.28 ERA, while Aspel has a perfect 12-0 record and 3.12 ERA.
The two squads are towards the top of the ACC in nearly all statistical measures and possess the strongest bullpens in the conference; Florida State leads with a 2.19 team ERA, while Virginia Tech follows with a 2.46 mark. Hokies pitcher Sophie Kleiman has the best ERA in the league with a 1.60, while Francik and Danley sit second and third. The Hokies’ Emma Lemley also stands atop the ACC with 169 strikeouts while her 2.45 ERA is seventh.
The Athletes Unlimited Softball League awarded Seminoles catcher Michaela Edenfield its 12th and final “golden ticket,” meaning one of the league’s four teams will select her in its upcoming draft. Virginia Tech pitcher Emma Lemley earned a golden ticket of her own on April 13, and then former Miami Marlins general manager and AUSL commissioner Kim Ng presented one to right fielder Cori McMillan on Monday. The draft will take place on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
With a series loss to Pitt two weekends ago and a series finale loss to Cal last week, the Hokies sit on the bubble of clinching a top-16 seed in this month’s NCAA Tournament, which would allow them to host a regional. Grabbing a few wins against Florida State and building positive momentum entering next week’s ACC Tournament would help them end up on the positive side of that bubble.