Doane College ’99

 

 Ed Kieff enters his ninth season as the Tiger head softball coach as the winningest coach in program history with 129 victories. He will look to a new roster in 2020 to lead the charge after graduating eight seniors last season. Kieff coached five All-GPAC players a season ago and returns a pair for the 2020 season in Alyson VanderPol on the mound and Adriana Thomason in the field.

 

 Under Kieff's leadership, he coached Karly Severance and Sierra Haage to record-breaking careers. Severance broke the career fielding average with a .985 average, while also breaking the career homerun record with 25 homeruns. Haage broke a pair of pitching records with 44 wins in her career on the mound and 419 career strikeouts.

 

 Despite a slow start to the season in 2018, Kieff pushed the Tigers to a record of 9-4 midway through the season to help DWU hold the fifth seed in the Great Plains Athletic Conference Tournament. However, the Tiger's season closed with consecutive losses to Dordt College and the winner of the GPAC, Midland University.

 

 At the conclusion of that season, DWU landed five players on the All-GPAC Team, as Andriana Sprakel, Sierra Haage and Melysia Ortega were each named to the All-GPAC Second Team. Amber Budmark and Karly Severance were both tabbed to the Honorable Mention Team, as each of the five players return to the diamond in 2019. Off the pitch, five members of the DWU softball team were named to the Daktronics-NAIA Softball Scholar-Athlete Team. Members of the Scholar-Athlete Team included Paige Kinley, Claudia Nixon, Amber Budmark, Severance and Sprakel.