After unprecedented success in the regular season, Virginia softball exited the NCAA Regionals May 19, ending a remarkable run in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010. Sophomore pitcher Eden Bigham and sophomore infielder Jade Hylton stood out in 2024, earning All-ACC First Team selections and carrying the load for the Cavaliers (34-20, 15-9 ACC). While both players have multiple years of eligibility remaining, it remains to be seen if the roster around them will improve. Virginia’s season left a lot to be desired offensively, but despite the team’s persistent need for additional firepower in the lineup, the Cavaliers are not far off from contending for the ACC title in the coming seasons.
For Virginia, the 2010 season has long been the gold standard — the year featured an NCAA Tournament berth for the first time in program history. Since then, the Cavaliers have struggled to keep up in the ACC, a conference packed with competitive softball schools. While other Virginia spring sports dominated in ACC and NCAA competition, softball fell by the wayside.
Now, Bigham and Hylton have rejuvenated Virginia softball under Coach Joanna Hardin, who just completed her eighth year at the helm. Hardin was not in Charlottesville in 2010, but her tenure since her arrival in 2017 parallels that of Eileen Schmidt, who coached from 2008 to 2013.
Schmidt inherited a team in shambles — the Cavaliers went 19-39 in 2007, just before Schmidt assumed control. By 2010 Virginia was in the NCAA Tournament, but by 2013, they were back to posting records well below .500. Her successor — Blake Miller — seemed only to dig the hole deeper, and although Hardin’s arrival initially seemed like more of the same, the Cavaliers saw rapid improvement starting in 2022, their first winning season since 2012.
Based on the precedent set by Virginia softball teams of the past, Hardin’s Cavaliers may have reached their pinnacle in 2024. The program has long struggled to maintain consistent success, finding temporary solutions here and there but unable to recruit enough talent to build the program into a winner. Therefore, it is certainly possible that 2024 is another outlier, a temporary peak surrounded by valleys.
However, it is also possible — and perhaps more likely — that this team has yet to reach its ceiling. The pitching was undeniably dominant, and while they’ll certainly miss senior pitchers Mikayla Houge and Madison Harris, Bigham has proven time and time again that she is the next ace in Charlottesville. Offensively, much work still needs to be done, but Hylton has plenty of years remaining as the leader of the lineup, which is still young and inexperienced.
If any team is destined to defy expectations, it is this one. During the preseason, Virginia softball was projected to be the No. 9 finisher in the ACC. Out-of-conference play began in early February, and the Cavaliers met expectations during that stretch, beating the teams they were supposed to beat but stalling out against SEC powerhouses Alabama and South Carolina, who were both ranked at the time.
Following those beatdowns, Virginia did not lose a game until their first ACC series, at home against Boston College March 1. The Cavaliers took two of three against the Eagles but struggled mightily against North Carolina March 8-10 in their first road series of ACC play, dropping two of three. It was an early challenge for Virginia, who appeared prone to long offensive droughts. Their first ACC series loss bled into a four-game losing streak, dropping a midweek matchup against Maryland and the first game of a series against Syracuse. But just as they did against Boston College, the Cavaliers rallied to win two of three and get back on track.
The series against the Orange was a microcosm of the remainder of the season for Virginia — offensive droughts often overshadowed lights-out pitching in one of three games each series, but the lineup did just enough to scrape out a series win. Despite winning seven of eight series in ACC play, the Cavaliers did not record a series sweep. Still, Virginia continued to rack up victories over ranked ACC opponents like Duke and Clemson, as well as other teams which preseason rankings favored over the Cavaliers like Notre Dame and Georgia Tech.
The conference tournament posed a significant challenge for Virginia, who showed its prowess over three games but often struggled in midweek, one-game matchups. Sure enough, the No. 4 Cavaliers were dominated by No. 5 Clemson in the first round of the ACC Tournament, casting doubts on their ability to compete in NCAA Regional play.
Virginia’s struggles in the tournament may have also contributed to a rough bracket draw in Regionals, as No. 3 Tennessee and Miami (Ohio) both appeared as intimidating opponents. Despite extremely limited NCAA Tournament experience, Bigham and Hylton led the Cavaliers to an appearance in the Regional Finals, where their upset bid was ultimately crushed by the Volunteers.
Through it all, the offense only marginally improved. Although they performed well when it mattered against Miami (Ohio), they repeatedly failed to pick up their pitchers in big situations throughout the season. A 1-0 defeat against the Blue Devils featured nine shutout innings from Bigham, but it was all for naught as Virginia’s bats picked up only four hits.
Even the victories in the Duke series were tight pitching duels, both won by just one run. Even if the Cavaliers outperformed expectations this season, winning in spite of poor offense is an unsustainable approach for any team looking to break into the ranks of the elite. 12-0 and 6-0 defeats against Tennessee offer a fitting comparison between one-dimensional and two-dimensional teams.
However, it would be irrational and nitpicky to call 2024 anything but a major success for Virginia, even if the Cavaliers must improve on several fronts in future seasons. Winning programs need winning cultures. The seniors on the 2024 team — Houge, Harris, pitcher Savanah Henley, outfielders Lauren VanAssche and Abby Weaver and stalwart catcher Leah Boggs — did their part to push this team to new heights. Virginia fans should be confident that Bigham and Hylton are the right stars to lead the Cavaliers into the future. They have tasted success, and now they are surely hungry to raise the bar even further in 2025 and beyond.
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