they came up short and were not able to land at-large bids into the NCAA tournament. Despite another winning season in 2018, the Red Storm took a slight step back while failing to reach the conference's final round for the first time in five years. Coach Kvilhaug stepped down after the season and was replaced with longtime assistant, Bob Guerriero. During his first year at the helm, Guerriero guided St. John's to another Big East regular season crown in 2019 although they again came up short in the league's post-season tournament. Fordham's softball program began in 1985. They played in the MAAC until the school changed conference affiliation to the Patriot League following the 1990 season. The Patriot League stint only lasted five years before the school again changed affiliation, this time to the Atlantic 10 in 1996. Before that Fordham suffered through 10 losing seasons, one .500 season and zero winning seasons. Initially, the jump to the A-10 only made matters worse, where Fordham haplessly struggled to a 12-60 combined record during 1996 and 1997. The run of incompetence continued until head coach, Bridget Baxter, was hired to turn things around following the 2001 season. After another losing campaign in 2002, Fordham finally posted their first winning mark in 2003. It was their first of what would become 16 straight winning seasons for Baxter (later known by her married name, Bridget Orchard) at Fordham. In that time Orchard took the Rams to the NCAA tournament 8 times. Their first appearance came in 2010 as an at-large bid. That was followed with post-season A-10 conference titles and automatic NCAA bids in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Ironically, their one miss during the run was in 2012 when Fordham posted its most impressive win ever, an 8-5 victory over then 3rd ranked Alabama. The Crimson Tide would go on to win the national title later that same season. While success at the NCAA's has eluded Fordham, the Rams have evolved into the region's top softball program. During the 2010s, no other Northeastern squad has qualified into the NCAA tournament as often as Fordham. Following the 2018 season Coach Orchard left Fordham to take the same position at her alma mater, Villanova. She was replaced by former Iona head coach, Melissa Inouye, who in 2019 continued Fordham's success with another Atlantic 10 title and automatic NCAA tournament bid. References