The Penn State Nittany Lions softball team represents

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

. The team participates in the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

. The Nittany Lions are currently led by head coach Clarisa Crowell. The team plays its home games at Beard Field at Nittany Lion Softball Park located on the university's campus.

History

Penn State has played softball continuously since 1965. Like many women's programs, the Nittany Lions were members of the

Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was a college athletics organization in the United States, founded in 1971 to govern women's college competitions in the country and to administer national championships (see AIAW Cham ...

from 1971-1982, when the NCAA began officially sponsoring softball. Since 2011, the Nittany Lions have played at 1,084-seat Beard Field. The Nittany Lions joined the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...

ahead of the 1983 season and would go on to win the Atlantic 10 softball tournament in 1983, 1985, and 1988. In 1989, Penn State announced plans to join the

for all sports, beginning softball play in the Big Ten in 1992. Throughout its history, Penn State has played in 11 NCAA softball tournaments. The Nittany Lions are currently coached by Clarisa Crowell, who took over ahead of the 2021 season.

Penn State in the NCAA Tournament

The NCAA Division I softball tournament started in 1982. The Nittany Lions have played in 11 tournaments, most recently in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Awards

; Big Ten Coach of the Year *Robin Petrini, 1999 ; Big Ten Freshman of the Year *Bridget Nemeth, 2024

History

Penn State in the NCAA Tournament

Awards

Current Coaching staff

External links

References