NEW YORK – DePaul, Providence and Villanova kicked off the summer by announcing new softball head coaches. The reigning BIG EAST champion Blue Demons and the Wildcats both tabbed alums, as Tracie Adix-Zins will lead DePaul and Bridget Orchard will head Villanova. The Friars selected former PC assistant coach Jill Karwoski.
Adix-Zins led DePaul to the 2007 Women's College World Series with a 22-4 record as a senior, highlighted by a perfect 10-0 mark against BIG EAST opponents. She threw 11 scoreless innings in the Norman (Okla.) NCAA Super Regional and earned the win in both games to upset the fourth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners on their home field. In addition to her stellar record in the circle, she finished the 2007 season with a 0.89 ERA - the fifth-best among Division I pitchers. She threw 10 complete game shutouts and struck out 168 batters en route to earning BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year and a second team NFCA All-American honors in her final year with the Blue Demons.
In stints at Wisconsin, Oklahoma State and most recently North Carolina State, Adix-Zins served as an assistant coach. Over the last three seasons at NC State she handled the Wolfpack pitching staff. In her first year with NC State, Wolfpack pitchers struck out the sixth-most batters in the league with 263. In her second season she guided freshman Peyton Silverman to All-ACC Freshman Team honors after she threw 24 complete games, the most of any pitcher in the league, and collected 13 wins.
Orchard was a standout infielder for Villanova from 1994-97 and at the time of her graduation was the school record holder with 216 career hits and 110 runs scored. She earned first team All-BIG EAST honors in 1995 and led the Wildcats to an ECAC title a year later while ranking as the second-toughest batter to strike out in the nation. Villanova won 113 games during Orchard’s playing career, including a total of 35 BIG EAST victories, and reached the BIG EAST Championship three times.
Orchard spent the previous 17 years as the head coach at Fordham, where she built the Rams into a perennial power in the Atlantic 10 Conference while taking her teams to eight NCAA Championships and earning seven Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year awards. Her teams were equally successful academically and Orchard will now have the opportunity to continue her coaching career back on the Main Line. She was a first team All-BIG EAST selection and a BIG EAST All-Academic Team member while playing for Villanova from 1994-97. Orchard is a 1997 graduate of Villanova with a degree in Communication Arts and also holds a Master’s of Education from Temple in 2001.
Karwoski comes to Providence after spending the last five years as the head coach of the softball team at Quinnipiac University. It will mark her second stint with the Friars as she served as a volunteer assistant coach at Providence in 2012-13. In addition to her experience at Quinnipiac, Karwoski also served as a head coach at Merrimack College (2011-12) and Morehead State (2004-07). At Morehead, Karwoski's teams featured 10 All-Ohio Valley Conference selections, one OVC Pitcher of the Year, while individual student-athletes broke a combined 11 school batting records. In addition, as a team, Morehead broke several program records. In the classroom, MSU was ranked above the national average in the NCAA Academic Progress Report while posting a 3.30 grade-point average during her time as the program's head coach. Prior to serving as the head coach at Merrimack, she was the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Boston College from 2007-11.
Karwoski graduated from Lewis University, in Romeoville, Ill., in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in sport management and a minor in coaching. As a four-year letterwinner at Lewis, Karwoski was named to the 2001 NFCA All-Region Team while also earning All-Tournament honors. In addition, she was a two-time team Most Valuable Player and a four-time NFCA Academic All American. In 2001, she was named Lewis' Sport Management Senior of the Year. She also played for the women's basketball team for two seasons. Karwoski also earned a master's degree in sports and recreation administration from Morehead State in 2002.