Sitting at the top of the Atlantic 10 softball leaderboard in doubles, home runs and batting average is junior outfielder Ashley Corpuz.
Over her first three years at GW, Corpuz has refined her performance, improving her .244 average in her freshman year over 45 games to .416 this season in 41 games so far. Corpuz is first for the most home runs in the conference this season with 15, leads with 13 doubles and has the second most RBIs, with 50 runs batted in.
“My freshman self is not the same as I am today,” she said. “I think I’ve grown both technically in skills but then also in my mental game.”
A soccer player growing up, Corpuz said her dad pushed her to take up softball at 8 years old, but she was at first hesitant, held back by her fear of getting hit by the ball.
“I was so scared to play softball because I didn’t want to get hit, but my dad just kept pushing me to play, and soon enough, I said ‘Yes,’ and here we are,” Corpuz said.
Corpuz started in the outfield all four years at San Juan Hills High School in California. After tearing her ACL her junior year of high school, Corpuz’s recovery process allowed her to return to softball sooner than to soccer. Soon after, GW Head Coach Chrissy Schoonmaker recruited Corpuz, starting her journey to Foggy Bottom.
Holding the top of the Revolutionaries’ lineup, Corpuz has received three A-10 Player of the Week awards this season — including one announced on March 31, after she went 3-3 with two home runs and four RBIs in a game against Dayton. The Dayton series was her favorite memory of this season, Corpuz said, with a Revs celebration following a walk-off that cemented a series sweep.
In the final game of the Dayton series, freshman infielder Emi Todoroki hit a walk-off double to secure the series sweep against the Flyers, the back-to-back reigning A-10 champions.
“That was the first time we swept Dayton, at least since I’ve been here, so it felt so good,” Corpuz said. “We all just ran out to her, just jumping and screaming. It was unmatched and knowing that we swept the series was a big win.”
Although the team lost four of five after the Dayton series, the 12-5 Revs swept previous-first-place team Fordham to move back to a comfortable position in the standings at second, just half a game behind 10-4 Dayton, who sits in first.
The Revs have already eclipsed their 2024 conference win total of 11, marking significant improvement after two years of below-.500 finishes.
Corpuz credits the coaching staff, particularly Assistant Coach Jordan Gontram, with bettering the team’s hitting through expertise and team support. After Gontram’s arrival in 2023, the team jumped from seventh place in batting percentage to first in 2024.
“Especially Coach Jordan helping us with hitting, all the coaches really have taught us how to be technically better, but then also how to tackle the mental side of the game and just really building us up as both athletes and people in general,” Corpuz said.
Corpuz leads the team in many statistical categories, but she’s not the only Rev having a career year. She’s one of five players batting over .250 and says having so many players getting on base assists the team on and off the field. She said knowing if she doesn’t “get it done,” the confidence that another Rev will get on base or score runs helps energize her and the dugout as a whole.
“I think that’s been a really key factor to success, just that momentum and the high energy of the games and being able to get it done,” Corpuz said.
With three more conference series left in the season and just one game back of Dayton for the regular season title, Corpuz said she’s looking forward to spending more time with her team and enjoying the “fun environment” where she can spend time making memories and joking around.
“This team just loves one another,” Corpuz said. “I show up to practice every day with a smile on my face knowing that I have 18 other girls plus our coaches who all love and support one another.”
Corpuz said hacky sack, a 1980s-era game that revolves around kicking a small, bean-filled sack, has been the team’s bonding activity of choice as a pregame and prepractice ritual.
“Before every single game, every practice, if we have five minutes to spare, we’re all in a circle,” Corpuz said. “You kick it with your feet, and we try to keep it up. But if you come out to a game or practice or anything, you will always see us playing hacky, and we love just doing it. It’s so fun.”
As she continues to rack up accolades, and the team moves forward on their championship quest, she said it’s the team’s success and “supportive environment” that allows her to win individual awards.
“Success has allowed for those individual rewards to come,” Corpuz said. “And I know everybody’s proud of each other. I have the support when I win it but then, Anna [Reed] has it when she gets it. And it’s just a really supportive environment that everybody wants to succeed as a team and then with the team success comes individual awards.”
