Softball (23-22, 12-12 Atlantic 10) fell to Dayton and Saint Joseph’s universities in back-to-back matchups on Wednesday, the opening day of the A-10 Championship in St. Louis, Missouri, marking the conclusion of an up-and-down season for the Revolutionaries.
GW lost 3-2 to Dayton in a nail-biter early Wednesday afternoon, followed by an 8-4 loss to Saint Joseph’s that evening to seal the Revs’ fate in the double-elimination tournament, mirroring their 2025 postseason exit. While they finished this season with a middle-of-the-pack .500 conference record and a .511 record overall, an impressive slate of four players earned prominent A-10 awards Thursday.
In Wednesday’s opener, Dayton kept the Revs’ offense silent through six innings, an effort led by the Flyers’ graduate student pitcher Kate Kastelic, who tossed four scoreless innings.
Dayton got the scoring started in the bottom of the third inning when sophomore first baseman Katelin Goodwin roped a line drive into right field that ricocheted off the fence, allowing her to reach second base. With two outs, Dayton’s freshman infielder Hayden Baird then punched a single past Revs’ senior second baseman Daniella Lew, allowing Goodwin to score.
Senior Emma Fales tried to spark offensive momentum for GW to start the fourth inning, reaching on an error and quickly advancing to second after freshman catcher Isabella Ruby drew a one-out walk. Junior shortstop Cadence Gilliland followed by casting a single into left-center field, allowing Fales to score.
The umpires quickly reversed the call, however, after determining that Fales had left second base early, leaving the Revs scoreless in the inning and stifling their momentum.
The Flyers tacked on a pair of home runs in the fourth and fifth innings, giving them a 3-0 lead over the Revs. Sophomore left fielder Ella Holman started the action with a solo shot, launching a 2-1 sky-high shot to left-center field, barely clearing the wall. The following inning, junior catcher Deirdre Flaherty blasted another solo shot, a low-and-away pitch past the right field fence.
The Revs added two runs in the top of the sixth inning off doubles from Lew and senior left fielder Ashley Corpuz, but failed to take down the Flyers, leaving runners stranded in scoring position.
Later in the afternoon, the Revs faced off against Saint Joseph’s, who had lost their opening round 7-3 to Fordham. The Hawks started the scoring in the second inning with a two-run home run from freshman shortstop Grace Brown.
Revs senior Chloe Greene took over pitching in the next inning, but the Hawks tacked on five more runs, including an RBI single from redshirt sophomore Haley McMenamin and a two-run double from junior second baseman Morgan Lester. St. Joseph’s capped off the scoring run with a second two-run homer from Brown.
A solo home run from Lew put GW on the board in the top of the fifth inning, but the Hawks quickly answered back in the bottom of the inning with a single from Brown, putting them ahead 8-1 and giving Brown her fifth RBI on the day.
Saint Joseph’s junior pitcher Julia Shearer shut the Revs down over six innings in the circle, allowing five hits and one run, while striking out seven.
The Revs mustered a brief seventh inning two-out rally after a fielding error from the Hawks, scoring three runs off freshman Ava Farina, in relief of Shearer, but the Hawks held out, retiring the Revs and ending their 2026 season.
The early tournament exit marks the fifth straight year GW has come up short of the A-10 title, although the Revs became the regular-season champions in 2022 after finishing 21-3. Despite a roster filled with the league’s top individual talent, the Revs struggled to find the collective depth necessary to navigate the double-elimination tournament.
Following the team’s losses on Wednesday, the conference’s head coaches unveiled the A-10 Softball Postseason Awards on Thursday.
Corpuz was named the A-10 Player of the Year, just the fourth softball player in GW history to win the award. Corpuz, who was also named to the A-10 First Team All-Conference as an outfielder and the All-Academic Team, led the team in home runs this year, making 13 out of the Revs’ total of 31, accounting for more than 40 percent of their home runs. She also boasted a team-leading 1.311 OPS, the sum of a hitter’s on-base percentage and slugging percentage, and a .762 slugging percentage.
Corpuz’s accolades also followed a record-breaking achievement she notched during the Dayton game. After a fifth-inning walk, Corpuz became the first player in program history to record over 150 walks and 150 hits in her collegiate career.
Junior Cece Smith was named to the First Team All-Conference as a pitcher and the Second Team All-Conference as a utility player, and joined Corpuz on the All-Academic team. Smith finished regular-season play with the second-lowest earned run average in the A-10 at 2.25 and recorded 11 wins, her third consecutive season notching double-digits in the win column.
Offensively, Smith also had the fifth-best batting average in the A-10, hitting .361 on the season, and the sixth-best OPS at 1.018.
Junior outfielder Paige Hayward joined Smith on the Second Team All-Conference as an outfielder, starting every game in center field for the Revs and notching a .326 batting average with 12 multi-hit games on the season.
Freshman Sydney Hogue rounded out the Revs’ awards with her placement on the All-Rookie team, after starting 33 games at third base, finishing third among the team with a .963 OPS, and having the Revs’ fourth-highest batting average at .311.
While the graduation of record-breaking leaders like Corpuz will leave a significant void in the starting lineup next year, the emergence of leading underclassmen provides a hopeful blueprint for the program’s future seasons. With All-Rookie standout Hogue and pitching ace Smith set to return, the Revs will look to translate this season’s individual standout performances into the consistent collective depth required for a more successful season in 2027.
