5 Early Impressions as ACC College Softball Teams Begin Fall Ball
It’s been a long four months since the 2025 college softball season ended. Thankfully, fall softball is in full swing throughout October and November, giving fans a glimpse of what to expect in the 2026 season.
Rosters are being rebuilt with the incoming freshmen and transfers, new coaches have entered the scene, and goals of making it to Oklahoma City have been set in stone.
It all begins in the fall.
Here are five early impressions of some of the hottest teams in the ACC right now.
Florida State Seminoles
The Seminoles faced a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Texas Tech at home in the Tallahassee Super Regional to close out the season.
Now, returning several standout players for the 2026 season is the key to success for the program. 2025 NFCA All-Americans Isa Torres and Kennedy Harp, 2024 National Freshman of the Year and NFCA All-American Jaysoni Beachum, and All-ACC pitchers Jazzy Francik and Ashtyn Danley highlight the roster.
The Noles also bring in a large freshman class. Nine newcomers come to Tallahassee to boost an already incredible lineup.
FSU opens its fall slate with four straight home games against Northwest Florida State College, Tallahassee State College, Gulf Coast State College, and Chipola College.
They’ll then travel to Gainesville to face rival Florida Gators on Oct 26, and Florida A&M on Oct. 29, before traveling to Auburn on Nov. 8. The Seminoles will close out fall play at home against St. Johns River State College on Nov. 14.
Duke Blue Devils
After battling back through the consolation bracket, Duke had its season come to an end after falling to Georgia, 5-2, in the NCAA Durham Regional championship game.
Melissa Young and her staff now return 12 letterwinners from last year’s roster that compiled a 41-18 overall record and earned the program’s fifth-straight bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils also welcome four transfers, Layla Lamar (Florida), Larissa Jacques (UIW), Tyrina Jones (Purdue), and Mallory Wheeler (Louisiana).
Six freshmen, London Collins, Brookelyn Grayson, Ariel Krueger, Adelyn Matthews, Gabrielle Shadek, and Jayla Stafford, join as well.
The team opened the fall season against Charlotte and Appalachian State, and will head to NC State and East Carolina over Oct.17-18. They’ll return home to host Queens, Walters State, and Elon at the end of October and early November.
The season wraps up with the Blue and White World Series, an intrasquad scrimmage tournament, Nov. 6-8.
Clemson Tigers
In a historic year under head coach John Rittman, the Clemson Tigers held program records in nearly every offensive category, including games played, batting average, at-bats, runs, hits, doubles, home runs, RBIs, total bases, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage.
The ACC Champions won their first-ever Super Regional game but failed to reach the Women’s College World Series after losing to Texas.
Thirteen returners are back, while 11 newcomers, including four transfers, Kiley Channell, Abby Dunning, Corri Hicks, and Sierra Maness, and seven freshmen join the program.
Clemson has hit the diamond hard this fall in order to reach higher than the super regionals in 2026.
To begin fall play, they faced Pfeiffer, North Greenville, Erskine, and Southern Wesleyan. They’ll close out the season against Spartanburg Methodist and Anderson University.
North Carolina Tar Heels
After appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, North Carolina has stacked its 2026 roster with offensive production to replace graduates like Kat Rodriguez, Alex Coleman, Carlie Myrtle, and Grace Jackson.
Alongside eight freshmen, Emily LeGette (Virginia Tech), Raegan Jennings (Texas Tech), Carly Maxton (NC State), MC Eaton (Virginia), Michele Tarpey (NC State), and Kendall Frost (East Carolina) join the Tar Heels.
With a large goal of making it to the Super Regionals for the first time in program history in 2026, head coach Megan Smith Lyon and her staff have built a fall schedule that will push the roster to complete readiness by the time spring comes around.
They closed out fall play against William Peace, Walters State, Greensboro, and Mt. Olive.
Virginia Tech Hokies
The Hokies advanced to their program-record sixth straight NCAA Regional in 2025, but fell to the 15th-seeded Alabama in a close 3-2 in the Regional finals.
Their 43 wins marked the most in a single season since 2022 and also marked the third 40-win season in the last four years.
Now with seven freshmen and transfers Addison Foster (Stetson), Haley Lunginbill (UMBC), and Bre Warren (South Carolina), the Hokies are preparing to not only climb higher in the NCAA Tournament, but in the ACC standings as well, considering they landed right behind Clemson in third with an 18-6 record.
They opened their fall season against Raford, followed by a team intrasquad scrimmage. They’ll face George Mason and Patrick Henry CC over the weekend of Oct. 18-19, before closing out fall play with two more intrasquad scrimmages.
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Nicole Reitz graduated from Indiana University Indianapolis with a degree in sports journalism in 2022 and has been writing about softball and baseball since 2018 .Her work has been published in various publications like Softball America, the Indianapolis Star, and SoxOn35th.
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