Alabama Softball Shares Lofty National Championship Goals for 2026 Season

Winning a national title is just one of several goals.

The Alabama softball team shared a list of goals to achieve during the 2026 season. | Alabama Athletics

With just about a month away from the college softball season starting, programs across the country are working harder than ever to be in mid-season form by opening day.

Posted by several athletic departments on social media, players are either in the gym lifting weights, putting in endless reps in the batting cages, or getting down and dirty on the turf. 

One team, in particular, has been very transparent about what it plans to accomplish in 2026.

In a hype video posted to X, head coach Patrick Murphy and his Crimson Tide have set lofty goals and hit the ground running to come out on top as national champions in June.

In for 2026📈#Team30 #RollTide pic.twitter.com/qy87ADYc2H

— Alabama Softball (@AlabamaSB) January 8, 2026

Alabama Crimson Tide’s 2026 Softball Goals

• Win the regular season 
• Become SEC champs
• Never get swept 
• Win National Championship 
• Don’t lose back-to-back games
• Host NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals

2025 had quite a few highs for Murphy and his squad. The year marked the team’s NCAA-best 19th trip to the Super Regionals and the 24th time the Crimson Tide reached the 40-win mark. The team’s 31 double plays made for a new school record, beating the previous mark of 26 set in 2003. But a sweep to SEC foe Oklahoma in the Norman Super Regionals was a less-than-ideal end to the season.

After making significant improvements offensively, the program has all the power to keep that momentum flowing into the spring.  Alabama returns 13 players from last season while also adding six freshmen and two strong transfer additions, Brooke Wells (Houston) and Jena Young (Iowa). 

Ace Jocelyn Briski heads into her junior year after throwing a team-high 166 innings, ending the season with a 2.99 ERA and a 2.46 opposing batting average. 

“You can see her confidence go through the roof,” Murphy told Brady Vernon at Softball America. “It’s been really fun to see her continually improve. When she came in, she didn’t really have a dropball, but Lance got that going in the right direction. Her off-speed is much better. I think she’s going to be really good this year.”

Audrey Vandagriff will try to top her debut season, where she led the team in batting average at .392, 17 extra-base hits, and 50 stolen bases. 

Big bats like Alexis Pupillo, Larissa Preuitt, and Kristen White are back to take charge once again.  Preuitt started 55 games in the outfield, having career highs in batting average (.284), slugging percentage (.387), and on-base percentage (.354). 

2026 surely looks to be a beautiful season on paper. 

With a 2012 National Championship under his belt, Murphy knows what it takes to hoist the NCAA trophy. Will Team 30 be the ones to end the drought? 

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