ORLANDO – With the 2026 regular season complete, the No. 21 UCF softball team is readying for its first taste of postseason action this spring.
Thanks to a 14-9-1 record in Big 12 Conference play throughout the year, the Black and Gold clinched a fourth place regular-season finish, and the No. 4 seed, in this week’s Big 12 Conference Tournament in Oklahoma City’s Devon Park. In doing so, UCF achieved its highest regular-season conference finish and most conference wins in a single season since joining the Big 12 prior to the 2024 slate.
The team’s 38-win regular season also marked its highest win total overall since joining its new league, and the squad most notably set a new program single-season home run record with 66 entering play Thursday. UCF’s current team average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage marks of .325/.424/.543 would represent new single-season program records as well.
The Knights most recently took two of three from Iowa State in Ames May 1-3, clinching their sixth conference series win of the season, a figure that bests the 2024 squad (five) for the most conference series victories in the program’s Big 12 era. UCF this spring earned series wins over then-No. 12 Oklahoma State, Houston, Utah, then-No. 23 Arizona State, then-No. 24 Kansas and Iowa State.
They did it on the strength of a record-breaking offensive display throughout the year, having already broken the program’s previous single-season home run record, and are on pace to set new program single-season marks in team batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
The quintet of Beth Damon, Sierra Humphreys, Kendall Yarnell, Aubrey Evans and Izzy Mertes have given UCF its first season in program history with at least five players in double figures for home runs, and a handful of Knights are chasing individual program season records as well.
Mertes needs just three doubles to match Evans’ 2023 single-season program record (18), Yarnell trails only UCF Hall-of-Famer Stephanie Best on the Knights’ all-time single-season slugging percentage list, and Damon needs just two more runners caught stealing to match Cassady Brewer’s single-season program record (17).
Redshirt sophomore right-hander Isabella Vega has once again paced her team in the circle, meanwhile, totaling 136 innings pitched throughout the regular season. She boasts a strong 2.88 ERA, accompanied by 94 strikeouts and a batting average-against of just .204. Against conference opponents, her opposing batting average dipped even further to .201 in 85.2 innings, and she earned the winning decision in 11 of UCF’s 14 conference victories.
The right-hander this year also set new single-season career bests in winning decisions (17), saves (5) and complete games (11), and her five saves currently sit in a tie for the most in a single season in program history.
The Knights, embarking on their third trip to Oklahoma City for the Big 12 Conference Tournament, are looking to build upon a 2025 showing that saw the program clinch its first Big 12 Tournament win, coming in walk-off fashion against the Utah Utes, 7-5, before falling in a narrow contest to the Arizona Wildcats in the second round, 4-3.
Vega earned the win in the triumphant effort, tossing 6.2 innings without allowing an earned run, while first baseman Ashleigh Griffin was the hero in the home half of the seventh inning, slugging a walk-off two-run home run to lift UCF to its victory.
The Black and Gold’s first-round opponent, the fifth-seeded Kansas Jayhawks, is a familiar one, as the two squads recently met for a three-game set in Orlando April 17-19. The Knights took two of three over the weekend series, earning a 6-3 eight-inning walk-off win in Friday’s opener before taking game two by a comfortable 9-2 margin.
UCF has now won each of its first three regular-season series against Kansas since joining the Big 12 prior to the 2024 campaign, leading the series between the programs seven games to two in that span.
ABOUT UCF ATHLETICS
UCF is a proud member of the Big 12 Conference. Our mission is to positively transform the lives of our students academically, athletically, and personally through a nationally competitive intercollegiate athletics program that enhances the reputation and visibility of the University. We strive to be Florida's preeminent athletic program, representing UCF and our community with distinction on the national stage as "Orlando's Hometown Team". To learn more about UCF and Athletics, please visit our websites at www.ucf.edu and www.ucfknights.com.