2006 Catamount softball team:
Some teams build a foundation. The 2006 Catamount softball team built an entire program.
Revived as a fast-pitch program in the spring of 2006, Western Carolina softball wasted no time making history. The
inaugural squad finished 41-20, captured the Southern Conference regular-season championship, and became the first first-year program in league history to win a conference title.
Twenty years later, that pioneering team remains one of the most significant squads in Catamount Athletics history.
In a season filled with milestones, the Catamounts recorded the program's first victory, first home run, first home win, first conference championship, and first regional honors. That remarkable squad won 20 of its 23 home games in their first season and swept second-place College of Charleston on the final home weekend to win the regular-season title.
The 2006 Catamounts won their inaugural game with a 3-1 victory over Tennessee Tech at Georgia State's First Pitch Classic in Atlanta. Mendy McKenzie tossed a strike on the first-ever live pitch for the team on the way to striking out the first batter faced by WCU pitching. Lauren Ross later recorded not only the first base hit for the program but also the first home run for WCU and scored the first-ever run on a blast that cleared the centerfield fence. Ross collected the WCU's first multi-homer game in the same opener, belting a game-winning home run in the sixth inning of the opener.
Six players earned All-SoCon recognition while freshman pitcher Mendy McKenzie, freshman standout Jenny Jackson, and head coach Megan Smith swept three of the conference's major individual awards.
A first-team all-conference selection in the circle, McKenzie was named the SoCon Pitcher of the Year in 2006 as a freshman for the first-year program. Jackson, a two-way player, was named the SoCon Freshman of the Year in 2006, all for the program's first-ever head coach, Smith, who was dubbed the SoCon Coach of the Year. Smith went on to coach at LSU, UNC, and Charlotte as an assistant, and as the head coach at both Kansas and Marshall and is now the head coach at her alma mater, North Carolina.
Infielder Heather Pritchard, catcher Allyson McCubbins, and outfielder Ashley Adams joined McKenzie and Jackson on the first-team All-SoCon, as selected by the league's head coaches. Adams hit a school and SoCon single-season record 21 home runs, slugging .685 in 2006, while McCubbins hit 12 and drew a program single-season record 49 walks. Designated player Savannah Filley earned second-team plaudits on the inaugural squad, adding 14 homers to the powerhouse.
Through the course of the season, the 2006 Catamounts collected six of the 11 SoCon Pitcher of the Week honors – five by McKenzie, who was also twice dubbed SoCon Pitcher of the Month in 2006, and once by Jackson, who also earned one of WCU's three SoCon Player of the Week awards. Jackson was joined by Ross, who earned WCU's first-ever weekly award, and Filley. McCubbins collected the top monthly award for WCU in March of 2006.
McKenzie and Adams were additionally dubbed WCU's first-ever selections to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) second-team All-Southeast Region.
The 2006 Catamounts batted .283 (461-for-1,627) overall, while boasting a .476 slugging percentage that included a program-record 81 home runs, a mark that stood as a SoCon record until 2021. The team's .476 slugging, 322 runs, and 293 RBI are all currently second in school history behind the offense of the 2026 squad. WCU's pitching staff combined for a school-record 39 complete games with nine shutouts, the latter tied for the most in program history. They also produced a program-low 2.84 ERA over 396.1 innings.
Led by Megan Smith, Western Carolina's 16-member, 2006 roster included 14 players from North Carolina. The first-year squad was comprised of 12 freshmen, a sophomore, and two junior transfers. In addition to winning its first-ever game, 3-1 over Tennessee Tech, the Catamounts swept their home-opening doubleheader over South Carolina State, including a 10-0 victory in the first-ever game played in Cullowhee.
