CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Western Carolina's 2025 softball season preview concludes with the largest unit on the squad, focusing on a group that includes the reigning co-Southern Conference Freshman of the Year along with five others returning to the team, joined by a pair of new faces.
Head coach Jim Clift's infielders are spearheaded by the league's top rookie from 2024, Lily Bell, along with fellow all-freshman team selections Maya McPherson and Sydney Dirks. Junior Tate Stewman, redshirt junior Bethany Dobias, and senior Natalie Henry round out the returners to Cullowhee for 2025. Freshman Ava Giglio (Irvine, Calif.) and redshirt junior transfer from Pensacola State Samantha Ladowski are the two newcomers to the WCU lineup.
Bell, WCU's lone preseason first-team All-SoCon selection last week, leads the Catamounts' infield into the 2025 campaign, coming off a historic freshman season. In her historic debut year, she totaled a school-record 72 base hits that ranked second in the SoCon last season. She scored 41 runs, fourth-best in the league and tied for fifth in WCU's single-season record book.
A product of Woodstock, Ga., Bell also swiped a conference-best 34 bases to grab the single-season program record for stolen bases. Her team-leading .387 seasonal batting average finished the regular season, tied for the second-best in the conference.
Bell was the first Catamount to earn first-year player honors in the conference since 2006, when Jenny Jackson garnered the honors. Sharing the top rookie honor with Samford's Olivia Shaw, 2024 was also a historic first for SoCon softball as the first pair of student-athletes to receive co-freshman honors in the same year.
A regular at third base throughout her freshman season, Maya McPherson looks to build on 2024 that saw the Lancaster, Calif., native hit .272 with seven doubles, five homers, and 21 RBI with 13 runs scored. She finished the season with seven multi-hit games as four of her five big flies came in Cullowhee.
McPherson was one of five Catamounts to post a batting average above the .300 threshold in SoCon play, hitting .302 with four doubles and a home run. She recorded the second-longest hit streak for WCU with eight straight games and posted the third-longest reached base streak with nine straight.
The third of the all-freshman honorees sees Sydney Dirks return to the Catamount lineup after playing in 51 games with 49 starts, 40 of which came at shortstop. She finished with the second-most doubles on the team with eight, along with three home runs as part of her seven multi-hit games including three, three-hit outings. Dirks connected on her first career grand slam in SoCon play against Furman.
Dirks garnered SoCon Player of the Week honors on April 8 after posting a .538 batting average with seven hits and five runs scored in a 4-1 week for the Catamounts.
McPherson, Dirks, and Bell became the first trio to be named to the league's all-freshman team since 2021.
The fourth regular in the WCU infield in 2024 was Tate Stewman, who started 49 of her 52 games played including 48 as the Catamount first baseman. She finished 2024 with 33 base hits, scored 14 runs, and drove home 16. She was tied for third on the team with seven two-baggers, four of which came in league games.
Stewman recorded six multi-hit games in 2024, four coming against SoCon foes in Furman, Wofford, and ETSU. The 2024 CSC Academic All-District team selection connected on big flies against NCCU and Appalachian State, along with a homer in the regular season finale weekend against Chattanooga.
Redshirt junior Bethany Dobias looks to return to the Catamount lineup card after missing much of the 2024 season due to injury. Dobias opened the season by playing three games at Alabama State with two starts before an injury ended her season. She scored in a pair of matchups against Hampton and Austin Peay and drew a walk in the opener against the Pirates before being sidelined. Dobias comes in with 35 career games played and 22 starts in her three seasons in Cullowhee.
The final returner is senior Natalie Henry, a Lexington, Ky. native who appeared in 27 games last year with 15 starts – 13 of which came at second base. She scored seven runs and added five hits throughout the 2024 campaign. She tallied a double in the opener against Hampton with two-run performances against Mercer and Wofford. Henry is a veteran in Cullowhee with 112 games played and 93 starts for the Purple & Gold.
The first of the newcomers is Samantha Ladowski, a Pensacola State transfer who spent her past two seasons with the Pirates. She saw action in 65 games over two years, tallying 44 hits, 26 runs, and 28 RBI. Originally from Mooresville, N.C., Ladowski recorded a .267 batting average at Pensacola State, hitting .311 (32-for-103) during her freshman season in 2023. She was named first-team All-Panhandle as a rookie as she finished third on the team with a .311 average and second on the squad with eight stolen bases.
Before her time with the Pirates, Ladowski was a four-year letterwinner at Lake Norman High where she totaled a .492 batting average with a .589 on-base percentage as a senior with 11 steals to garner all-state, all-district, all-county, and all-conference recognition. As a junior, she batted .526 with 12 steals and four homers. Ladowski was named district player of the year, receiving the same honors as her senior season.
The final newcomer to Cullowhee is Ava Giglio from Irvine, Calif., a freshman out of Northwood High where she was a four-year letterwinner. She saw action in 73 games during her prep career and finished with a career .339 batting average including 74 hits with 13 doubles. She also drove home 57 runs. Giglio's best season was as a sophomore as she finished with a .384 average with 28 hits along with 17 RBIs and six doubles.
Giglio garnered first-team All-Pacific Coast League honors her sophomore year and second-team honors during her first year of high school. As a junior, she again received second-team plaudits while earning all-orange county honorable mention and defensive player of the year recognition. She received the Leadership Award for her school as a senior. As a team, Northwood qualified for the state championship, marking the first time in program history they made the semifinal and states. She was a captain in her junior and senior years and a softball diamond and volleyball captain during her first two prep years.
Western Carolina opens its 2025 season at the River City Leadoff, hosted by North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla., beginning on Friday, Feb. 7. WCU battles both Jacksonville and host UNF over a five-game tournament slate. The Catamounts open their home schedule three weeks later with the Catamount Classic, hosting North Carolina A&T and Presbyterian in tournament action in Cullowhee.
Admission to WCU's home games at the on-campus Catamount Softball Complex throughout the 2025 season is free of charge, courtesy of First Bank.
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