As anticipated, the championship game of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference girls softball tournament was a close contest.
Top seed St. Paul VI Catholic Panthers battled it out with second-seeded and four-time defending champion Bishop O’Connell Knights. During the regular season, the high-school rivals had split two low-scoring, one-run games, the first in extra innings.
Just eight games into the regular season, the Wakefield Warriors girls softball team has already won as many games as it did during the entirety of last spring.
On track to surpass its 2025 win total in the Liberty District, as well, the high-school squad began this week with a 7-1 overall mark and stood 4-1 in the district. The team finished 7-8 overall a year ago.
The Bishop O’Connell Knights girls softball team has had dozens of talented pitchers in its storied past. Yet none achieved what right-hander Annie Van Dyck accomplished during a recent extra-inning game.
In that 11-inning high-school contest against host St. Paul VI Catholic, the junior struck out 28 batters in 10 1/3 innings of work in a 4-3 walkoff loss.
By finishing with a 1-1 record in this season’s region softball tournament, the Yorktown Patriots accomplished something old — and something new.
The “new” was winning an opening-round region game for the first time since 2018 and reaching the semifinals for the first time in program history. Host Yorktown nipped the South Lakes Seahawks, 7-6, in that opening region contest.
The Yorktown Patriots extended their girls softball season with victories over the Herndon Hornets and Langley Saxons in the Liberty District tournament.
Third-seed Yorktown (12-11) topped sixth-seeded Herndon, 10-5, in the first round, then upset and blanked second-seed and Langley Saxons, 5-0, in the semifinals to extend the high-school team’s winning streak to five.
Make it a baker’s dozen — 13 — consecutive state softball championships for the Bishop O’Connell Knights.
The top seed and undefeated girls high-school team (20-0) captured its 13th straight Division I private-school crown by nipping the second-seeded St. Catherine’s Saints of Richmond, 1-0, in the 2025 tournament final in a season-ending victory.
Still working to become further established in just its fourth season as a college softball team, the Marymount University Saints have won a significant championship.
The Division III women’s team this spring became the best in the Atlantic East Conference by winning the postseason tournament for the first time, earning the squad its initial NCAA-tourney berth.
It took four seasons and a lot of determination, but Arlington resident Josie Whitaker achieved a goal of amassing 400 career strikeouts.
The senior right-handed pitcher for the Thomas Jefferson Colonials girls high-school softball team reached that milestone in the team’s semifinal loss to the Hayfield Hawks in the National District tournament.
Bri Lencz created many positive memories on the George Mason University women’s softball field during four years of high school. And now, the Bishop O’Connell senior will become a member of that college team next year.
Lencz made the commitment several months ago to play Division I college softball for George Mason.
A number of former standout softball players on high school teams from Arlington continue having success participating in the women’s college sport this spring.
Washington-Liberty High graduate Bridget Bartz batted .353, hit two home runs and had 18 RBI for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. The junior starting shortstop had 30 hits, including six doubles, and played in 32 games. Her two home runs came in the same contest.
When Bishop O’Connell and St. Mary’s Ryken meet in girls softball, the games are close and action is pressure-packed.
Nothing was different this spring, when the showdown of teams with the same “Knights” nickname met in the championship contest of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference high-school girls tournament at George Mason University.
An up-and-down regular season ended on a high note with three straight victories during a key stretch for the Yorktown Patriots in softball.
In addition, the girls high-school team (10-10) finished 4-0 against Arlington rivals, defeating the Wakefield Warriors and Washington-Liberty Generals twice each. That also was the case last spring.
