AMY TUDOR | HEAD COACH

Former Hilltopper Amy Tudor concluded her 10th season as head coach of the WKU softball team with the 2023 campaign. Tudor was named head coach at her alma mater in August 2013, returning to The Hill with nine years of head coaching experience, including stops at IPFW, Belmont and Ohio Wesleyan.

At WKU, Tudor holds a 302-195-1 mark, moving her Division I coaching record to 474-368-2 in 17 years and career record to 519-401-2 in 19 seasons. Tudor has five championship titles under her belt since returning to The Hill, including a regular-season and tournament crown in WKU’s first year in Conference USA. In 2019, she led the Hilltoppers to the C-USA East Division title with an 18-6 record in league play. WKU won the 2021 Conference USA Tournament it hosted - becoming the first team in C-USA to host and win the event since 2011. Most recently, Tudor led the Tops to another C-USA East Division crown with a 17-7 mark in league play.

Student-athletes excel under Tudor’s tutelage, as she has coached an NFCA All-American, 14 NFCA All-Region selections, three conference tournament MVPs, two conference Pitchers of the Year, a league Freshman of the Year and 48 Division I All-Conference selections, including 28 in her 10 seasons on The Hill. She has also helped two Hilltoppers to professional softball careers with Miranda Kramer and Olivia Watkins playing in the National Pro Fastpitch league while Larissa Franklin played internationally during and after her career with the Canadian National Team. In Summer 2021, Franklin helped the Canadian National Softball Team to a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Tudor and the Hilltoppers would pick up their third-straight 30-win season, going 30-22 in 2023 and seeing head coach Amy Tudor mark her 500th career win and 300th win at WKU. Posting a 14-9 record in CUSA play, the Tops were never swept in a conference series all season, even taking reigning CUSA Tournament Champion, North Texas, 3-0, in the series in Bowling Green. Wrapping up in the top-100 in the RPI, WKU played host to three power five opponents at the WKU Softball Complex, as they finished their home campaign, 17-11. TJ Webster, Taylor Davis, and Faith Hegh would land CUSA First Team All-Conference honors, while Hegh would earn NFCA All-Region Second Team Recognition and freshman Kaytlan Kemp would land a spot on the CUSA All-Freshman team.

WKU Softball wrapped up a historic 2022 campaign that saw the team go 38-13 for a program-best .745 win percentage to go along with a Conference USA East Division Championship as well as the 700th win in program history. The Hilltoppers posted a 17-7 record in C-USA action and returned to the Conference USA Tournament Championship game for the second-consecutive season. The Hilltoppers owned a program-record 23-2 mark when playing at the WKU Softball Complex including an upset win over No. 5 Alabama in front of a record crowd (1,512). Shelby Nunn, Taylor Davis and Taylor Sanders all earned NFCA All-Region honors after each also earned C-USA All-Conference recognition along with Randi Drinnon.

WKU Softball was back with a vengeance in 2021 and would finish with a 32-15 record (.625 win percentage) after going 10-6 in league play to earn the fourth seed entering the Conference USA Tournament hosted in Bowling Green. After winning their single-elimination game against UTSA, the Tops fell in their opening double-elimination tilt. From there, the Hilltoppers rattled off four elimination-game victories to win the C-USA Tournament title. WKU was the first host to make the field since the 2014 season and first host to win the event since 2011. From there, the Red and White returned to Athens, Georgia where Duke would actually be considered the NCAA Regional host. Tudor led the Tops to another postseason win as WKU earned a victory over UNC-Greensboro. Six Hilltoppers earned C-USA Second Team All-Conference honors, while Kennedy Sullivan was named Tournament MVP while Brylee Hage, Paige Carter, Shelby Nunn, Kendall Smith and Princess Valencia all landed All-Tournament Team nods. Carter and Sullivan would go on to earn All-Region honors as well.

In the shortened 2020 season, WKU was off to a hot start with a record of 20-5 for a program-record winning percentage rate of .800. With the season cut short due to COVID-19, Tudor led the squad to a 3-0 record in Conference USA games against Middle Tennessee before getting shut down. WKU was ranked 31st in the first RPI of the 2020 season and held a 10-game winning streak in the six-week season. There was not a Conference USA Tournament or postseason awards that year due to the pandemic.

The 2019 season saw WKU set the program’s winning percentage record with a 37-13 (.740) rate. Tudor guided the squad to an 18-6 mark in Conference USA action including the East Division title while finishing third overall in the regular season standings. WKU clinched a first-round bye with the third seed in the C-USA Tournament before falling to Middle Tennessee 1-0 from Birmingham, Ala. Four Hilltoppers earned All-Conference recognition with Kendall Smith landing first team honors while Kelsey Aikey, Shannon Plese and Jordan Vorbrink collected second team nods. Smith (third team) and freshman Kennedy Sullivan (second team) brought home All-Region honors from NFCA. Sullivan threw the program’s 13th no-hitter on March 1 in a five-inning victory over Evansville.

In 2018, WKU finished with a 28-26 overall record including a 10-13 reading in C-USA action. For the second-year in a row, the Hilltoppers drew the eight seed in the postseason tournament and for the second-straight year, the Red and White upset the fifth seed. Kelsey Aikey tossed the program’s 12th no-hitter and earned the league’s Pitcher of the Week title twice during the campaign. Three freshmen: Maddie Bowlds, Shelby Nunn and Jordan Thomas earned All-Freshman squad recognition by the league while WKU’s fourth freshman, Kendall Smith, earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team. After locking up the final seed in Conference USA’s 2017 Postseason Tournament, WKU Softball went to work. As the No. 8 seed, the Hilltoppers put together a run through the single elimination portion of the C-USA Tournament. In a 12-inning marathon, WKU took down No. 5 seed UAB before turning around to play another extra inning game a couple hours later. In the second game, the Red and White and No. 4 seed Florida Atlantic went nine innings before WKU secured the 6-5 victory. As one of the final four teams remaining, WKU became the lowest seed to ever advance to the C-USA Tournament Semifinals. Going 2-2 in C-USA Postseason play in Hattiesburg, Miss., WKU’s season still wasn’t over as Tudor and company accepted an invitation to the inaugural NISC Postseason Invitational. Jordan Mauch was named second-team All-Conference and Kelsey Aikey earned All-Freshman team honors. Following the 2017 campaign, Coach Tudor’s first-ever four-year player Kathryn Downing graduated.

In 2016, Tudor achieved the 300-win milestone in WKU’s 5-4 victory against Middle Tennessee at the WKU Softball Complex. The squad finished 17-30 on the season and saw senior Brooke Holloway honored with Second-Team All-Conference USA recognition. Freshman Bryce Holmgren also landed a spot on the league’s all freshman list.

The 2015 season brought a new level of success for the Lady Topper program, earning the best winning percentage in school history at .720 with a 36-14 overall mark and a C-USA Regular-Season Championship with a 16-5 record. WKU went on to sweep the field at the C-USA Championship to garner its first-ever automatic bid to the NCAA Championship field.

WKU overcame the bumps in the road, defeating three nationally-ranked teams during the 2015 campaign in No. 19 Nebraska, No. 16 Georgia and No. 14 Tennessee, a Women’s College World Series participant. The win over the Bulldogs came in the program’s longest game in school history, as it took 14 innings to defeat Georgia in NCAA Regional action.

Highlighting 2015 was Kramer, WKU’s first-ever NFCA First-Team All-American. Working with the pitchers and catchers, Tudor guided Kramer’s final season in the circle to one of the best individual campaigns by any student-athlete at WKU. Kramer led the nation in strikeouts (439), strikeouts per seven innings (12.6) and hits allowed per seven innings (2.88) while she ranked second in shutouts (13) and sixth in ERA (1.24). A transfer coming into the year, Kramer took C-USA by storm, being named Pitcher of the Week a record-setting eight times before the league coaches named her Pitcher and Newcomer of the Year. The Iowa native threw three no-hitters plus the first perfect game in WKU history, as the Lady Topper pitching staff has six no-hit outings since Tudor arrived in Bowling Green.

Along with Kramer, Franklin was named All-Conference First-Team and NFCA All-Region while Dani Pugh was voted to the C-USA second team. Carleigh Chaumont found herself with a spot on the C-USA All-Freshman Team while Chaumont, Kramer and Kathryn Downing earned C-USA All-Tournament Team accolades with Kramer being named MVP.

In her first season with WKU, Tudor led the Lady Toppers to a 33-24-1 record overall and 11-10 mark in Sun Belt Conference action, finishing fourth in WKU’s last year in the league. The Lady Toppers played a tough slate in 2014, securing wins over Southeastern Conference foes Ole Miss and No. 2 Tennessee. The win over the Lady Vols in Knoxville not only was the highest-ranked opponent defeated for WKU, but also broke UT’s 121-game winning streak of regular-season, non-conference home games, as UT’s last loss came in 2003.

At the season’s end, five Lady Toppers were named to the All-Sun Belt Conference team in first-team selections Preslie Cruce, Kelsie Mattox and Watkins while Emily Rousseau and Amanda Thomas were named to the second team. Watkins finished a special season and career at WKU, as she led the nation in steals with almost one stolen base per game and finished 15th in the nation with a .442 batting average while she became the first player in program history to play professionally after signing with the Akron Racers.

In 2010, Tudor took over the IPFW program, inheriting a team with a 14-24 record and ranked 265 in the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) in 2009. Since then, she improved the RPI to 203 (2010), 156 (2011), 78 (2012) and 89 (2013). Winning the league tournament in 2013 and making the program’s first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the Mastodons were also regular-season runner-up in 2010 and 2012 and tournament runner-up in 2012. In her four years at IPFW, Tudor compiled a 136-64 record with a .680 winning percentage.

During her career in Fort Wayne, Tudor coached 17 All-Conference honorees, 13 All-Summit League Tournament members, two NFCA All-Region picks, four Capital One Academic All-District selections and a finalist for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. She also had players chosen as the league tournament Most Valuable Player, Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year.

Before going to IPFW, Tudor was the head coach at Belmont University where she helped lead the program to 36 wins, the fifth most in program history, and 11 Atlantic Sun victories, most by a single coach since Belmont joined the league in 2001. In her last season, Tudor helped led the Bruins to an 8-5 record to open the season, including a five-game win streak, the school’s longest winning streak since 1999.

Prior to arriving at Belmont, Tudor was the head coach at Division III Ohio Wesleyan University, where she helped guide the Battling Bishops to the regular-season North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) title in her first season. She helped develop the school’s first-ever Pitcher of the Year in 2005 and Player of the Year in 2006, as the squad finished as the conference’s tournament runner-up in each of her two seasons. Over her two seasons in Delaware, Ohio, she compiled a 45-33 record.

Before Ohio Wesleyan, Tudor was a graduate assistant coach at North Alabama while earning a Master of Arts degree in counseling.

Tudor is a 2002 graduate of WKU with a degree in history and social studies and minor in geography, where she was a three-year team captain, helping the program get off the ground as a member of the school’s inaugural softball squad. A collegiate catcher, she holds the school record by throwing out 23 runners attempting to steal in 2002 and is fourth all-time in runners thrown out stealing with 28.

In addition to her prowess on the field, she was equally as strong off of the field, where she was named an All-American Scholar, recipient of the Commissioner’s List Award, a member of the Golden Key Honor Society and Kappa Delta Pi, and was a six-time member of the Dean’s List at WKU.

Tudor spent one season at Motlow State Community College before her arrival at WKU. A member of the softball and basketball team, she hit .370 with 37 RBI, 12 doubles, two home runs and had five stolen bases while not committing an error behind the plate.

Originally from Petersburg, Tenn., Tudor attended Cornersville High School where she graduated as salutatorian. Tudor finished her high school playing career as the all-time leading scorer and assist leader in basketball and was an All-State and All-Mid State selection in softball. In 1998, the high school retired her No. 9 jersey.