Courtesy of Norfolk State Athletic Communications


NORFOLK, Va. – When the spring sports season was shut down, it marked the end of a decade of Norfolk State athletics. From the fall of 2010 to the spring of 2020, it was a 10-year stretch that saw countless highlights across NSU's 15 total sports. Many of those programs' greatest achievements – since NSU made the jump to NCAA Division I in 1997 – came during this decade.
 
Over the course of the next few months, we are going to spotlight those storylines right here on NSUSpartans.com. Every week, we'll choose a different sport(s) and take you down memory lane before we get set to start a new decade of excellence. In addition, head over to our Twitter page (@NSUSpartans) where fans will have the opportunity to vote for what they think is the greatest highlight per sport. At the end, they will also be able to vote for the greatest overall highlight in NSU athletics during the past 10 years.
 
Up next for week 3, we turn our attention to softball. We've narrowed it down to five storylines from the past decade that we'll focus on, in no particular order.
 
A.) It took until the last inning of the regular season, but in 2019 the Spartans claimed their first ever regular-season championship, in style. With the score tied at 0-0 in the bottom of the seventh against Howard at the NSU Softball Field, sophomore Tuli Iosefa lined a shot to left with no outs for a walk-off home run. The Spartans finished 11-4 in the MEAC, winning the Northern Division title by a half game over Morgan State and earning head coach James Inzana the MEAC Coach of the Year award. Norfolk State had finished second in the division three times, and was second overall in the league standings in 2007 when there were no divisions. But 2019 marked the first time NSU could claim any sort of regular-season crown since joining the MEAC prior to the 1998 season.
Read more about NSU's walk-off regular season championship.
 
B.) Nothing personifies NSU's offensive surge during the decade better than looking at the all-time hits record. Brianeisha Eure finished her career in the spring of 2010 and broke a hits record that had stood since 1994. Now? Of the top 11 all-time hit leaders, eight played at least one season during the decade (and Eure would make nine except she finished just prior to the start of it). Morgan Boyd topped Eure's record in 2014, only for Alina Moriarty to top Boyd's mark one year later. The high water mark for offense came in 2013, when NSU set the school record for doubles and the Division I record for hits while posting a .327 team batting average. The Spartans finished 10^th in the nation in hitting that year as well as in the top 15 in doubles and scoring. Altogether, 10 hitters were named All-MEAC between 2013 and '14 as offensive numbers swelled.
Read more about the record 7 Spartans named All-MEAC in 2014.
 
C.) If nothing personifies NSU's offensive surge during the decade like the 2013 team, then nothing personifies the 2013 team like sophomore Haley Ward. She was named the MEAC Player of the Year and NFCA All-Region, both a first for the program. After hitting just above .400 as a freshman, she did even better as a sophomore, finishing second in the nation in batting at .482. She lived up to the billing as the MEAC preseason player of the year, leading the league in six offensive categories. She was also top 35 in the nation in doubles, triples, RBI, on-base percentage and slugging. The left-hander with a smooth swing tied an NCAA D-I mark for consecutive hits with 13 over the course of five games and hit a mind-boggling .661 during a 17-game hit streak. It was a performance that will not soon be forgotten.
Read more about Ward: Named MEAC Player of the Year | Ward's Bio
 
D.) Home runs were a-flying in Inzana's first season as coach. Four years after NSU set a fast-pitch record for homers in a season, the Spartans topped that in 2018 after Inzana took over the program in the fall. They hit 38 bombs that season, two more than the 2014 squad, as NSU won nine more games in 2018 than the year before. And leading the charge was junior catcher Kylee Lopez, who hit a school record 14. She surpassed a mark that had stood for 21 years, and the following year as a senior she set the program's all-time record that had been shared by three players. The Spartans followed that up by hitting 26 in 2019, the third-most in the D-I era, as they closed the decade on a power surge.
Read more about Lopez topping the season home run record
 
E.) If we are circling back to 2013, it's for a good reason. NSU had never won more games as a D-I program (and still hasn't) than it did that year. But what makes it more remarkable was NSU's showing in the MEAC tournament. The Spartans lost their first game in the double-elimination tournament, then went on to win five straight before falling in the if-necessary game of the championship. It started with Whitney Williams' two-run, walk-off homer in extra innings over Coppin State on day 1, following by Kathy Cortez's walk-off single over Florida A&M on day 2. After a victory over Delaware State later that afternoon, the Spartans were forced to wait out a weather delay that night. They came back early on day 3 to finish a win over Savannah State, and NSU pounded Hampton 10-3 in the championship game. Unfortunately, it was double-elimination, and the toll of seven games in three days in the Florida heat was too much, as NSU fell to the Pirates in the if-necessary game. Nevertheless, it concluded arguably the best season ever at the D-I level.
Read more about NSU in the 2013 MEAC Championship: Walk-Off Win over CSU | Walk-Off Win over FAMU | Championship Game Recap
 
Those are just but a few of the highlights from softball this decade. Be sure to check our Twitter @NSUSpartans to vote for your favorite each and every week. Next week we'll be back with a double feature of the greatest storylines for both men's and women's cross country.