So close: BYU softball keeps competitive in Big 12 in 2025
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- BYU catcher Lindy Milkowski celebrates hitting a home run against Fresno State in a women’s college softball game at Gail Miller Field on Monday, April 14, 2025.
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- BYU players celebrate with freshman Ilove’a Brittingham after she hit a home run during the non-conference game against UVU at Wolverine Softball Field in Orem on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
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- BYU players greet Hailey Morrow (20) after she hit a home run in the first inning against Fresno State in a women’s college softball game at Gail Miller Field on Monday, April 14, 2025.
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- BYU pitcher Kate Dahle prepares to throw the ball in a women’s college softball game against Fresno State at Gail Miller Field on Monday, April 14, 2025.
After dominating the Mountain West Conference and the West Coast Conference for years, the BYU softball program is in the thick of things in the Big 12 but is still searching for its first NCAA Tournament invite since 2021.
The Cougars concluded Year 2 in the Big 12 with a 32-17 overall record, finishing sixth in the conference with a 13-11 record in league play. In Year 1, BYU was 31-23 overall and 11-16 in league play, a sixth-place finish.
Season Review
The Cougars began 2025 on a five-game win streak, one of four they’d go on throughout the season. BYU picked up a trio of run-rule wins at UC San Diego’s La Jolla Invitational before winning its first two games at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge.
Week three featured a 3-1 win over Washington at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic while week four saw the Cougars reel off five straight at Sacramento State and Pacific’s Libby Matson Tournament.
Beginning conference play, BYU dropped a tight 2-1 series at Arizona State before sweeping Houston on the road. The Cougars then dropped a series with No. 11/9 Arizona, but salvaged the set with a 9-4 game three victory on Saturday.
Heading out to Ames, BYU picked up a convincing series win at Iowa State, run-ruling the Cyclones in game three, 13-0. Its momentum slowed against UCF, falling to the Knights, 2-1, despite a 9-1 series finale win in six innings.
Rebounding against their in-state foe, the Cougars swept Utah in dramatic fashion, walking off the Utes in the eighth, seventh and sixth innings, coming from behind to take the first two games of the series before a run-rule victory that secured the sweep.
Keila Kamoku hit .667 and slugged 1.167 with two home runs in the series against the Utes, earning her a Big 12 Player of the Week nod, BYU’s first and only of the season, and the Cougars’ second since joining the league.
BYU then took game two at Baylor, but ultimately fell to the Bears in Waco, 2-1. Similarly, the Cougars picked up a 2-1 game two win over eventual national runner-up and No. 11 Texas Tech, but dropped the rubber match, 2-1.
Despite the series loss, freshman Ilove’a Brittingham homered off of NFCA Pitcher of the Year NiJaree Canady twice during the weekend set against the Red Raiders. Canady allowed just 13 home runs the entire season.
BYU earned a shutout win against Houston in the first round of the Big 12 Championship before coming up short against Iowa State in the quarterfinal, 4-2, extending its NCAA Tournament drought to four seasons.
Got To Ilove’a It
The Cougars finished the year ranked in the top 25 of a number of statistical categories, led by Brittinghams’s 1.41 RBI per game, which ranked No. 3 nationally.
Brittingham garnered a handful of national postseason awards following the season. She was named an NFCA Third Team All-American, BYU’s first since 2018, a D1 Softball Freshman All-American, Softball America Freshman All-American and an NFCA National Freshman of the Year top 10 finalist.
The Nipomo, California native set freshman program records in RBI, RBI per game, home runs and home runs per game while also posting the Cougars’ second-best slugging percentage and second-most total bases in BYU freshman history. She is just the second Cougar freshman to be named a first team All-Region honoree and first since 2001. BYU saw three student-athletes named to both the NFCA All-Region and All-Big 12 teams, while five Cougars were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team. Brittingham earned NFCAA All-Mountain Region First team honors while both Kaysen Korth and Lindy Milkowski garnered Second Team status. It was the first All-Region award for all three players. BYU had Brittingham named the conference’s Freshman of the Year, to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team and the All-Big 12 First Team. She was joined by fellow First Team honorees Milkowski and Lily Owens. Aleia Agbayani, Kamoku, Korth, Milkowski and Hailey Morrow were each named to the All-District Team that honors student-athletes with a GPA of 3.5 or higher that competed in 90 percent of the Cougars’ games this season.
A Look Ahead
After graduating Milkowski, Agbayani, Kamoku, Lauren Flanders and Alyssa Aguilar following the 2025 campaign, BYU returns a full pitching staff, three infield starters and two outfield mainstays heading into 2026.
