The curtain came down for the final time on Monday on the 2025 edition of Oklahoma softball, and for the first time in four seasons, it did not end in a national championship celebration.
Before 12-seeded Texas Tech eliminated Oklahoma from the 2025 Women's College World Series, the Sooners had escaped elimination in WCWS play nine consecutive times and been the final team standing in NCAA Division I softball in each of the last four seasons.
Both of those streaks are now over, but don't expect the Sooners to stop competing at a national championship level anytime soon. There is too much history and tradition embedded in the Oklahoma softball program, not to mention the winningest active head coach in the sport, for that not to be the case.
All attention now turns to 2026 and beyond. The Sooners lose just three seniors (first baseman Cydney Sanders, and pitchers Sam Landry and Isabella Smith) from the 2025 roster. Eight of the nine players who were in the Sooners' starting lineup on Monday are expected back again in 2026.
OU softball looking to build on a better-than-expected 2025 season
Gasso and her staff will certainly hit the transfer portal to add several key pieces, as they have every season over the past decade, especially on the pitching staff. Oklahoma also welcomes another top-ranked recruiting class for the 2026 season. All five members of the Sooners' 2025 recruiting class are considered elite recruits with four five-stars and one four-star. Three are position players and two pitchers.
Unlike the roster rebuild required after the 2024 season, when Oklahoma lost 13 letterwinners to graduation or transfer, including five core players from the everyday lineup and four pitchers, managing the transition between seasons won't require as much of a makeover and allow more selectivity in plugging holes and adding depth.
Sanders is the only member of the Sooners' starting lineup that ended the 2025 season who is not expected to be back next season. The starting lineup in the WCWS game against Texas Tech included three freshmen and two sophomores, which speaks directly to how Oklahoma is set up to get even better over the next couple of years.
That assumes, however, that Gasso and pitching coach Jennifer Rocha, who is considered one of the best in the sport at recruiting and working with college pitching talent, are able to assemble and develop another outstanding pitching corps.
The Sooners have had tremendous success in recent history finding All-American quality starters in the transfer portal to add to some of their home-grown pitching talent. Names like Alex Storako, Paige Lowary, Hope Troutwein, Kelly Maxwell and Sam Landry come quickly to mind. Expect Gasso and Rocha to bring in another big arm or two this offseason to offset the loss of Landry.
The transfer portal, however, both giveth and taketh away. It is widely utilized to add both experience and fill needs in a roster, but it also enables players to leave a program. So far, just two OU players have announced plans to enter the portal: catcher Cori Hicks and outfielder Maya Bland. Both played sparingly in the 2025 season.
The starting infield will remain intact with shortstop Gabbie Garcia and Ailana Agbayani manning the middle infield and Nelly McEnroe-Marinas holding down the hot corner. Sydney Barker will likely replace Sanders at first base. Catcher Isabela Emerling, a transfer last year from North Carolina, has another year of eligibility remaining, which is probably the reason Hicks elected to transfer.
Regarding the outfield, everyone who played there this season, and there is a lot of versatility in the group, is expected back in 2026.
The returning pitchers for 2026 include seniors Kiersten Deal and Paytn Monticelli and sophomore Audrey Lowry, the 2024 Indiana Gatorade Player of the Year and two-time Max Preps High School All-American.
The Sooners could also potentially have redshirt freshman Sophia Bordi back for the 2026 campaign. The two-time New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year reclassified to begin her collegiate career a year early as part of Sooners' 2025 class, but she left the OU program in early May for what was called a "personal situation." She returned home to South New Jersey and did not finish the season with the team. Her future status is unknown.
With its rich championship history, Oklahoma doesn't have any trouble attracting some of the country's best high school softball talent to come to OU and play at one of the largest and finest college softball facilities in the country.
The incoming recruits who will be on campus in the fall include pitchers Allyssa Parker, an in-state product from Pocola, Oklahoma, who is rated the No. 2 pitcher in the 2025 class nationally by Softball America, and Berkley Zache, the younger sister of Sooner catcher Riley Zache. Berkley is rated as the No. 6 pitcher in the class.
Also part of the Sooners' 2025 recruiting class (are outfielder Kai Minor, infielder Lexi McDaniel and catcher Kendall Wells. All three, as you might expect knowing Oklahoma's history in recruiting top talent, are top-10 players in the 2025 class.
Additionally, Oklahoma's 2026 class is shaping up to be another exceptional group. Infielder Ki'ele Ho-Ching from Lakewood, California, is rated the No. 3 player nationally by On3. Pitcher EK Smith from Katy, Texas, is ranked No. 12 nationally and the No. 6 pitcher. Pitcher Keegan from nearby Edmond, Oklahoma, is ranked 18th in the national class and the No. 9 pitching prospect. Malaya Majam-Finch, from Fullerton, California, and a niece of former All-American pitcher Jenny Finch, is another top-25 national recruit and top-10 pitching prospect.
The Sooners also have 2026 commitments from infielder Ori Mailo, who hails from the same hometown in Hawaii as former OU All-American and NCAA home-run record holder Jocelyn Alo, as well as outfielder Payton Westra from Mesa, Arizona. Both are top-50 players nationally.
No one outside of the city of Norman or perhaps the state of Oklahoma is going to shed one tear over the Sooners' seeming fall from grace following their unprecedented back-to-back-to-back-to-back run at the top of the college softball world. But word to the wise: This season was one of adjustment. This new group of Sooners is just getting started.
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