Villanova Univeristy Athletics

Last Updated on June 9, 2026

Ninth Season at Villanova
30th Season Overall
Record at Villanova: 223-197-1 (.531)
Career Record: 975-607-4 (.616)
NCAA Tournament: 10-22 (10 Appearances)
Alma Mater: Villanova '97

Unprecedented success has followed Villanova head coach Bridget Orchard at every step of her softball career beginning with her playing days as an All-Star infielder for the Wildcats and continuing with an incredible level of success on a national level during her head coaching career. Orchard will enter her ninth year leading her alma mater in 2026-27 and her 30th season as a collegiate head coach overall. 

Orchard has led the program to the only three NCAA Tournament appearances in team history, capturing a trio of BIG EAST titles in her eight seasons at the helm of her alma mater.
 
Orchard was a star at Villanova from the very beginnings of her association with Wildcats program. At the time of her graduation in 1997, Orchard was the Wildcats all-time career record holder with 216 career hits and 110 runs scored. She earned first team All-BIG EAST honors in 1995 and led Villanova to an ECAC title a year later while ranking as the second-toughest batter to strike out in the nation. Orchard was a .334 career hitter for the Wildcats, stole 35 bases and played in 205 consecutive games which remains the second-longest streak in school history. In all she started 206 of the 212 games (97.2%) Villanova played during her career.

After the conclusion of her collegiate playing career Orchard was nearly immediately appointed the head coach at Cabrini, where she would proceed to go 129-42-2 over the next four seasons. She led the Cavaliers to two straight NCAA Tournament bids, and her teams were an NCAA East Regional finalist in 2001 as well as previously being an NCAA Atlantic Regional finalist in 2000. Cabrini won three straight Pennsylvania Athletic Conference regular season titles under Orchard, and the team was ranked No. 10 in the nation by USA Today in 2001. She was inducted into the Cabrini College Athletic Hall of Fame for her coaching accomplishments in 2013.

In addition to her coaching responsibilities at Cabrini, Orchard was also the school’s Director of Student Activities from 1999-01. 

Orchard then became the head coach at Fordham for the next 17 seasons where she built the Rams into a perennial power in the Atlantic 10 Conference while taking her teams to eight NCAA regionals and earning seven Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year awards.

After the 2018 season, Orchard came back to her alma mater to take over the reins of the program from her own collegiate head coach Maria DiBernardi, who won 880 games over 34 years as head coach.
 
Returning to Villanova was a homecoming in more ways than one for Orchard, as both she and her husband Jay are Wildcats alums. The couple has two sons – Lucas, a basketball player at Monmouth, and Zachary, Villanova Class of 2028 – and a daughter, Isabelle.