All Sooners

Oklahoma Ranked No. 1 in D1 Softball's Preseason Top 25

Two-time defending national champion Oklahoma has one of the game's most challenging schedules but brings back a stacked roster and a hall of fame coach

John E. Hoover

Who else?

Two-time defending national champion Oklahoma is ranked No. 1 in Tuesday’s D1 Softball preseason Top 25, a sign of the Sooners’ expected dominance again this year.

Hall of Fame coach Patty Gasso returns eight position starters, two pitchers, several impact stars in the transfer portal and the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class.

After going 59-3 last year and 56-4 in 2021, the Sooners are the prohibitive favorites to win a third straight national title.

According to D1 Softball's Top 100 Players preseason rankings last week, OU's roster has 10 of the top 100 players in the nation, including eight of the top 26. 

The list includes No. 1 overall Tiare Jennings, No. 4 Grace Lyons, No. 6 Cydney Sanders, No. 9 Jordy Bahl, No. 15 Jayda Coleman and No. 20 Kinzie Hansen. 

However, the Sooners' competition will be stiff.

According to D1 Softball’s Top 25, the No. 3 team in the nation resides 80 miles to the north in Stillwater: Oklahoma State. The Sooners and Cowgirls meet in the final regular-season series of the year May 4-6.

Fellow Big 12 Conference foe Texas comes in at No. 14.

The Sooners’ schedule also includes matches with No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 Florida State, No. 7 Northwestern, No. 11 Stanford, No. 16 Kentucky, No. 17 LSU, No. 19 Auburn, No. 21 Washington and No. 22 Duke.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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