The offseason is here, with all of Arizona’s sports done for 2024-25 season and the 2025-26 campaigns still a little ways away.
Which makes this a great time to step back and see how all of the Wildcats’ programs are doing and how they’ve handled the move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12
Over the next few weeks we’ll take a look at each of the UA’s men’s and women’s athletic programs to see what shape they’re in and what prospects they have for the near future. We’ll break down each team and evaluate how it is performing under its current coaching staff, looking at the state of the program before he/she arrived and comparing it to now while also evaluating how that program fits into its new conference.
Next up: Caitlin Lowe’s Arizona softball team.
How it looked before
Anyone who knows softball knows the name Mike Candrea and what it means to the sport. He built Arizona softball, leading them to eight national titles in 36 years and getting cheated out of another one by UCLA recruiting shenanigans. It was his only Division I head coaching job, and Arizona became synonymous with his name.
The game changed late in his career, though. The Wildcats went almost a decade without getting to the Women’s College World Series before finally returning in 2019. The postseason wasn’t held in 2020 due to the pandemic, and he helped lead the charge to get the seniors another year of eligibility. That group got back to the WCWS in 2021.
There were transfers out of the program on a fairly regular basis later in Candrea’s career. They were usually younger players who didn’t get much playing time. He also had a player quit the sport. Two years later, that player’s sister quit the sport, this time under Lowe’s leadership.
Candrea retired after the 2021 season and Lowe took over.
While fans decried what seemed like a down year in 2022 regular season, the Wildcats forged ahead and advanced to the WCWS, sweeping both the regionals at Missouri and the super regionals at Arkansas. They even picked up a win in OKC, meaning Lowe had as many WCWS wins in one year at the helm as her coach and mentor had over his final decade.
Where things stand now
While the regular season didn’t go great for Lowe and the Wildcats in 2022, it’s difficult to say that it wasn’t a successful season given the WCWS run. Her second year wasn’t nearly as successful.
As has been the case too many times under both Candrea and Lowe in recent years, the pitching wasn’t able to keep up with the top teams in the sport in 2023. The Wildcats ended up on the wrong side of the bubble, missing the NCAA Tournament to snap a 35-year streak.
The absence was short. Arizona was back in the postseason in 2024. The Wildcats got to the super regional round for the second time in three years under Lowe. They lost to future conference opponent Oklahoma State in Stillwater.
Arizona had a strong season in its first year in the Big 12 in 2025. The team took second both in the regular season and the conference tournament, finishing behind Texas Tech and its million dollar pitcher in both cases. That and a strong showing against a quality nonconference schedule earned them the right to host regionals.
The Wildcats returned Devyn Netz for her redshirt senior year. The all-around athlete was crowned the Big 12 Player of the Year after a strong year both in the circle and as a hitter. The team had three NFCA All-Americans after struggling to get one such honor for several years.
It all ended in Hillenbrand when the Wildcats were dismissed from the opening round on their home field for the first time since Lowe’s freshman year in college. Now, they must rebound from a disappointing end to a great season.
It was always going to be a tough transition. Even if no one transferred out, Arizona was losing its two best pitchers and two of its best everyday hitters. A strong hitter who probably should have played more was also on her way out, as was a relief pitcher who gave them some good innings. The loss of the three pitchers was going to be especially difficult to navigate even if no one else left.
Boy, did they leave. Arizona lost nine active players and one who attended school but never played. Truth be told, eight of those outgoing players were not huge blows from a production standpoint, but seven of them were part of a team that seemed fairly bonded during the season. The loss of relationships between teammates does its own kind of damage.
The biggest losses via transfer were outfielders Dakota Kennedy and Kaiah Altmeyer. They both ended up in the SEC.
Lowe and her staff got busy, bringing in its largest and most decorated transfer class since she took over. They picked up an All-Big Ten pitcher, an All-Big 12 infielder, and the Big East Player of the Year to go with two three-star outfielders and a three-star pitcher.
Both transfer pitchers coming in are rated as good or better by Softball America than any of the four pitchers who left. Incoming freshman pitcher Rylie Holder also had a very good senior season and was named an Alliance Fastpitch all-star in club play.
In all, the team adds four freshmen. They are led by infielder Sina Talataina, a high four-star infielder. By overall score, their incoming class ranks 14th by Softball America. By average score, it ranks 19th.
Arizona will be a very new team next year. There’s no downplaying the loss of two of their three All-Americans. However, they do return their third All-American, who plays a critical position at catcher and had an outstanding year. Sydney Stewart will need to repeat that without the lineup protection of Devyn Netz and Miranda Stoddard, though.
The addition of Big East Player of the Year Grace Jenkins gives them some right-handed power that can hopefully help take the sting out of the losses of Netz and Stoddard.
Big 12 vs. Pac-12
The Big 12 is a hard league to get a peg on. The teams at the very top are very good, even better than the Pac-12 teams that Arizona used to face. Most of the league is not, though.
Texas Tech and Arizona were the top of the league last season. The Wildcats went 1-3 against the Red Raiders, who made it all the way to the championship series before falling to Texas.
While it was a guarantee that the top teams in the Pac-12 standings were very good, that cannot be said about the Big 12. The sheer size of the league means that a team like Iowa State can end up third while missing both of the top teams in the conference during the regular season. The Cyclones missed the NCAA Tournament despite finishing third and getting to the semifinals of the conference tournament.
The Pac-12 put eight of its nine teams into the NCAA Tournament as recently as 2022. That was Lowe’s first year. Of those nine teams, seven rmade the postseason in 2025 out of the Big Ten, the Big 12, and the ACC. Five made it out of the Big 12, including Arizona and Arizona State.
One big question
What is going on with Caitlin Lowe’s contract and how will that affect recruiting?
Lowe is one of several coaches of Arizona women’s sports who had just completed the final year of their contracts or were due to enter the final year in 2025-26.
Gymnastics head coach John Court, who was honored as the 2025 Big 12 Coach of the Year, finally got extended more than two months after his season was over and given three years. Women’s tennis coach Ryan Stotland saw an extension just before his deal was set to expire, also getting a three-year extension. Her contract and what she felt was a lack of respect were two of several related reasons Adia Barnes left her alma mater after nine years. That leaves Caitlin Lowe as one of the coaches still waiting as she walks into the final year of her deal.
None of the men who coach major men’s sports are in this position. Both Tommy Lloyd and Chip Hale received extensions within days after their seasons were over. Hale would have been entering his final year just as the majority of the coaches of women’s sports are. Lloyd was on his second extension in 14 months and his third since 2021. Hale got four years and Lloyd got five, more than any women’s coach who was extended. Neither has to worry about the possible impact on recruiting.
While today’s player movement means it’s tough to predict how long a player will stick around, it’s still unlikely that the very best players want to commit to a program without even the weakest guarantee that the head coach will still be there when they arrive. At this point, four-star pitcher Lilly Hauser, four-star outfielder Madison Babasa, and three-star infielder Violet Mitchell will be doing just that if they stick to their verbal commitments and sign in November.
Letting so many women’s sports get to this point in their coaches’ contracts could damage some of the best programs in Arizona Athletics. Softball is chief among those.