Team, coach eager to beat future challenges

Women’s softball Head Coach Amber Maisonet returns for her 10th season at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with this year being her eight as head coach, and she is looking for another winning season.  Last season, the team made it to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championships, and her women are hungry for another exceptional time on the diamond.

“We set the bar high last year, and the majority of our players are coming back.  They don’t know anything else but making it to the NCAA,” Coach Maisonet shared with me. “We will have a good defense and offense, and as long as our pitchers hold it together, we’ll be good.”

Coach Maisonet knows what she is talking about—an all-star in her own right while playing outfield at her alma mater, University of Albany. Coach Maisonet began at Rensselaer while working on her master’s in educational administration with a concentration in higher education. She played soccer while in graduate school for her first year, and then was a graduate assistant for her second year, and has been the head coach at RPI ever since.

Coach Maisonet has had winning seasons the entire time she has been at Rensselaer, consistently winning 25–30 games in a 40-game season.  Last year’s team that made it to the NCAA finals won 27 games and are looking just as strong this year.  When Coach Maisonet started, there were only five teams in the Liberty League, and currently there are eight, with Ithaca College being on the schedule this year as their toughest competition.  In only her third year as head coach, the women won the Liberty League.

Every season, they begin during Spring Break and have several games in Florida there before they come back to New York.  Some of the teams they play in Florida include Wheaton College, Westfield State University, and Framingham State University.  When they return to New York, they play teams including Union College, RIT, and Ithaca College.  Some of the players to look for are shortstop Cam Caswell ’20, 2nd baseman Tori Greco ’18, 3rd basemen Allie Hunt ’20, pitcher Jaime Cleasby ’19, and outfielder Maddie Provencher ’20.

Coach Maisonet has high hopes for this team and summed up their feelings perfectly saying, “they want it.”