Sonoma State University Athletics

Jennifer Bridges will enter her 16th year and 15th season as the head softball coach here at Sonoma State University as the Seawolves embark on the 2025 season. Sonoma State softball is coming off back-to-back CCAA Championships in 2023 and 2024 after winning back-to-back CCAA Tournaments in 2019 and 2022.  Bridges was named CCAA Coach of the Year in both 2023 and 2024, becoming the first coach in program history to win the award.  

Bridges has led the softball program to 11 NCAA tournament appearances, four CCAA tournament championships and two CCAA regular season titles, to go along with an outstanding 515-287-1 record overall record.  Prior coming to Sonoma State, she was the head coach at Whittier College, a NCAA Division III program, where she compiled a 45-35 record and led the program to a SCIAC Tournament appearance in 2009. 

Last season, SSU won their second straight CCAA title with a 23-11 conference record and finished 30-18 overall, Bridges 12th season with 30+ victories. 

In 2023 the Seawolves captured their first ever CCAA title with a 23-8 conference record while finishing 35-15 overall.  SSU earned their highest ever national ranking at No. 10 after a starting the season 23-4.  The Seawolves earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament, hosting a regional at home.  Anna Zoia-Buescher earned CCAA Player of the Year, West Region Player of the Year and All-American honors while Charlie Johnson was named CCAA Freshman of the Year.  Bridges also won her first CCAA Coach of the Year award.  

During the 2022 season, Bridges had a career year, securing her first 40-win season since 2015. As a result, the Seawolves would go 24-12 in CCAA play and finish 3rd in the conference standings. They would make some more history in the CCAA Tournament as they went a perfect 4-0, recording the most runs in tournament history, and winning their second straight CCAA Tournament Championship. They would go on to win two games in the NCAA regional but fall to fellow CCAA member, Cal State San Marcos, in back-to-back games to end their postseason run. 

In 2013, the Seawolves (37-21, 22-14 CCAA) finished third in the CCAA standings and qualified for the conference tournament for the fourth time in five years.  After a victory to open up the CCAA's in Stockton, Sonoma State lost back-to-back games on day two of the tournament and was eliminated.  However, Bridges and company earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA West Regional Tournament and the season continued.  It was at the regional in St. George, Utah, though, that SSU ran out of steam and was ousted from national title contention after a 1-2 showing.

The completion of the 2013 season marked the end of a remarkable career for Bridges' ace pitcher Samantha Lipperd.  The right-handed Lipperd shattered the program's pitching record book, including the career strikeout mark in which she finished with 1,090 of them, 664 more than the previous all-time record in the school's history.  Lipperd went 101-41 with a 1.61 ERA under Bridges' tutelage, setting 22 all-time, single-season and single-game pitching records in a total of 162 appearances.

Bridges also saw the end of first baseman Ali Palermo's four-year career, as Palermo shattered 13 all-time offensive and defensive records during her time, including home runs (37), runs batted in (147) and most consecutive games without a defensive error, ending her career on a 132-game errorless streak (669 consecutive chances), among others.

In 2012, Bridges led Sonoma State (36-19, 21-15 CCAA) to a fifth place finish in the CCAA standings, missing the conference tournament by two games.  However, finishing with a 35-17 record in the regular season, the Seawolves qualified for the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight year (and the third straight under Bridges' tutelage), earning the No. 5 seed.  After a tournament-opening victory over Chico State at the sub-regional in Carson, Calif., Sonoma State suffered two straight losses to host Cal State Dominguez Hills and Grand Canyon and the season would end at 36-19.

The 2012 season was an extraordinary year for the Bridges and the Seawolves, despite ending the season with just 14 players on the roster, but it would be the incredible efforts of junior pitcher Samantha Lipperd that carried the team as the only pitcher on the roster for the final two months of the season.  Lipperd went on to set 12  pitching records in 2012, one of which also broke a Division II single-game record -- she fanned 26 batters in a 5-2, 11-inning game against Hawai'i Pacific on Mar. 31, 2012.  Lipperd finished the season with 396 strikeouts, the most in all of Division II that season, and would earn herself the second All-America honor of her career.

In 2011, the Seawolves (38-22, 23-13 CCAA) earned their second consecutive CCAA tournament title, thanks to a 1-0 no-hit victory by sophomore Samantha Lipperd over top-seeded UC San Diego in the championship game on May 1 (UCSD eventually went on to win the national championship).  Sonoma State reached the sub-regional championship game in Kaneohe, Hawai'i, but fell to Cal State San Bernardino, ending the season with a record of 38-22.

In her first season with the Seawolves in 2010, Bridges led SSU to the program's first CCAA tournament championship, propelled by a school-record 43-18 mark after finishing second in the CCAA regular season standings with a 24-12 mark.  Sonoma State earned a bid to host the NCAA Division II West Sub-Regional in Rohnert Park, but was eventually eliminated before reaching the sub-regional title game.

The Seawolves led the CCAA in nearly every offensive statistical category in 2010, including batting average, slugging percentage, on base percentage, runs scored, hits, runs batted in, home runs, total bases and hit by pitches.  SSU also shattered the school record for most home runs in a season with 52 -- the previous mark of 24 was set back in 2007.  Bridges' pitching staff also had a huge year, tossing two no-hitters and grabbing three conference Pitcher of the Week awards.

Prior coming to Sonoma State, Bridges was the head coach at Whittier College in 2008 and 2009.  She led the Poets to unprecedented levels of success, including the program's first ever conference tournament appearance in 2009.  Her two-year record at Whittier was 45-35 and the squad's 24 wins in '09 were the most for the program since 1987.