Wright State University Athletics

Laura Matthews was named the 12^th head softball coach in Wright State softball program history in the fall of 2017 after serving five years in a similar position at nearby Wittenberg University.
 
Through the shortened 2020 campaign, Matthews has won 50 games with the Raiders, and has 178 victories over her collegiate head coaching career between Wright State and Wittenberg.
 
In her short time with the Raiders, Matthews has seen Ashley Sharp named the 2018 Horizon League Pitcher of the Year, along with three first team all-conference honorees (Sharp, Honnah Susor – 2018; Raidyn Johnson – 2019), two second team all-conference selections (Madison Hartman, Rebekah Lenos – 2019) and a pair of all-newcomer honors (Madison Whitaker – 2018; Hartman – 2019).
 
The shortened 2020 season meant that Wright State ended up playing all 18 of its contests on the road away from home, compiling a 7-11 overall record while going 6-8 in true neutral site games, including wins over Nebraska and New Mexico State in the Arizona State Invitational in what turned out to be their final games of the year.
 
Matthews led the Raiders to 22 wins in 2019, with non-conference victories over the likes of Valpo, St. Louis, Western Kentucky, Bowling Green and Dayton.
 
In her first season in 2018, Wright State posted 21 total wins, including 12 victories in the Horizon League, along with non-conference wins over Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Furman, the College of Charleston and Winthrop. Wright State earned the No. 4 seed in the Horizon League tournament and tallied wins over Northern Kentucky and Youngstown State.
 
Matthews won 128 games at Wittenberg in five seasons, finishing first or second in each season in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) with a regular season title in 2017 and a trip to the NCAA Division III tournament in 2016. Named the NCAC Coach of the Year in 2017, Matthews saw seven Tigers recognized as All-Region, five players named league Newcomers of the Year and two pitchers earn Pitchers of the Year honors as part of 26 total all-league selections and a CoSIDA Academic All American honoree.
 
Prior to Wittenberg, Matthews served as an assistant for four years at NCAA Division III member Lake Forest College. Matthews’ pitching staff dropped it team earned run average by 0.70 runs per game in 2012 as Lake Forest was ranked 24th nationally during the season.
 
A 2008 graduate of the University of Dayton, Matthews graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management and was a four-year starter at catcher at Dayton. She capped her career with a second-team ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America Softball Team honor in 2008. That season, she posted career-bests in hits (44), runs (37), doubles (8), runners caught stealing (16) and a team-best .462 on-base percentage while starting all 51 games behind the plate for the Flyers.


 

Laura Matthews Year-by-Year
Season	School	Overall	Conf.
2013	Wittenberg	23-13	10-6
2014	Wittenberg	24-11	11-5
2015	Wittenberg	20-17	11-5
2016	Wittenberg	32-9-1	13-3
2017	Wittenberg	29-7	15-1
5-year Total		128-57-1	32-16
2018	Wright State	21-32	10-8
2019	Wright State	22-33	9-15
2020*	Wright State	7-11	0-0
WSU Total		50-76	19-23
Overall Totals		178-133-1	51-39