NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - A familiar face has returned to the Christopher Newport University softball program. Savannah Couch, who played for two seasons for the Captains and Head Coach Keith Parr as a student-athlete, has been named Assistant Softball Coach.

A native of Colonial Heights, Va., Couch played for the Captains in 2017 and 2018, and helped lead the squad to back-to-back conference titles. She was named second team all-conference in the Capital Athletic Conference following her senior season. Couch transferred to Christopher Newport from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, TN., where she played her first two seasons.  

Couch started all 47 games as a senior in 2018 with the Captains, hitting .268 with 31 runs scored and 30 hits as the squad recorded a 37-10 overall record and a 13-1 mark in the Capital Athletic Conference, and also captured a conference championship. She saw action in a dozen games in her junior campaign in 2017, starting four times and posting a .278 average on a 34-10 team that also went 13-1 in league play en route to the NCAA Tournament.

"I strongly feel Savannah is the right fit and is a complete package with the passion she brings for this university and our players," Head Coach Keith Parr said. "Her softball knowledge is well beyond her years and that of a veteran coach. She is a true student of the game and is very versatile with the ability to instruct in all aspects and positional play. The addition of Savannah to our tremendous coaching staff will help elevate it to another level with what we do on and off the field."

Couch graduated from Christopher Newport in December of 2018 with a bachelor of arts degree in communications, and is currently working on her master of science degree in athletic leadership. She has seven years of travel softball coaching experience in the Richmond area, and spent two years as the softball graduate assistant coach at Castleton University in Vermont before accepting the position on the Captains staff. The announcement completes Parr's bench for the upcoming season, as Couch joins assistant coaches Wayne Vick, Mary Kennedy, and Todd Winegrad.

Christopher Newport is ranked third in the nation in the pre-season coaches poll from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA). The Captains open the 2021 season on Saturday with a doubleheader at Virginia Wesleyan, and then open the home schedule on Sunday with a twin bill vs. Randolph.