After playing her part during a league championship run as a freshman in high school, Pioneer alumna Lauren Bryson repeated the feat seven years later as a senior in college, helping the Santa Clara softball program win its first-ever West Coast Conference championship in school history.

“My first two years, we were middle to bottom of the pack, but by my junior year, we were just one game away from winning a conference championship, and I think it left a sour taste in our mouths,” Bryson, a 2021 Pioneer High School graduate, recalled. “During my senior year, this past year, it just felt like we now knew what it would take to get there so the school’s first WCC championship and making its first-ever regional appearance was a truly rewarding and surreal experience.”

Bryson verbally committed to play softball at Santa Clara late in 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite playing in only five games as a junior, Bryson still managed to get the attention of various D1 softball programs due to her impressive stints with her travel ball squad.

As a senior in high school, Bryson would go on to lead the Patriots in batting average, hits, runs, RBI, doubles, and home runs before graduating in 2021.

During her first few seasons at Santa Clara, Bryson played sparingly but was entrusted with a larger role in her senior year. In her first start of the season against St. Louis University on Feb. 7 during the Paradise Classic in Manoa, Hawaii, Bryson went 2-2 with an RBI and two walks.

A day later, against the same team, she’d hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to send the Broncos into the tournament championship.

Bryson went on to start 39 games for the Broncos this past season, leading the team in putouts from first base, and amassing a fielding percentage of. 978. At the plate, she hit .260, with 12 runs scored, 26 hits, 5 doubles, 2 home runs, and 23 RBI.

“I really took advantage of my opportunities,” Bryson said. “I think just working really hard, and not forgetting the work I put in all four years, prepared me. I knew my chance was coming, and I had to take advantage of it when it came.”

The Broncos would conclude their WCC championship-winning season with a 32-22 overall record, going 11-4 in conference and tied atop the standings with St. Mary’s.

During the regular season, the Broncos won the season series against the defending champion St. Mary’s, taking two out of three games. The wins included a 3-0 nine-inning game on April 18 and an 11-5 victory in the second game of a doubleheader on April 19. The lone loss was a 1-0 defeat in the first game of the doubleheader.

“I think going into it, we knew it was a big series,” Bryson recalled. “They were champs the year before. We had actually taken all three games from them during my junior year, but still fell one game short of being conference champions. The week leading up, there was a lot of prep. We knew if we could score runs off their pitching, we would win. I think the series was a huge turning point and confidence boost for us and the rest of our season.”

Following the series, the Broncos went on to finish the conference season with a 4-2 record, winning series against Loyola Marymount University and Oregon State University before becoming champions.

Bryson mentions that the team’s new hitting coach, Maddi Hackbarth, played a huge role during her first season there.

“I think our new hitting coach played a huge role in our success,” Bryson said. “Our hitting numbers increased from last year and her collegiate experience and positivity really played a big role in our success throughout the season and through conference play.”

The team’s dream season, however, came to an end in the NCAA Tucson Regional double-elimination tournament after losses to Arizona and then Grand Canyon University on May 16 and 17.

Against powerhouse Arizona, Byrson would knock in a RBI with a fourth inning single. Against Grand Canyon, Bryson ended her collegiate career with a third-inning solo home run.

“I felt a range of emotions,” Bryson said. “I think it’s every softball player’s dream to play in the College World Series. Going to a mid-major makes that a lot harder, but just going to regionals was so cool, I would have never expected it. Making as far as we did really was a dream come true. Ending your season in the postseason is rewarding, but when you are in it, you really want to win.

“It was just hard for me personally because it was my last time ever playing softball. But I think leaving the program better than when you found it is the most rewarding feeling you can have. The run really sets the team up next year, and I think they can go even further than they did this year with all the experience they gained.”

Bryson has opted to continue her education at Santa Clara this fall and pursue a Master’s in Business Administration. She hopes to remain close to the softball program, working the games.

In a year, her younger sister Marisa Bryson, an incoming senior at Pioneer, will be a mere 40-minute drive down the road playing softball at Stanford University after verbally committing this past November. Lauren mentions she is very excited to see her sister play.

“I think our recruiting processes were a lot different due to COVID, as she got to see the schools, but she did end up falling in love with Stanford,” Lauren said. “I’m stoked that she gets to play for a program like Stanford. I told her that once you get there, it’s going to be a grind, but it’s such a rewarding and awesome feeling to dedicate yourself to a program for four years and leave it better than you found it.

“I also tell her that softball is just a game, and you have to remember to have fun. There will be hard days, but at the end of the day, we get to play a game we all fell in love with, hitting off a tee when we were young.”