Florida Vibe Selects Rachel Roupe
5/20/2025 8:30:00 PM | Softball
The Florida Vibe professional softball team has selected Liberty outfielder Rachel Roupe to play pro softball with their team, beginning this June.
The Vibe, a professional fastpitch team based out of Bradenton, Fla., enters its fourth season. Formed in 2021, the Vibe will open its 2025 season in the Top Gun Series in Kansas City, Mo., June 12-14. The team will compete against the New York Rise, Texas Smoke and Oklahoma City Spark.Â
Current Liberty Head Coach Dot Richardson will serve as the Vibe's head coach beginning this year, one of many Liberty connections on the team. Former Liberty assistant coach Bob Pinto will serve as an assistant coach with the Vibe this season.
Two former Liberty softball players are currently on the Florida Vibe roster. Emily Kirby enters her fourth season with the Vibe, while Kara Canetto returns for her third season after serving as one of the team's batting leaders each of the last two years. Additionally, first-year Vibe player Emma Ritter, a two-time All-American for Virginia Tech, serves on Coach Richardson's staff at Liberty this season.
Earlier today, Roupe was named to the Softball America All-America Team. She was also named the 2025 CUSA Player of the Year while also appearing on the CUSA All-Conference first team, NFCA All-Mid-Atlantic Region first team and CUSA All-Academic Team.
A four-time all-conference outfielder, 2025 CUSA Player of the Year Rachel Roupe has saved her best season for last. Roupe bats .392 for the season while leading all CUSA players with 18 doubles, 23 homers and 73 RBI. She is tied for seventh in NCAA Division I softball in homers (23), 11th in RBI (73), sixth in total bases (163) and 16th in doubles (18). In conference play, Roupe led all CUSA hitters in batting average (.486), slugging percentage (1.149), OPS (1.745), runs (27), home runs (13) and RBI (39). Last Monday, Roupe became the first player to be named CUSA Softball Player of the Week five times in a single season.
Roupe helped the Lady Flames make history by earning their first-ever Super Regional berth. Liberty won two out of three games against No. 1 Texas A&M, and her three-run homer in the sixth inning of Sunday's winner-take-all final proved to be the difference. In two games against the top-ranked Aggies on Sunday, Roupe went a combined 5-for-9 with three homers, nine RBI and three runs scored.
The Lady Flames (50-13) will head to Eugene, Ore., to take on No. 16 national seed Oregon in the Eugene Super Regional, Friday through Sunday. The winner of the three-game series will advance to the Women's College World Series, held May 30 through June 6 in Oklahoma City, Okla. Friday's game will air on ESPNU at 10 p.m. ET, with Saturday's contest starting at 7 p.m. ET on either ESPN or ESPN2.
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