Bradley University

1501 West Bradley Ave. Peoria, IL 61625

Division 1 Illinois Midwest

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Coaches

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Sarah Willis

After leading Bowling Green State to postseason play for the first time in 18 seasons in 2022, former Texas Tech star pitcher Sarah Willis was named the 11th head coach in Bradley Softball history in June 2022 and is in her first year guiding the Braves.

In her seventh season at Bowling Green in 2022, Willis led the Falcons to a 34-21 (.618) overall record, which included a 16-11 (.593) mark in the Mid-American Conference and a run to the final nine of the 2022 National Invitational Softball Championship last month in Fort Collins, CO. Including a 74-54 (.578) ledger in her last three seasons at Bowling Green, Willis owns a 162-177 (.478) overall record.

Willis graduated from Texas Tech in 2008 with her degree in psychology and the three-time Academic All-Big 12 Conference first-team selection earned her master’s degree in sport and exercise science from Texas Tech in 2010. After beginning her coaching career as a student assistant at Texas Tech in 2008, Willis enjoyed her first full-time coaching position at Princeton from 2010-12.

After working as an assistant for the North Carolina Diamonds professional club during the summer of 2012, Willis returned to the college game as an assistant at Southeast Missouri State from 2012-14, then served as pitching/catching coach at Dayton in 2014-15, before taking over the Bowling Green program for the 2015-16 campaign.

In her lone season at Dayton, Willis helped the Flyers to their first Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season championship and program records for both overall wins (39-14) and league victories (20-2). The 2015 Dayton pitching staff posted a 2.31 earned run average, while recording 12 shutouts and a .218 opponent batting average.

Willis has twice mentored a conference Pitcher of the Year – Dayton’s Kayla English earned the A-10 honor in 2015, while sophomore Payton Gottshall earned the Mid-American Conference honor in 2022 after going 27-13 with a 1.66 ERA. Gottshall tossed a pair of perfect games in 2022 – April 10 against Buffalo, striking out nine in 7.0 innings after fanning 23 batters in 14.0 innings the day before; and March 5 against Green Bay by striking out all 15 batters she faced in the 5-inning victory.

Willis began her collegiate playing career at the University of Washington in 2004, before following head coach Teresa Wilson to Texas Tech, where she appeared in 116 games from 2005-08, collecting 22 wins and 298 strikeouts in 341.0 career innings pitched. Wills remains fifth in Texas Tech history with 6.18 career strikeouts per 7 innings, seventh in appearances and eighth in innings pitched. Her 8-2 won-loss record as a redshirt freshman in 2005 also remains the second-best single-season winning percentage (.800) in Texas Tech history.

The former Sarah Losleben, Willis is married to Chillicothe, IL native Joe Willis and the couple has two daughters, Zoey (5) and Payton (3).

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Caitlin Gambone

Caitlin Gambone joins her sister Lauren on the Bradley Softball coaching staff with the duo arriving on The Hilltop in August 2022.

Moving to Peoria after a four-year stint as an Assistant Coach at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, Ohio, Caitlin is no stranger to Bradley Head Coach Sarah Willis; with Gambone squaring off against Bowing Green during her time as a student-athlete at Mid-American Conference foe Akron.

Gambone, who will serve as Bradley’s hitting coach, helped Ohio Dominican to a 53-17 record in the Great Midwest Conference during her three seasons in Columbus (2019, 2021 & 2022). In fact, the Panthers claimed a regular-season league title in her first season (2019) and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2021 and 2022 after winning the 2021 and 2022 Great Midwest Conference Tournament.

Overall, Gambone mentored three NFCA All-Region performers, five first-team all-conference selections and a total of 17 all-league honorees in her three seasons as an assistant coach at Ohio Dominican. In addition, Ohio Dominican produced both the Great Midwest Pitcher and Freshman of the Year in 2022.

Caitlin graduated from Akron in 2018 with a degree in marketing management after a four-year career in which she started 197 of her 207 career games. She ranks among the top 10 in Zips’ history in career games played, sacrifices and assists.

Gambone first ventured into coaching with the Ohio Lasers travel team (2014-18) and Canton Spikes Baseball (2017). She has also served as an instructor at Diamond Dreams Sports Academy.

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Lauren Gambone

Canton, Ohio, native Lauren Gambone is in her first year with Bradley Softball as an Assistant Coach after she and her sister Caitlin joined the Braves in August 2022.

No stranger to Bradley Softball Head Coach Sarah Willis, Gambone was an assistant coach under Willis at Bowling Green during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 campaigns. Lauren has spent the past three years as a private instructor at D-BAT North Canton in North Canton, Ohio, where she focused on individual and group training.

While at Bowling Green, Gambone helped the Falcons to their first .500 or better overall record in five years with the 2018 campaign including the team’s second-best batting average in program history. In addition, Bowling Green posted its best league finish since 2012 in that same 2018 season.

Gambone has also had two stints as an assistant coach with the Ohio Lasers travel team from 2013-15, along with from 2019 through 2022.

Lauren graduated in May 2016 from Buffalo with a degree in sociology and was a two-year letterwinner for the Bulls after transferring for her junior season from Lamar. She earned MAC All-Academic honors both seasons at Buffalo, in addition to landing on the Southland Conference Honor Roll both of her seasons at Lamar.