Riverside—Following a national search, UC Riverside Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tamica Smith Jones announced today the hiring of Nikki Palmer as the Highlanders' new head softball coach.
A Temecula, California native and graduate of nearby UC San Diego, Palmer comes to UC Riverside following three seasons as the head coach at Utah Valley. She made history during her first season at the helm of the Wolverines, leading them to the WAC Tournament Championship, and Utah Valley's first postseason berth for any sport in the school's NCAA era.
"We are excited to have Coach Palmer return to Southern California, and join the Highlanders as our new head softball coach," said Smith Jones. "Coach Linda Garza did a tremendous job for us over the past four years, raising the profile of the softball program, and Coach Palmer is poised to take the program to even loftier heights.
"I would like to thank Executive Associate Athletics Director Janet Lucas and the rest of the search committee for the time and due diligence they put into the hiring process. They have found, in Coach Palmer, one of the rising stars in the collegiate softball coaching ranks, and somebody who genuinely wants to call Riverside her home.
"I know that our team, our fans, and the Riverside community are going to love watching our softball team compete over the coming years, as the Highlanders continue to climb the Big West Conference standings."
"I'm very grateful to the administration at Utah Valley, as well as my assistant coaches and players, for providing me with such an awesome experience over the last three years. It was certainly a memorable one, but I am excited and humbled by the opportunity to come back to the Inland Empire and become a part of what the Highlanders are building.
"I'm also grateful to Tamica and Janet for the time they invested in the process. The Softball Team at UC Riverside has shown so much growth over the past several years, setting records and new standards of excellence, and I wanted to be a part of that next chapter. I can't wait to get down to Riverside and get started."
In addition to making the NCAA Tournament, the 2014 Wolverines also set a new program record for home runs hit in a season, and Palmer's aggressiveness on the base paths showed as her team compiled an .820 stolen base percentage—the second highest single season mark in school history.
In her second season with Utah Valley (2015), Palmer continued to excel as she guided the Wolverines to their first-ever win over a nationally ranked opponent by shutting out No. 25 Cal State Fullerton, 9-0. The Wolverines also picked up wins over Wisconsin and Indiana (Big Ten), Texas Tech (Big 12), Virginia (ACC), UConn (American Athletic Conference), and New Mexico (Mountain West), as well as no-hitting neighboring rival BYU of the West Coast Conference.
This past year, Palmer and the Wolverines broke school records for stolen base percentage and walks, while snuffing out the opposition running game at a record pace by throwing out the most would-be base stealers, and recording the most pick offs in program history, The 2016 team also shined in the classroom as it put up one of the highest term GPA's in program history with a 3.30 spring semester GPA as well as having 13 student-athletes named Academic All-WAC.
Prior to joining the Wolverines, Palmer was an assistant coach at Weber State for two seasons, and an assistant at Utah State for one year. In 2012, her first with WSU, she helped lead the Wildcats to a tie for second place in the Mountain Division of the Pacific Coast Softball Conference—one the best seasons in program history.
With WSU, Palmer was directly responsible for developing the Wildcat offense, and had a hand in the development of 2012's PCSC Mountain Division Player of the Year, Lyndsey Minnich, who batted .453/.613/.830 in conference play.
Prior to her time in Logan, Palmer spent two years with San Francisco State, and another with her alma mater at UC San Diego, helping the Tritons reach the West Regional of the 2008 NCAA Division II tournament.
Palmer played four seasons at UCSD, starting in 146 of the 158 games in which she appeared during her career, playing primarily at catcher. She graduated in 2007 with a degree in sociology, and earned a master's degree from National University in 2010.
