RUSTON, La. – Following its historic run to a pair of Conference USA titles and an NCAA Regional appearance, Louisiana Tech's coaching staff was named the NFCA Mideast Region Coaching Staff of the Year along with Southeast Missouri State.

Head coach Mark Montgomery, Associate Head Coach Emerald Doria, assistant coach Bianca Duran, volunteer assistant coach Mike Forsythe and graduate manager Brooke Morris took home the prestigious honor after guiding the Lady Techsters to 45 wins.

LA Tech joined SEMO and James Madison (Northeast Region) as the only non-Power 5 recipients of the award out of 10 separate regions. Oklahoma (Central), Minnesota (Great Lakes), Virginia Tech (Mid-Atlantic), Oklahoma State (Midwest), Washington (Pacific), Alabama (South), Florida (Southeast), and UCLA (West) were the other recipients.

"This honor means so much to me because this one recognizes our entire staff," said Montgomery, who led Tech to the program's first ever regular season conference title and the second C-USA Tournament title in the last three seasons. "It was an incredible season and I owe so much to my assistant coaches. It was truly a team effort.

"But as a staff, we owe a lot to our players too. They bought in to what we were teaching and they came together. They overcame so much adversity and would never allow anything to stand in the way of them reaching their goals. It will be a team and a season that I think we will all remember for a long time."

Tech overcame numerous injuries throughout the season which saw Montgomery and Co. play only eight games with their entire roster during the 61-game season. The Lady Techsters 45 wins were the second most in program history and the 19 regular season league victories were the most.

Tech overcame the emotions of the April 25 EF3 tornado that demolished its facility while ravaging the Ruston community and University campus. Two days later, the Lady Techsters swept a three-game series against then league-leading WKU, outscoring the Hilltoppers 19-2 at the ULM Softball Complex. Tech took two of three the following weekend at Southern Miss to claim a share of the C-USA regular season title.

The Lady Techsters then won three straight games in three days in Birmingham to capture the C-USA Tournament title, and earn the program's 11^th appearance in an NCAA Regional. Tech defeated Monmouth 1-0 before falling to No. 15 Texas Tech 3-1 in an elimination game.

Tech saw a program record seven players earned all-conference honors, including Player of the Year Jazlyn Crowder and Freshman of the Year Lindsay Edwards. Tech saw a program record five players earned all-region honors and eight players earn all-state honors.

Montgomery was named C-USA Co-Coach of the Year and LSWA State Co-Coach of the Year.

The Lady Techsters also sported a team cumulative grade point average of 3.456 this year.