Former RIT standout first baseman Rebecca Stryker (previously May) begins her 13th season as head coach of the Tigers softball program in 2022. 

The winningest coach in program history with 148 victories to date, Stryker surpassed Jack Carpenter for first place during the 2019 campaign as Olivia Doret and Erin Guinan earned All-Liberty League Plaudits and nine players were selected to the Liberty League All-Academic Team.

The Tigers won 22 games in 2017 and advanced to the Liberty League Tournament for the second straight year. RIT won its first postseason game as a Liberty League member and finished second in the regular season standings. Freshman Erin Guinan was named the Liberty League Rookie of the Year and earned National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Region First Team honors.
 
Stryker was voted the 2016 Liberty League Coach of the Year after leading the Tigers to their first Liberty League Tournament appearance since first joining the conference in 2012. Eight players earned All-Liberty League accolades, including Sierra Valentine, who was named Pitcher of the Year, and Danielle Hotz, the Rookie of the Year.

Stryker and her squad are great representatives of the university in the community, holding several fundraising initiatives for various causes. In 2015, Sarah Wolcott was RIT’s Mark Ellingson Award Winner for Academic Excellence. Seven different players have earned CoSIDA Academic All-Region honors, including Amanda Cook, an Academic All-America selection in 2016.
 
Since moving to the Liberty League in 2012, Stryker has had 19 players earn all-league accolades. while seven others garnered All-Empire 8 accolades in her first two seasons at RIT.

In 2011, RIT finished one run shy of making their second NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, while its 24 wins were the most since 2003. The Tigers advanced to the Empire 8 Championship game and placed seven players on the all-conference team, highlighted by Pitcher of the Year Brittany Kemp. In 2012, RIT’s first year as a member of the Liberty League, the Tigers set a program record with 22 home runs.

Before coming back to RIT, Stryker was an assistant softball coach at Nazareth College from 2007-2009 where she helped start the program.

Stryker graduated from RIT in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental management technology and was a four-year starter for the Tigers, including two stints as captain in 2001 and 2002.

Stryker played in 127 career games, primarily at first base, posting a .262 career average. She batted .296 with 17 runs scored with two home runs, seven doubles, and nine RBI in 2002, earning First-Team All-Empire 8 honors.

After graduation, Stryker was an assistant coach at RIT from 2003 through 2005, helping the Tigers to a 72-42-2 record and a trip to the Empire 8 Tournament in 2005.

A Rochester native, Styrker attended Greece Athena High School.  She lives in Lima with her husband Jason, and sons, Jacob, and Nolan.