Augie Softball
Head Coach

Gretta Melsted
Head Coach

Expectations were high for Augustana softball in 2011, and Gretta Melsted’s Vikings delivered.

Augustana posted a 50-11 record and was ranked 13th in the final National Fastpitch Coaches Association top-25 poll. The Vikings were ranked as high as eighth during the season, and the 50 wins were the most since the 2000 team went 58-12.

Melsted guided the Vikings to their second consecutive Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship and their first tournament crown. The Vikings hosted both the Central 1 Region and Super Regional tournaments.

The Vikings went 22-3 on the way to the NSIC regular season title. Jenny Brown, Traci Fransen, and Ashley Meyer were first-team all-conference picks, while Therea McMahon, Lindsay Spanton, Elizabeth Murray, and Kelsey Kalkman were second-team selections. With the exception of Fransen, all return in 2012.

Fransen, Augustana’s career home run leader (35), was chosen to the Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-America third team. Brown, who logged a team-high 86 hits, received honorable mention recognition on the Daktronics All-America team. They are the first All-America selections to play for Melsted since she was appointed head coach in the summer of 2006.

Five Vikings were named to the 2011 Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-Central Region team, and four were included on the Daktronics All-Central Region squad. And for the third consecutive year, Melsted was named NSIC Coach of the Year.

Melsted has compiled an impressive 65-11 record in three seasons of NSIC competition, and is 166-105 overall in her five seasons as head coach.

Melsted’s 2009 team posted just one win in the first 12 games before recording one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the program’s illustrious history with 24 victories in the final 33 outings. Included was a perfect 16-0 run at Bowden Field.

In 2010, the Vikings climbed as high as No. 12 in the NFCA Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Vikings won the NSIC regular-season crown, and Meyer, a right-handed pitcher, was chosen conference Rookie of the Year. Augustana lost in the finals of the Central Region Tournament to finish the season with a 46-14 record.

A native of Albert Lea, Minn., Melsted was the head softball coach at Culver-Stockton in Canton, Mo., for three seasons before accepting the Augustana appointment. She twice took the Wildcats to appearances in the NAIA Region 5 Tournament, finishing third in 2004. That year CSS won the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament following a fourth-place finish in regular-season competition. Her Wildcats posted third-place finishes in regular-season conference action in 2005 and 2006.

Melsted was an assistant coach for softball and women’s basketball at William Woods in Fulton, Mo., for two years. She has also served as an assistant softball coach at Carleton (Minn.), assistant boys’ basketball coach at Robbinsdale Cooper High School in New Hope, Minn., and assistant softball coach at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School in Plymouth, Minn.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Carleton and a master’s in education administration from William Woods. She played basketball and softball at Carleton and holds the school record for runs scored in a season (36 in 1997). She was a two-time recipient of the Ele Hanson Award, one of two athletic honors presented annually to female student-athletes at Carleton.

Melsted and Dan Van Schepen were married in August 2010.