The Florida State softball program enters the 2025 NCAA tournament with justifiably high expectations.
Last week, the Seminoles wrapped up the regular season with a 46-9 mark and an ACC regular-season championship. They earned entry to the NCAA tournament for the 25th consecutive season that the event has been held and received the No. 5 national seed, allowing them to host a regional. Now, the program will aim to make its sixth Women’s College World Series since 2014 and second NCAA title.
The first obstacle in its way to those goals is a largely unfamiliar foe for Florida State.
The Seminoles’ first NCAA tournament game in the Tallahassee Regional will come Friday against Robert Morris, the Horizon League champion. Florida State has six all-time meetings with the Colonials, but none since 2004, when the Seminoles came away with a 9-1 victory.
Given that relative lack of history, the matchup with Robert Morris presents an opportunity for Florida State fans to learn a little more about the school.
As coach Lonni Alameda’s team prepares to begin its postseason, here’s a closer look at Robert Morris:
Where is Robert Morris?
Robert Morris University is located in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, about 15 miles northwest of downtown Pittsburgh.
The town, which has almost 30,000 residents, is the birthplace of Arkansas men’s basketball coach John Calipari and Brooklyn Nets forward Cam Johnson.
Since 2020, most of the school’s teams have played in the Horizon League, which it joined after about 30 years in the Northeast Conference.
With an undergraduate enrollment of roughly 3,800, Robert Morris is athletically best known for its men’s basketball program, which has played in the NCAA Tournament four times since 2009. The Colonials made the NCAA Tournament this past season, where it led No. 2 seed Alabama in the second half before losing 90-81. Perhaps most famously, Robert Morris hosted and defeated Calipari and Kentucky in the first round of the NIT in 2013.
The Colonials’ football team plays at the FCS level and is led by Florida native Bernard Clark, who was a two-time national champion at Miami in the late 1980s.
Robert Morris’ most notable alumni include former Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert, singer Phyllis Hyman, former Rep. William J. Coyne and rapper Wale, the last of whom played for the school’s football team before transferring to Virginia State.
Who was Robert Morris?
The Pennsylvania school is named after Robert Morris, an American politician and investor who became known as “the Financier of the American Revolution.”
A “Founding Father,” Morris was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress and served six years as a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. His name is on some of the most important documents in American history, as he provided signatures for the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution.
His vast sums of money eventually vanished and he spent some of the final years of his life in debtors’ prison.
Robert Morris softball record
The Colonials enter the 2025 NCAA tournament with a 30-16 record, including a 26-7 mark since March 14. They’re 1-0 against ACC teams this season, having defeated Pitt 7-1 on April 1.
Robert Morris is 1-5 all-time against Florida State, with all the games occurring between 1992 and 2004. The Colonials’ lone victory against the Seminoles came in 1994, a 1-0 win.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Where is Robert Morris? Meet Florida State softball’s first NCAA tournament opponent
Reporting by Craig Meyer, USA TODAY NETWORK / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
