Concordia Irvine Athletics

Crystal Rosenthal was promoted to Vice President of Athletics in the summer of 2024. She was named CUI Athletics Director in June 2020 after working as the interim AD for a few months.  She has served as the Concordia University Irvine head softball coach since 2009 and continues to serve in both roles during the 2025-26 school year. 

Rosenthal holds the most wins out of any CUI head coach in the school's history and the CUI alum earned career win No. 700 early in the 2025 season.  She enters the 2026 campaign with an overall record of 734-197-2. The Golden Eagles have won nearly 80 percent of their games during her and associate coach Rose Imbriano's tenure.

CUI softball has won the first three PacWest Conference Tournaments and made the NCAA DII West Regional every season since 2018. In 2025, outfielder Kayla Rodgers became the school's first CSC Academic All-American since 2017 after a stellar season that saw her also named PacWest Newcomer of the Year.

In 2024, the Golden Eagles finished in first place in the PacWest for the sixth straight season. CUI also repeated as PacWest Tournament Champions and earned an auto-bid into the NCAA DII West Regional. This marked the sixth straight year that Rosenthal led the Golden Eagles into the regional playoffs. Cortney Koelmans became an All-American and was PacWest Pitcher of the Year, senior Rylie Rohr broke the school record for career home runs, and perennial All-Conference hitter Missy Nemeth was voted the PacWest Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

The 2023 team led all of NCAA DII with a 1.11 team ERA and advanced to the NCAA DII Super Regional for the second time in program history.  CUI won 48 games and was led in the circle by NFCA Second Team All-American pitcher Katlin Entrup and PacWest Newcomer of the Year Daniela Alvarez. Together that duo anchored a pitching staff that racked up a whopping 25 shutouts.

Rosenthal secured career win No. 600 in 2022. Concordia won its third PacWest Conference title that year and made history by putting together an incredible 36-game winning streak to start the season. That winning streak ranks as the ninth-longest of all-time in NCAA DII softball history.  As part of their impressive run, Concordia went 5-0 at both the second Concordia Kickoff Classic and the Desert Stinger to emerge as tournament champions at both locations.  CUI was also perched in the Top 2 of the NFCA DII rankings for six consecutive weeks, including reaching the No. 1 spot for the second time in the school's NCAA DII era.  Four starting pitchers impressively finished with an earned run average of 1.60 or less, and CUI finished second out of all NCAA DII programs with a 1.34 team ERA.

CUI has hosted the NCAA DII West Regional four times in five years (Note: there was no tourney in 2020).  Including the shortened 2021 season, where CUI won the SoCal Pod of the PacWest, the Eagles have finished atop the conference standings in five consecutive seasons.

The softball team secured Rosenthal's career win No. 500 on April 17, 2019 in a 4-0 road win at Academy of Art.  Former pitcher Callie Nunes helped deliver the milestone for Rosenthal by pitching a no-hitter in that victory.

In addition to helping steer CUI Athletics through the most unorthodox school year in the university's history, Rosenthal and her coaching staff directed the 2021 CUI softball team to a 34-13 record and a third appearance in the NCAA DII West Regional Tournament. 

In the shortened 2020 regular season that was halted abruptly due to the COVID-19 outbreak, CUI proudly hosted the Concordia Kickoff Classic for the first time, welcoming nine other schools to Irvine for a three-day tournament that featured 25 games off-campus at Great Park. CUI went 4-1 in the tourney, plus Nunes and third baseman Amanda Gjertsen were both named to the Concordia Kickoff Classic All-Tournament Team. Nunes was also named PacWest Pitcher of the Week three times in a span of two months, Sydney Sprinkle was tabbed as PacWest Player of the Week and new left-handed pitcher Rae Flores garnered PacWest Freshman of the Week honors. Along with sophomore standout Erika Morris and senior right-hander Jordan Quinn, all four CUI pitchers impressively finished the shortened 2020 season with an earned run average of 2.13 or less.

In 2019 under her leadership, the Eagles earned the school's first No. 1 ranking in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) DII poll.  CUI was ranked in the top 15 the entire season and the Eagles clinched back-to-back PacWest Conference Championships after sweeping Biola on April 25.  Rosenthal's Eagles finished the 2019 regular season 44-6 overall with a 30-3 PacWest record. The 30 wins in league play were the second-most in PacWest history. Rosenthal also navigated the Eagles to 18 consecutive road wins over PacWest opponents down the stretch to clinch their second straight appearance in the D2 West Regional. Ultimately, CUI advanced to the D2 West Super Regional for the first time in school history and finished its historic season 47-8 overall.

Rosenthal elevated the softball program to new heights in 2018 when the Eagles earned their first PacWest Championship title and hosted the NCAA DII West Regionals. The team went 46-14 overall and 26-6 in conference and racked up five All-PacWest honorees. She coached pitching phenom Callie Nunes who earned PacWest Pitcher and Freshman of the Year honors and received national recognition as the Schutt Sports/NFCA DII National Freshman of the Year. Nunes was also a Top 10 Finalist for NFCA DII National Player of the Year.

During the 2017 season, the Eagles finished 22-10 in the PacWest for a fourth place finish in the conference. Concordia had four All-PacWest selections and Ryann Ferguson was named PacWest Softball Scholar Athlete of the Year.  Ferguson also received CoSIDA All-Region and All-American honors. Rosenthal also reached a career milestone, hitting 400 career wins against Vanguard University on March 18 with a 2-1 victory. 

In 2016, Rosenthal led CUI to a 42-13 record, fourth place finish, and what would have likely have been a regional selection if CUI was eligible.  She tutored PacWest Pitcher of the Year Grayson Harvey and All-PacWest and Academic All-American Ryann Ferguson. 

She became the all-time winningest coach in program history in 2015 when she led the Eagles to 50 wins for the fourth consecutive year. Her 2015 squad also set a school record with 94 home runs.

In 2013, she led the Eagles to the program’s first NAIA National Championship as the Green and Gold posted a 52-3 overall record.  Rosenthal was voted NAIA and Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) Coach of the Year, becoming the first Concordia softball coach to earn the national award.  Her 2013 pitching staff set school records in ERA (0.63) and strikeouts (445). That season the Eagles went 16-0 in the GSAC, marking the first time CUI softball had gone undefeated in conference play.

She has won four consecutive GSAC Regular-Season Championships, two GSAC/Cal-Pac Tournament Championships, two GSAC Tournament Championships, an NAIA National Championship and Opening Round Championship, been voted NAIA Coach of the Year, and also won four GSAC Coach of the Year honors four times in a row.  In addition to coaching Nunes - who has been named a D2CCA, NFCA & FPN All-American in each of her first two seasons - Rosenthal has coached seven NAIA All-Americans, four GSAC Player and two Pitcher of the Year winners, and 37 All-Conference selections.

Rosenthal's 2012 group won a program-record 56 games against 4 losses, including a mark of 15-1 in GSAC play.  Along the way they won a NAIA softball-record 44-straight games and broke school records in wins, runs scored (482), batting average (.382), hits (606), doubles (105), triples (21), home runs (84), RBI (430), and stolen bases (126). The Eagles pitching staff set a season record in strikeouts (430). Concordia finished the season ranked No. 6 in the NAIA Polls, and spent six weeks as No. 1 for the first time in program history.  The Eagles went on to win the second GSAC Championship in program history and first in 20 years. 

Rosenthal coached four NAIA All-Americans in 2012 in Katie Carson, Katie Cotta, Amanda Fama and Jenna Jorgenson. Katie Carson was named the Capital One Academic All-American of the Year.  In 2013 she coached three NAIA All-Americans including Katie Cotta, Shainna Groom, and Jasmin Dresser.  Cotta was selected NAIA Pitcher of the Year.

She led her team to the NAIA World Series in four of her first six years. She also won at least 40 games in nine of her first ten seasons and eclipsed the 50-win total on four occasions. Nobody prior to her arrival had won 50 games in a season.

Rosenthal was promoted to her current post prior to the 2009 season after serving as an Eagles assistant coach for seven years. Before coaching at Concordia, Rosenthal spent time as the varsity assistant coach at Calvary Chapel High School in Costa Mesa. She also served as head coach for the California Cruisers for 10 years, leading up to 2008.

A four-year player at Concordia, Rosenthal was a team captain for two seasons. She ranks among the top ten in 15 categories for single-season and career marks. Rosenthal posted 151 hits, including 21 doubles and five triples and knocked in 81 runs.

She was inducted into the Concordia Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008 for her career performance on the diamond.

Rosenthal prepped at Valley Christian High School in Bellflower, earning All-CIF and All-State honors as a junior and senior. She was named to the All-Olympic League team all four seasons.

Rosenthal earned her bachelor's in history and political science from Concordia, graduating in 2000, and earned her master's in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia in 2006. From September 2012 to March 2020, Rosenthal also served as senior women's administrator for CUI Athletics and in 2019, she also took over the role of deputy Title IX coordinator for the 2019-20 school year.