UTPB Athletics

Tiala Tagaloa is the longest tenured head coach in UT Permian Basin softball history since taking over in 2015. 

The Falcons faced a brutal schedule in 2021, playing 16 of their 40 games against ranked opponents.  The team won two of their final three games to end the year on a high note. Aracely Araiza made the LSC All-Conference Third Team and Sydney Bishop made the LSC All-Performance Team. During the season, senior April Arellano recorded her 100th career hit and became the seventh player in program history to reach that plateau.

The 2020 Falcons were on pace for the best season in program history before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Falcons finished with a .500 record for the first time in program history with a 15-15 record.  The team was just four wins short of breaking the program record with 24 games to go.

The team finished fourth in the country and led the Lone Star Conference with 237.  They also led the LSC with 39 doubles and nearly doubled the amount of home runs and triples over the 2019 season.  The Falcons were on pace to score 257 runs and shatter the record of 213. 

Pitching was a major key in the team’s 2020 turn around.  In the final game of the season, freshman Abby Cousins threw the first perfect game in program history against the University of the Southwest.  The staff tied for second in the LSC with six shutouts which ranked them 18^th in the country. 

The 185 runs in 2016 and 189 runs in 2017 are the two of the best offensive seasons in program history.  Those seasons also saw the team set a school record with 360 hits and 2017 saw 62 doubles, also the most in school history.  

Tagaloa came to UTPB after nine seasons as the assistant at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Tagaloa helped the Aggies set countless team records as well as outstanding individual performances with WAC Players of the Year in consecutive seasons, 2013 and 2014.

She graduated cum laude from Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida in 2005. The Brea, California native, earned Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) All-Academic Honors and helped the Wildcats to consecutive MEAC Championships, and NCAA regional appearances. As a student assistant coach at Bethune-Cookman in 2005, Tagaloa helped guide the Wildcats to another MEAC title, as well as an NCAA regional title as BCU outlasted Central Florida, South Florida and host Florida to advance to the Super Regionals against Texas.

Tagaloa transferred to Bethune-Cookman after a stellar junior college career at Midland College, where she earned NFCA All-America honors while leading her team to consecutive NJCAA World Series appearances. Tagaloa was the Midland College Offensive Player of the Year twice and led her team in RBI, doubles and home runs. 

She graduated in 2005 from Bethune-Cookman with her bachelor's in physical education with a minor in recreation and leisure services and received a Master's Degree in Education-Curriculum and Instruction from New Mexico State in 2011.