Colorado State University Athletics
Women's Soccer
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- tori.ball@colostate.edu
- Phone:
- (970) 305-7471
Twitter | @tori_ball
Tori Ball begins fourth season as a member of the Colorado State staff in 2020. Head coach Bill Hempen formally announced the hiring of Ball as an assistant coach on Friday, July 7, 2017. During Ball's tenure at CSU, the Rams have gone 22-24-12 including back-to-back most successful years of the eight-year program history in 2018 and 2019.
Ball, a native of Mobile, Ala., joined the CSU soccer program after coaching two seasons with the FC Boulder soccer club. Ball played collegiately as a striker at Auburn University from 2010-14.
“We’re very excited to have Tori join our program,” Hempen said. “She comes from a very good program at Auburn where she was a striker, and we are hoping she will help move our program forward offensively.”
The list of accomplishments in 2019 begins with the Rams doubling their past single-season record of six wins with a 12-5-3 finish, helping them earn their first Mountain West Tournament appearance. Hempen was awarded the Mountain West Coach of the Year, making his fifth-career conference award. This season, the improvement in the Rams' culture and performance came from their dominant force offensively and defensively. The culmination was the team earning a conference-high six student-athletes on the All-Mountain West teams and five selected to the United Coaches All-Pacific Region. Earning first team honors by US Soccer Coaches were sophomore goalkeeper Gabi McDonald and senior midfielder Caeley Lordemann, while senior Halley Havlicek, junior defender Addie Wright, and sophomore forward Gracie Armstrong picked up third team accolades. All are the first Rams in program history to be named to the all-region team. Among the Mountain West awards, four Rams earned first-team accolades including McDonald, Lordemann, Havlicek, and Armstrong. Colorado State also had two newcomers (Armstrong and Kristen Noonan) recognized for on the MW all-newcomer team.
Individually, Lordemann concluded the season as the most decorated Ram in the program's history, holding four career records (points, goals, game winning goals and shots per game) and 10 single season records. Armstrong in her first season after transferring quickly obtained the single-season assist record at eight that also registered as the career mark. Defensively, Havlicek concluded her time in the green and gold as Lordeman's equivalent on the other side of the field. Havlicek left with career records of minutes played, games played, games started as she anchored the defense for four years. In the net, McDonald had the best year of a Ram keeper by grabbing eight single-season records including saves, shutouts and wins.
Team-wise, the Rams went 7-3-1 in the Mountain West for the most conference wins in program history and posted first-ever victories over New Mexico, Fresno State, San Jose State and UNLV. In the second game of the season, Hempen recorded his 300th victory of his coaching career against SIUE at home. On Oct. 6th, CSU defeated Air Force in Colorado Springs for the program's seventh wins of the season, which set a record with seven regular season games left to play. On Oct. 26th, the Rams blitzed UNLV in a 5-2 win, securing the program's first-ever trip to the Mountain West Tournament. As a No. 3 seed, Colorado State battled No. 6 Fresno State to a scoreless double overtime, prompting penalty kicks that went in the Bulldogs' favor 3-1.
In 2018, the program started to show signs of a turnaround with a then-record six wins at 6-9-4 and a 3-6-2 conference mark. In Ball's first season in Fort Collins, the Rams went 4-10-5 overall with a 2-6-3 conference mark.
The former Auburn standout was the head coach of multiple teams for FC Boulder, which is a member of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. Among other responsibilities was her top priority of on-field and off-field player development. Ball also served as the program’s social media director in her second year with the club.
In addition to her experience with FC Boulder, Ball has spent time as the junior varsity head coach and an assistant varsity coach at Boulder High School. Ball’s first coaching stints included a student assistant position at Auburn, as well as a position with a club team in Auburn, Ala.
“I am really excited to join the staff here at CSU and the whole athletics department,” Ball said. “I am looking forward to helping the program grow, and use both my playing and coaching experience to make us more dynamic up front.”
In her playing career, Ball helped the Tigers reach the second round NCAA Tournament three times, and as a freshman, helped the Tigers win the SEC Tournament title. Ball finished her career with 21 goals, and ranks as one of Auburn’s all-time top ten goal scorers. Of those 21 goals, eight were game-winning goals, which ranks fifth all-time at Auburn. Additionally, Ball ranks third all-time for the Tigers with 89 appearances, which includes 55 starts. Ball amassed 53 total points in her career, and as a junior and senior, Ball was second on the team in points.
Ball was heavily involved in community service initiatives in Auburn, Ala., and in 2013, spent three weeks in South Africa working with underprivileged children. Ball served as a volunteer for the Dreams to Reality Foundation, running school exercise-based education programming.
Ball was a four-time SEC Academic Honor Roll scholar, a five-time Auburn Academic Top Tiger and was a member of Auburn’s student-athlete honor society, Chi Alpha Sigma. Ball holds her USSF D License. She graduated from Auburn in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in fitness, performance & conditioning.
