Nicole Bond - Softball Coach - University of North Carolina Athletics

Nicole Bond

Title:
Volunteer Assistant Coach

Nicole Bond joined the North Carolina softball program as the team's volunteer assistant coach in the fall of 2018 and works primarily with pitchers and catchers. Bond comes to UNC after a successful pitching career competing in the Big Ten Conference at Northwestern University. Bond wrapped up her collegiate tenure with 71 appearances, 14 wins and four trips to the NCAA Tournament.

A Clayton, North Carolina native, Bond made 40 starts with nine complete games for the Wildcats. The pitcher struck out 131 batters in 208.2 innings of work, limiting her opponents to a .270 average.

Bond went an undefeated 7-0 as a freshman in 2014, but threw just 14.0 innings over the next two years due to a season-ending injury prior to the 2015 season. She returned to toss a complete-game victory over Tulsa in NU's first game of 2017. The pitcher earned 19 starts, including 11 against top-11 ranked opponents. Bond earned a fifth year of eligibility in 2018 after being granted a medical hardship waiver. In 2018, Bond contributed to the Wildcats 38 win season featuring their first trip to the Big Ten Tournament Championship since 2008. She doled a career-best, nine strikeouts twice and hurled two shutouts during her tenure. Bond highlighted her final season with a complete-game, four-hitter against Nebraska en route to an 8-3 NU victory.

Bond was named the Freshman of the Week in 2014. Inking her name in the Big Ten record book, Bond is also one of 11 pitchers and only the second Northwestern pitcher in program history to post at 0.00 ERA during the Big Ten Tournament.

Bond was named a 2018 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and earned Academic All-Big Ten honors three times and NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete honors once. Off the field, Bond was a member of the NU P.R.I.D.E. Leadership Institute, Medill School of Journalism Academic Standards Committee and served as a selected representative of her Masters' cohort on the Medill Leadership Committee during her time at Northwestern. Outside of the classroom, Bond completed four internships in marketing, sales and most recently, as a strategy consulting intern with Target Data Corporation. Bond graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, a business institutions minor and integrated marketing communications certificate. She completed her Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications from the Medill School of Journalism in August 2018.