Balance is best for Decker

To Lehigh senior Morgan Decker, the sport of softball provides the ultimate balance between team and individual. Individual success can lead to team success and failures can beget failures, but one individual's success does not necessarily dictate team success, nor does one's failure.

Softball, by nature, is a sport of failure. Even the best hitters "fail" upwards of 70 percent of the time and individual success doesn't always influence team success.

"I like that softball is a team sport that is individually broken down, because I love being able to have my own moments but I also love it when others get to do well in their own moments," Decker said. "I also like that softball is a game of failure because I think that there's part of it that prepares you so much for your life because not everything is going to go your way in life and I think that playing in a game of failure is kind of great preparation for that. But I also think that when its game of failure, your successes are that much greater and that much more fulfilling.

"I think that of all the sports that I've ever played I think softball is the most analogous for kind of what you go through in your life, which I think is what makes it so challenging yet so fun," she continued.

Decker's Lehigh career has revolved around balancing her individual success with that of her teams. In another, slightly different way, Decker has spent the last four years trying to achieve the balance of being one of Lehigh softball's most accomplished and decorated players while meeting the University's academic rigors, a quest that has proved to be successful on both ends.

A Jamison Pa., product from nearby Bucks County, Decker owns the distinction of being the most "local" player on Lehigh's softball team. Despite growing up less than an hour from Lehigh's campus, Decker didn't really know much about Lehigh until she was discovered by head coach Fran Troyan at a tournament.

"I was playing at some tournament, I can't remember where I was," Decker recalls. "I guess Coach Troyan saw me play and my dad was like, 'You should really look into this school. It's a great school, it's a great academic school – you should really look at it.' I had never even heard of it. But my dad insisted on contacting coach. I visited and I just fell in love with it."

"Morgan is the poster child for the type of student-athlete that we as a softball program and as a university want to recruit to Lehigh," Troyan said. "Lehigh was a perfect spot for Morgan because it allowed her to pursue incredibly serious academic opportunities on one hand without the softball taking second fiddle. She's been able to play softball at a high level and compete on the national level and has been able to combine the academics and the softball in a way that provided her the best of both worlds. She's the classic example of the type of kid we have to try to recruit here at Lehigh."

Decker stepped in from day one to become a key figure in the Lehigh softball program. In four years she has started all but two games, at third base, save for the occasional non-league game where she serves as designated player, and almost always in the No. 3 hole in Lehigh's batting order.

As a freshman, Decker batted .415 with nine home runs and 46 RBIs. She became the first player in Patriot League history to be named Rookie and Player of the Year. Through two seasons, Decker totaled 113 hits, 27 doubles, 18 home runs and 85 RBIs. Decker won her second straight Player of the Year award in 2014. Lehigh won a pair of Patriot League regular season titles, but ultimately came up short of its main goal as the Mountain Hawks failed to win the Patriot League Tournament and reach the NCAA Regionals.

"They're heartbreaking because both of those years we had the talent to make it work," Decker said. There are so many intangibles on a championship team. We had so much talent and some of those intangibles but for whatever reason we couldn't put it together. Sometimes you need to come back to earth and realize that these things aren't going to be handed to you. That's what those first two years did."

The Mountain Hawks got over the hump in 2015, winning their third title in five years. Lehigh returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012 and won its first NCAA game since 2009. Decker's numbers declined from the torrid pace she had established in her first two seasons. She "only" hit .336 with four home runs, but in the way softball can balance team and individual, other teammates stepped up and with Decker providing leadership as a junior captain in addition to her 40 RBIs, the Mountain Hawks achieved their goals.

"I would rather have had last year's stats but come out with a ring any day," Decker said. "Again, there is an individual aspect to this sport, which is fun, but at the end of the day it is a team sport and you want to see team success. While I didn't necessarily perform as great as I would have hoped, I still had a good year and I think the team had a great year and I think that that's what's important.

"What I've learned the most is you can work towards (becoming a championship team) and you can try to lead people to there, but sometimes no matter how hard you try and how great of a leader you are, there's just that intangible that's missing," she continued. "I've learned to not let the fact that I'm a leader or a captain overwhelm me or make me feel like if we don't get it done, I didn't do my job because you can work your butt off and be the greatest leader ever and still not come out with a championship. I think I've learned so many details about what it means to be a leader."

Decker's senior season started rather impressively. She drove in eight runs in two opening day victories. In early March she became Lehigh's career home run leader. For a period of time she was ranked in the top 10 nationally in batting average and near the top of the national rankings in doubles per game. While individual success is important and noteworthy, Decker is more concerned with leading the Mountain Hawks to another league title in her final season.

"This is kind of the curse of having the individuality aspect of this sport – is that when you get too caught up in what your average is or how many of this you have, or kind of the details of your stats, that's when a team can crumble – when somebody gets too selfish or self-righteous," Decker said. "So I just see myself as a part of an amazing legacy and a great group of strong women who come out of here and do great things with their life, so I'm just happy to be a part of it."

"From the time that she got here until her graduation she has really learned to see the importance of the group and a total team effort," Troyan explained. "Not that that she was individualistic but she values more the concept of team and striving together for a common goal more than when she got here. That's a function of growing and learning from previous players we've had in the program. Now, she is passing that part of our culture down to the younger players in the program."

On the other side of Decker's athletic exploits is her academic prowess. She carries a 3.73 GPA in Lehigh's rigorous behavioral neuroscience program. She is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree and has a chance to cap her career as an Academic All-American. A lifetime of softball success has Decker interested in staying involved with the sport as a coach, her ultimate goals lie in the medical field where she hopes to become a physician's assistant.

"I always kind of saw myself going into some sort of medicine," Decker admitted. "I'm still planning on going to PA school in a year or two but because of softball I haven't had the time to kind of rack up the hands-on patient care hours that you need."

In four years Decker has successfully balanced the team and individual aspects of softball and the athletic and academic rigors of Lehigh. She's grown as a person and as a leader. Her ability to successfully balance things should help her fare well in her future endeavors.

"I always feel like balancing athletics and academics has been a part of my life since day one," Decker said. "I played three sports up and then even when I was playing those three sports I was playing on multiple teams for those sports, so there's always been an aspect of balance to my life and my parents always pushed me to succeed in both of those aspects which I really appreciate them for. As a woman athletics you're only going to last so long. I've always valued my academics because I know that kind of they are what's going to get further in life even though softball experience is a great experience and made me the person who I am, those academics are important. So I've always placed a high value on trying to balance those and I think that it's just been such a part of my life that it's almost natural to kind of figure them out."

Completed Event: Softball versus Lafayette on May 3, 2026 , Win , 8, to, 1

Completed Event: Softball versus Lafayette on May 2, 2026 , Loss , 4, to, 5

Completed Event: Softball versus Lafayette on May 2, 2026 , Loss , 9, to, 12

Completed Event: Softball at Villanova on April 28, 2026 , Win , 5, to, 0

Completed Event: Softball versus Hofstra on April 26, 2026 , Win , 7, to, 1

Completed Event: Softball versus Georgetown on April 26, 2026 , Win , 8, to, 6

Completed Event: Softball at Rutgers on April 24, 2026 , Loss , 3, to, 8

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