Princeton University Athletics
Finley and Snyder Earn Unanimous All-Ivy Softball Honors
May 09, 2003 | Softball
May 9, 2003
PRINCETON, N.J. - Sophomore Melissa Finley was unanimously named the 2003 Ivy League Softball Player of the Year, and freshman Erin Snyder earned Rookie of the Year and unanimous first team All-Ivy, as selected today by the league coaches. Finley and Snyder, along with six other Princeton players honored by the Ivy League, helped the Tigers finish first in the league with an 11-3 record. Wendy Bingham and Kristin Lueke earned second team All-Ivy while Ty Ries, Cristina Cobb-Adams, Amanda Erickson, and Nicole Davida were honorable mentions. Finley, a sophomore from Ontario, Canada, led Princeton and the Ivy League with a school-record 13 home runs this season. She finished the season batting .414 overall and .548 against Ivy opponents. The pitcher/outfielder has team-highs of 55 hits, 28 runs, 10 doubles, 41 RBIs and 106 total bases, which is more than double the amount of bases of any of her teammates. Finley started and played in all 43 games for Princeton, and appeared in 12 games on the mound.
Finley's best performances include a 5-for-5 day with a homer, three runs, and two RBIs in a doubleheader sweep of Fairfield, and a 4-for-4 outing with three runs and three RBIs in an 8-3 league win over Cornell. She also went 3 for 3 in the first game against Harvard, when she scored one run and drove home four. Along with the unanimous Player of the Year distinction, she was named to the first team at the utility position. Finley was second team All-Ivy as a freshman.
A native of Rancho Santa Fe, California, Snyder was the only unanimous first team All-Ivy selection and also earned Rookie of the Year after being selected the league Pitcher of the Week on three occasions this season. Snyder dominated the league and her opponents with 191 strikeouts this season, moving into second place in Princeton's record books for strikeouts in a season. She surpassed her two coaches, head coach Maureen Davies Barron (172) and Brie Galicinao (181), who were previously second and third on the list.
Snyder finished the regular season with a 13-8 record in 26 appearances and 162 innings. Her opponents batted just .184 against her and walked only 24 times. Snyder was also a force at the plate, batting .252 with a team-high 10 doubles and three home runs, including the Tiger's only grand slam of the year. She went 3 for 5 with one run and three RBI's against Brown and 3 for 7 with three runs and seven RBIs in a doubleheader sweep of Cornell.
Lueke, a sophomore slap-hitter from Valencia, California started in all 43 games for the Tigers and led the team with 10 stolen bases on 12 attempts. She has team-highs of 28 runs and three triples, and is third on the team in batting average (.287). Lueke went 5 for 6 with two runs and two RBIs in two wins against Dartmouth, and went 2 for 3 with two runs in a single game against Tennessee and against St. Joseph's. Lueke started at second base for the Tigers this year and earned second team All-Ivy last season, as well.
Bingham split time as a pitcher and outfielder, and also played several innings at first base when teammate Kristin DelCalvo was injured. A junior from La Crescenta, California, Bingham played and started in 42 games and batted .244 with 12 runs scored and two stolen bases on five attempts. She went 3 for 3 with two RBIs against Middle Tennessee, 2 for 3 with two runs and an RBI against Lehigh, 3 for 4 against St. Joseph's, and 2 for 3 with two runs against Brown. Bingham pitched 72 innings with 41 strikeouts and a 3.25 ERA for the Tigers. Last year, she was an honorable mention to the All-Ivy team.
Ries, a sophomore from Madison Lake, Minnesota, started 42 games and recorded a .938 fielding percentage at catcher. She earned honorable mention All-Ivy as a freshman before stepping up a notch this year. Cobb-Adams and Erickson, two freshmen from Dublin and Riverside, California, were immediate impacts in the infield for Princeton, while Davida, a sophomore from Closter, New Jersey was a consistent threat in the outfield and at the plate.
The Tigers, who had eight players honored by the Ivy League and the only two unanimous selections, finished their regular season with a 24-19-1 overall record and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. The tournament selection show and bracket announcements will be this Sunday, May 11 at 10 p.m. on ESPN News.