Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Ivy Games Begin This Weekend for Princeton Softball
March 27, 2008 | Softball
PRINCETON ? -- One set of 20 games has prepared the Princeton softball team for another
set of 20 to begin Saturday and Sunday when the Tigers open the Ivy League
season by hosting Dartmouth and Harvard in doubleheaders starting at 12:30 p.m.
both days.
Princeton emerged from the pre-conference schedule
with a 3-17 record and seven of its losses by a single run. The Tigers saw two
ranked teams on its 10-day, 13-game spring break trip in No. 8/11 Oklahoma and
No. 5 Stanford, holding two separate leads over the Sooners before a
late-inning comeback spoiled the March 16 upset bid.
The Ivy League schedule will put Princeton against
the four Ivy North teams first, with a trip to Yale and Brown following next
weekend. Four games each against Princeton?s Ivy South rivals will follow with
Princeton visiting Columbia, Penn coming to Class of 1895 Field and Princeton
and Cornell ending April with a home-and-home series.
Princeton will host Dartmouth
and Harvard for the second straight year instead of switching sites in order to
match the Ivy softball and baseball schedules. The Tiger batsmen will also be
home against Dartmouth
and Harvard Saturday and Sunday.
The Tigers also hope to repeat a bit of history as they look to break out of their
spring break slump. Last season, Princeton
lost nine straight heading into Ivies before going on the road to sweep Brown
and Yale and start league play with a 4-0 record.
Differently from last season, however, Princeton
did not have a midweek doubleheader before its Ivy opener, though its opponents
this weekend did play this week.
Dartmouth (4-13) carries a three-game skid into
the weekend after a doubleheader sweep by Massachusetts Wednesday. That followed a
spring trip that took the Big Green to Florida
for a tournament at South Florida and midweek games against Rutgers and Stetson
in the Sunshine State. Dartmouth
spent the second weekend of the trip on Long Island
at a Stony Brook-hosted tournament.
Harvard (7-12) is on its spring break this week, but the Crimson logged plenty
of air miles before the traditionally travel-heavy academic hiatus. Harvard
played in a San Diego State-hosted tournament during the first weekend of play
Feb. 29-Mar. 2 before heading down to Florida
the following weekend for a Florida International tournament. The Crimson spent
the first half of spring break in Georgia
before hosting games against Saint Peter's and Maine Wednesday and Thursday.
Princeton carries a .231 average into the conference slate with
sophomore Kelsey Quist hitting a team-best .300. All three pitchers have seen
time in the circle so far this spring with Kristen Schaus (1-11, 4.45 ERA)
throwing 77 of the team's 127 2/3 innings.
Dartmouth is
hitting .157 as a team entering the weekend with freshman Audrey Kolodziej
leading the team at .217. Dartmouth's
three arms have split the innings mostly evenly, with senior Angela Megaw
pacing the Big Green with wins at 2-2 and ERA at 2.81. The staff carries a 3.58
ERA while Dartmouth's
opponents have allowed only 0.95 earned runs per game.
Harvard is hitting .292 as a team heading into Saturday's doubleheader at
Cornell with six players at or above .300. Sophomore Jennifer Francis (.351)
leads the team in that category. Though six Crimson have logged innings in the
circle this season, senior Shelly Madick has thrown nearly half the team's
innings and has 10 of the 19 decisions at 2-8 with a 4.30 ERA. The staff
carries a 5.68 ERA.