Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Ivy-Opening Softball Weekend Begins Saturday at '95 Field
April 01, 2011 | Softball
The Ivy League season begins this weekend for the Princeton softball team with doubleheaders against Brown Saturday at 1 p.m. and Yale Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
All eight teams are 0-0 in conference play heading into the weekend, with the Ivy South teams hosting their Ivy North opponents. Columbia and Penn will swap Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend, while the Tigers and Cornell will switch up between Brown and Yale.
Princeton enters the weekend at 8-12 on the season and with three hitters above .300 at the plate, including sophomore Lizzy Pierce (.356), sophomore Sarah Rounsifer (.355) and junior Kelsey VandeBergh (.320). Sophomore Alex Peyton has four of the team's 12 home runs. In the circle, all three pitchers on staff saw action in Wednesday's doubleheader against Central Connecticut State. Peyton has the lowest ERA at 4.09, while senior Michelle Tolfa and sophomore Liza Kuhn have three wins apiece.
Brown boasts the Ivy League's leading hitter in sophomore Stephanie Thompson, who is hitting .533 with an Ivy-best eight home runs. Thompson is the only Ivy Leaguer slugging above 1.000 this season, and her 1.106 clip is leading second-place Kristen Towne of Cornell (.721) by a considerable margin. The Bears have three additional hitters above .300, including rookie Jen Kries (.375), junior Kate Strobel (.357) and rookie Kristi Munoz (.346). In the circle, Brown has two primary pitchers, senior Kristie Chin (9-8, 3.60) and junior Trish Melvin (6-6, 6.73).
For the Bulldogs, sophomore Jennifer Ong (.364) and senior Katie Yanagisawa (.354) lead the team at the plate, while sophomore Christy Nelson has two of the team's four home runs. A pair of freshmen, Chelsey Dunham (4-6, 3.15) and Kristen Leung (2-0, 2.40), lead the team in innings pitched, with Dunham throwing 53 1/3 of the team's 105 innings.
This weekend will bring the last home Ivy contests for Princeton until April 23 and 24 when the Tigers host divisional foe Columbia. Princeton will head to Harvard and Dartmouth next weekend before visiting Penn on April 16 and 17. In the interim, the Tigers will have home non-league games against Lehigh on April 6 and Hofstra on April 12.