Princeton University Athletics
Softball Team Announces Challenging 2019 Slate
December 04, 2018 | Softball
Five games against NCAA tournament teams in a weekend hosted by 2018 Women's College World Series participant Arizona State are among the highlights of the 2019 schedule the Princeton softball program has announced.
The Tigers, just a year removed from being two-time defending Ivy League champions, will open their league slate March 23 at home against Yale. But in the month before that, Princeton will run a pre-conference gamut that includes games against four 2018 NCAA tournament teams, beginning with the Liberty Invitational Feb. 22-24 in Lynchburg, Va. There, Princeton will face Wright State, Liberty, Valparaiso, Delaware State and Bucknell, with Liberty having won both the Big South regular-season and tournament titles last year to make the NCAAs.
"We put together a competitive and challenging schedule this year to best prepare for a run at an Ivy championship," Princeton coach Lisa Van Ackeren said. "Choosing to face a good crop of teams early on lets us know where we stand and gives us good information on areas where we can improve. It's a great experience to be on a big stage early in the season, and one of the highlights is the ability to play in front of the families of a bunch of our players close to their hometowns. With the focused effort our team is putting in this offseason, I'm excited to see how they compete together this spring."
The following weekend, Princeton will see nothing but 2018 NCAA tournament teams at an event hosted by Arizona State, with two games against Wisconsin, one against Texas, and two against WCWS participant ASU Mar. 1-3. All three were at-large selections to the 2018 NCAA draw.
Princeton will then begin the spring trip with four games at South Florida's event in Clearwater, Mar. 16-17 against Butler, Buffalo, Towson and North Florida, before continuing the Sunshine State run with doubleheaders at Stetson and Central Florida Mar. 19-20.Â
The league slate will follow with back-to-back home weekends against Yale and Columbia before the Tigers head to Brown and Penn as April begins. The team's final home weekend is set for April 20-21 against Harvard before the league run closes with trips to Cornell and Dartmouth on the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May before the Ivy League Championship Series for the league's top two teams on the second weekend in May.
After league play begins, Princeton will step out-of-conference three times, hosting Rider April 3 and Lehigh April 17 before going to Monmouth, another 2018 NCAA tournament team after winning the MAAC regular-season and tournament titles, April 23.
Princeton returns five players who have earned All-Ivy honors in their careers, including senior catcher/first baseman Keeley Walsh, senior first baseman Kaylee Grant, junior outfielder Megan Donahey, junior shortstop Allison Harvey, and sophomore outfielder Mackenzie Meyer, who began her career with a first-team all-league honor and a seven-homer season in 2018. The return of Donahey, Meyer, Harvey and Walsh brings back all four Tigers who had at least 30 hits last season, and the Tigers also return innings leader sophomore Allie Reynolds in the circle.
