Princeton University Athletics
Three Major Awards Highlight All-Ivy Haul for Ivy Champion Princeton
May 12, 2022 | Softball
By vote of the league's coaches, the Ivy announced on Thursday that junior Alexis Laudenslager is the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, freshman Sophia Marsalo is the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and Lisa Van Ackeren is the Ivy League Coach of the Year.
Laudenslager and first baseman Marsalo are on the first team All-Ivy, along with junior outfielder Serena Starks, freshman utility player Allison Ha, junior pitcher/utility player Ali Blanchard, and junior designated player Adrienne Chang, who was also Princeton's Academic All-Ivy honoree. Sophomore shortstop Grace Jackson and freshman outfielder Lauren Sablone earned second-team All-Ivy honors. It is the first All-Ivy honor for every Princeton player except Blanchard, who was a second-team honoree in 2019.
Princeton's six first-team All-Ivy honors are its most since 1996, when that year's team reached the Women's College World Series and had seven first-team All-Ivy honorees. Princeton had eight first-teamers in 1995, seven in 1994, and six in 1985 and 1988 as the only other times the team had as many or more than six first-team honorees. Princeton's eight total athletic All-Ivy honorees are the program's most since 2008, and it's the first time since 2006 that Princeton had eight honorees between the first and second teams.
Princeton's six first-teamers are twice any other team in the league, with Dartmouth at three, and Princeton's eight honorees between the first and second teams are two more than any other team in the league, with Harvard at six.Â
Laudenslager is Princeton's 10th Ivy League Pitcher of the Year since the award was first given in 1994 and first since Claire Klausner '17 in 2017. Laudenslager leads the Ivy in ERA (1.96), opponents' batting average (.189), and fewest allowed hits (67), runs (36), earned runs (27), doubles (nine), and home runs (one) and is second to Blanchard in strikeouts (128). Laudenslager is the only pitcher to be top-three in the league in all three of the pitching triple crown categories, with her 10 wins third along with the league-best ERA and second-most strikeouts. Laudenslager has thrown two no-hitters this season, a seven-inning no-no against Brown on March 20 and a five-inning feat at Yale on April 17, becoming the first Princeton pitcher in program history to solo no-hit two Ivy opponents in the same season.Â
Marsalo is Princeton's ninth Ivy Rookie of the Year since the award began in 1985 and first since Allison Harvey '20 in 2017. Marsalo stands fourth in the league in batting average at .354, tied for second in hits with 46 and just two behind Ivy Player of the Year and Dartmouth senior Billie McFadyen's 48. Marsalo's nine doubles are fourth in the league.Â
It is the sixth time that the Ivy League Coach of the Year has been awarded, as the honor began in 2015 and was not awarded in 2020 or 2021 with the lack of an Ivy League season. With her third, along with 2016 and 2017, Van Ackeren has now won half of those honors, more than any other coach in the league. After playing only three games on a restricted schedule in 2021 and just eight games before the 2020 season came to an early end, Van Ackeren took a team that was picked fourth in the Ivy League preseason poll and won her third Ivy title in eight full seasons guiding the program and third in the last five such seasons. Now at 164 wins, Van Ackeren is Princeton's third-winningest coach, behind Maureen Barron '97 (196 wins from 2001-07) and Cindy Cohen (560 wins from 1983-2000). Van Ackeren also has the third-most Ivy titles of Princeton coaches, with Cohen at 12 and Barron at four.
Starks is tied for second in the league with Marsalo at 46 hits, tied for second with 23 runs, and tied for second with a team-best 25 RBI while leading the league with 137 at-bats. Ha has posted a league-best 13 doubles and is fifth in the league with 41 hits. Chang's .376 average was second-best in the league, behind only Yale sophomore Sam Goodcase (.386), while standing fourth in the league in slugging percentage (.564) and fourth in on-base percentage (.429). Blanchard, while hitting .273 at the plate, is top-five in the league in several pitching categories, including leading the league in strikeouts (144), standing second in opponents' batting average (.200), third in ERA (2.52), fourth in wins (nine), second in fewest allowed hits (72), second-fewest runs (37), third-fewest earned runs (36), third-fewest doubles (16), and second-fewest home runs (three). Blanchard's 144 Ks are the most in a season for any Tiger pitcher since Kristen Schaus '08, who had 189 in 2008.Â
Among Princeton's second-team honorees, Jackson has hit .259 this season overall and .350 in the Ivy League, a conference-only average that is good for 10th in the league. Sablone has hit .317 overall this season, good for fifth on the team.Â
Princeton will host Harvard on Friday and Saturday for the Ivy League Playoff Series, with the winner of the best-of-three series earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The preview for that series can be found here.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Billie McFadyen, Dartmouth (Sr. – Flower Mound, Texas)
PITCHER OF THE YEAR
*Alexis Laudenslager, Princeton (Jr. – San Diego, Calif.)
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Sophia Marsalo, Princeton (Fr. – Morgantown, Pa.)
COACH OF THE YEAR
Lisa Van Ackeren, PrincetonÂ
FIRST TEAM ALL-IVYÂ
*SP – Alexis Laudenslager, Princeton (Jr. – San Diego, Calif.)
SP – Anna Reed, Harvard (So. – San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
*C – Sarah Schneider, Penn (Sr. – Anaheim Hills, Calif.)
1B – Sophia Marsalo, Princeton (Fr. – Morgantown, Pa.)
*2B – Billie McFadyen, Dartmouth (Sr. – Flower Mound, Texas)
3B – Laurel McKelvey, Penn (Sr. – Houston, Texas)
SS – Kate Farren, Dartmouth (Jr. – Murrieta, Calif.)
*OF – Serena Starks, Princeton (Jr. – Huntington Beach, Calif.)
OF— Lauren Bobowski, Harvard (So. – Macomb, Mich.)
OF – Alaana Panu, Dartmouth (Fr. – Los Gatos, Calif.)
*UTL – Allison Ha, Princeton (Fr. – Simi Valley, Calif.)
P/UTL – Ali Blanchard, Princeton (Jr. – Lincoln, R.I.)
*DP – Adrienne Chang, Princeton (Jr. – Valencia, Calif.)
SECOND TEAM ALL-IVY
SP – Brooke Plonka, Dartmouth (Sr. – Marilla, Calif.)
SP – Katie Arrambide, Harvard (Fy. – Saint Charles, Ill.)
C – Sam Goodcase, Yale (So. – Camarillo, Calif.)
1B – Morgan Melito, Harvard (Sr. – Westlake Village, Calif.)
2B – Trina Hoang, Harvard (Jr. – Irvine, Calif.)
3B – Lilly Travieso, Cornell (So. – Burbank, Calif.)
SS – Grace Jackson, Princeton (So. – Berwyn, Pa.)
OF – Hanna Crist, Cornell (Sr. – Virginia Beach, Va.)
OF – Lauren Sablone, Princeton (Fr. – North Reading, Mass.)
OF – Kat Clum, Brown (Sr. – Fort Worth, Texas)
UTL – Elayna Tsiouplis, Brown (Sr. – Langhorne, Pa.)
P/UTL – Lauren Innerst, Brown (Sr. – San Jose, Calif.)
DP – Madi Mays, Harvard (So. – Pleasant Hill, Calif.)
HONORABLE MENTIONÂ
SP – Erin Elgas, Brown (Jr. – Manhattan, Mont.)
SP – Jordan Hill, Columbia (Fr. – San Dimas, Calif.)
C – Allison Heffley, Harvard (Jr. – Lemoore, Calif.)
1B – Abby Stuart, Columbia (Sr. – Southlake, Texas)
2B – Cami Neal, Columbia (Fr. – Gilbert, Ariz.
3B – Katie O'Leary, Brown (Gr. – Manteca, Calif.)
3B – Bubba Gleaves, Columbia (Jr. – Post Falls, Idaho.)
SS – Kaitlin Lampson, Harvard (Jr. – West Linn, Ore.)
SS – Maria Pagane, Columbia (5th – Orlando, Fla.)
OF – Brianna Brown, Penn (So. – Tinley Park, Ill.)
OF – Jaden Hill, Columbia (So. – Laguna Beach, Calif.)
OF – Corrie Phillips, Penn (Sr. – Los Angeles, Calif.)
OF – Brianna Rodriguez, Brown (So. – Des Moines, Iowa)
OF – Jenna Brown, Dartmouth (Fr. – Atlanta, Ga.)
UTL – Nicole Kim, Brown (Jr. – San Diego, Calif.)
P/UTL – Bella Fiorentino, Penn (Jr. – Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.)
P/UTL – Maddie Latta, Yale (Fy. – Jacksonville, Fla.)
DP – Emily Lipsett, Dartmouth (Sr. – La Porte, Ind.)
*Unanimous Selection
