Ivy Title At Stake as Softball Team Hosts Cornell Friday, Saturday

Friday, May 3

Princeton, N.J.

3:30 PM

Princeton University

Cornell

Princeton will be looking to add to its two-year run of Ivy titles this weekend.

Photo by: Chloe Broeker/Dartmouth

Ivy Title At Stake as Softball Team Hosts Cornell Friday, Saturday

April 30, 2024 | Softball

Two wins will get the Princeton softball team a third consecutive Ivy League title and the right to host the Ivy League Tournament, and three wins will give Princeton the title outright. That's what's at stake for the Tigers when Cornell comes to town Friday and Saturday.

vs. Cornell | ESPN+ | Live Stats | Int'l Video | Game Program
Friday, 3:30 p.m. single game
Saturday, 12:30 p.m. doubleheader | Senior Day presented by Princeton Marriott Forrestal | Let Her Play

It'd be the first time since 1994-96 that Princeton won three Ivy titles in a row. The only longer streak was from 1983-89 with seven straight. The 1994-96 Princeton run was also the last time any Ivy team won three straight softball titles.

The title would be Princeton's 22nd in program history, extending its all-time lead over Harvard, which has won nine. If the Tigers win two games this weekend but not three, Harvard and Yale would also win an Ivy title share, as would Dartmouth if the Big Green sweep Columbia.

If Princeton wins two games to finish 14-7 in the league, it would host the Ivy League tournament because it would have the best record against the other tied teams, whether that's Harvard and Yale or Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth. Princeton swept both Yale and Dartmouth and took one from Harvard, while Yale swept Harvard, Harvard took two from Dartmouth, and Dartmouth took two from Yale.

If Princeton wins one or fewer games this weekend, Yale would host the Ivy tournament as it would have the best record among the possibly tied teams, whether that's only Harvard or both Harvard and Dartmouth. Princeton needs one win or one loss each from Columbia and Brown to clinch a bid in the league tournament.

The Ivy League Tournament will run Thursday through Saturday next week, whether at Princeton or at Yale.

Princeton leads the all-time series with the Big Red 47-38 and took two out of three both in Ithaca in 2023 and in Princeton in 2022. Cornell won the series in the last meeting before the pandemic disruption, taking two of three in Ithaca in 2019.

At 24-14 overall, Princeton has clinched its sixth 20-win season under head coach Lisa Van Ackeren, whose teams have also reached the 20-win mark in 2013 (27), 2016 (23), 2017 (25), 2022 (27) and 2023 (29). Sonia Zhang is hitting .412 this season, aiming to become the first Princeton rookie in program history to hit .400 at season's end. The last Tiger of any class to do so was Marissa Reynolds '17, who hit .436 in 2017. Lauren Sablone (.367), Julia Dumais (.324), Sophia Marsalo (.308) and Allison Ha (.304) are also hitting above .300. Brielle Wright (4-3, 2.73 ERA) has a program- and Ivy League-record eight saves this season, is tied for the Princeton career record of nine with Riley Wilkinson '19, and is one short of the Ivy League career record of 10. Cassidy Shaw (10-6, 4.53) and Meghan Harrington (7-4, 4.28) have made 35 of the team's 38 starts with Wright and Molly Chambers (3-1, 5.03) typically coming out of the bullpen.

Through Tuesday, Princeton stood 23rd in the nation in triples per game (0.32) and 31st in fielding percentage (.972). Brielle Wright ranked third with eight saves and 16th with a 5.44 strikeout-to-walk ratio while Sonia Zhang stood 15th with a .528 on-base percentage.

Cornell counts Ella Harrod as the second-toughest player in the nation to strike out at 102 at-bats per K and catcher Lauren Holt ninth nationally with 1.24 RBI per game and 16th with 13 runners caught stealing.