Princeton University Athletics
Thursday, March 19
Princeton, N.J.
4:30 PM
Princeton University
vs
Rider
Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast
Softball to Host Rider on Thursday
March 16, 2026 | Softball
In the latest chapter between the Princeton softball team and the Tigers' most-played non-conference opponent, Rider will visit Cynthia Lynn Paul '94 Field for a Thursday doubleheader beginning at 4:30 p.m.
The games, originally scheduled for Wednesday, are the Tigers' last before Ivy League play begins on Saturday against Cornell, also at Cynthia Paul Field.
vs. Rider, Thursday, 4:30 p.m. DH
ESPN+ Game 1 | ESPN+ Game 2 | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Team Yearbook | Free Admission
On Princeton: Princeton is 9-8 entering Thursday's doubleheader after taking two of three from Binghamton in the Tigers' first home games of the 2026 season. After a 6-1 loss in the series opener, Princeton put up 20 runs in 10 innings on offense in 7-0 and 13-3 wins with the finale going five innings. Entering the week standing seventh in the nation in doubles per game, Julia Dumais leads the team with a .442 average, 23 runs scored, 23 hits and eight doubles while co-leading with three homers alongside Mia Valenzuela and Karis Ford. The Tigers are hitting .323 as a team, while leading the Ivy League in doubles (30), doubles per game (1.76), fielding percentage (.971), hits (158), RBI per game (5.24), RBI (89) and slugging percentage (.489). Dumais leads the Ivy in doubles (eight), doubles per game (0.47), and runs per game (1.35), while Keala Hollenkamp leads the league in strikeouts per seven innings (6.8). All four Tiger arms have thrown between 24 and 34 innings this season with a staff ERA of 4.30 and all four within less than two runs of that number.Â
On Rider: The Broncs stood 8-12 on the season heading into a Tuesday visit from Seton Hall, hitting .286 as a team with Aspen Wheeler leading the way at .344. Gabi Rodriguez and Fallyn Stoeckel have combined to throw 98 of the team's 124 innings, with Rodriguez at 2-4 with a 4.73 ERA and Stoeckel at 5-5, 5.79. Rider was forecasted sixth in the 13-team MAAC by the league's coaches with IF Kendall Reda-Fehsal as one of 12 on the preseason all-league team.
Series history: Princeton and Rider have met 66 times since the series began in 1983, holding a 52-13-1 series lead. The teams have played a doubleheader in every non-interrupted season since 2019, with Princeton winning the last six games in the series since a loss and a tie in a 2022 doubleheader in Princeton. Last season, Princeton swept two at Cynthia Paul Field, winning 2-0 on a pair of sixth-inning RBI hits from Braeden Hale and now-graduated Lauren Pappert. Anna-Marie Groskritz took the loss for Rider while Meghan Harrington and Brielle Wright split the time in the circle for Princeton almost down the middle, with Wright getting the win in relief. In the nightcap, Kendall Reda-Fehsal staked Rider to a 1-0 lead on a first-inning RBI single, but it was all Princeton the rest of the way, with Allie Goodwin, Graciela Dominguez, Julia Dumais and now-graduated Sophia Marsalo driving in runs, including a two-run homer for Dumais. Cassidy Shaw went five innings to get the win before handing it over to Keala Hollenkamp to finish it out, while Gabi Rodriguez went the first two innings for Rider before now-graduated Kathryn Schmierer went the last five.
Conference play: While this weekend will be Princeton's first of seven in Ivy League play, hosting Cornell, the Broncs, who play 10 conference opponents (of a possible 12) and do so over eight league weekends with two midweekers mixed in, are already two weekends into conference play, having dropped two of three to Iona and taken two of three from Manhattan. Princeton has faced Iona this season, winning 7-5 on the season's first weekend last month in Jacksonville.Â
The Ivy title run: Princeton has won the last four Ivy League titles, which are decided on regular-season play, and has hosted the last four Ivy League postseasons, including the 2022 Ivy League Playoff Series (winning two of three from Harvard), the 2023 Ivy League Tournament (made final, which Harvard won), the 2024 Ivy League Tournament (won), and the 2025 Ivy League Tournament (made final, which Brown won). Only one other time in Ivy League history has a team won at least four Ivy League titles in a row, and that was Princeton as well, which won seven straight from 1983-89.
Coaching staff: Princeton head coach Lisa Van Ackeren is in her 14th season at Princeton and is the dean of the current Ivy League coaches. All-time, Van Ackeren is the second-winningest coach in program history and sixth-winningest head coach in Ivy League history, at 262 wins. She could become the fifth-winningest coach in league history this season, with former Brown coach Phil Pincince currently in that spot with 269 wins. The top four, all former coaches in the league, are Harvard's Jenny Allard (688), Cornell's Dick Blood (623), Princeton's Cindy Cohen (559) and Penn's Leslie King (354). Princeton has won six of the nine Ivy League Coach/Coaching Staff of the Year honors since the award was inaugurated in 2015, including 2016, 2017, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 (no award in 2020 or 2021). Assistant coach Alyssa Davis is entering her seventh season, Ashley McDonald her second, and Nicole Arias her 12th.Â
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The games, originally scheduled for Wednesday, are the Tigers' last before Ivy League play begins on Saturday against Cornell, also at Cynthia Paul Field.
vs. Rider, Thursday, 4:30 p.m. DH
ESPN+ Game 1 | ESPN+ Game 2 | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Team Yearbook | Free Admission
On Princeton: Princeton is 9-8 entering Thursday's doubleheader after taking two of three from Binghamton in the Tigers' first home games of the 2026 season. After a 6-1 loss in the series opener, Princeton put up 20 runs in 10 innings on offense in 7-0 and 13-3 wins with the finale going five innings. Entering the week standing seventh in the nation in doubles per game, Julia Dumais leads the team with a .442 average, 23 runs scored, 23 hits and eight doubles while co-leading with three homers alongside Mia Valenzuela and Karis Ford. The Tigers are hitting .323 as a team, while leading the Ivy League in doubles (30), doubles per game (1.76), fielding percentage (.971), hits (158), RBI per game (5.24), RBI (89) and slugging percentage (.489). Dumais leads the Ivy in doubles (eight), doubles per game (0.47), and runs per game (1.35), while Keala Hollenkamp leads the league in strikeouts per seven innings (6.8). All four Tiger arms have thrown between 24 and 34 innings this season with a staff ERA of 4.30 and all four within less than two runs of that number.Â
On Rider: The Broncs stood 8-12 on the season heading into a Tuesday visit from Seton Hall, hitting .286 as a team with Aspen Wheeler leading the way at .344. Gabi Rodriguez and Fallyn Stoeckel have combined to throw 98 of the team's 124 innings, with Rodriguez at 2-4 with a 4.73 ERA and Stoeckel at 5-5, 5.79. Rider was forecasted sixth in the 13-team MAAC by the league's coaches with IF Kendall Reda-Fehsal as one of 12 on the preseason all-league team.
Series history: Princeton and Rider have met 66 times since the series began in 1983, holding a 52-13-1 series lead. The teams have played a doubleheader in every non-interrupted season since 2019, with Princeton winning the last six games in the series since a loss and a tie in a 2022 doubleheader in Princeton. Last season, Princeton swept two at Cynthia Paul Field, winning 2-0 on a pair of sixth-inning RBI hits from Braeden Hale and now-graduated Lauren Pappert. Anna-Marie Groskritz took the loss for Rider while Meghan Harrington and Brielle Wright split the time in the circle for Princeton almost down the middle, with Wright getting the win in relief. In the nightcap, Kendall Reda-Fehsal staked Rider to a 1-0 lead on a first-inning RBI single, but it was all Princeton the rest of the way, with Allie Goodwin, Graciela Dominguez, Julia Dumais and now-graduated Sophia Marsalo driving in runs, including a two-run homer for Dumais. Cassidy Shaw went five innings to get the win before handing it over to Keala Hollenkamp to finish it out, while Gabi Rodriguez went the first two innings for Rider before now-graduated Kathryn Schmierer went the last five.
Conference play: While this weekend will be Princeton's first of seven in Ivy League play, hosting Cornell, the Broncs, who play 10 conference opponents (of a possible 12) and do so over eight league weekends with two midweekers mixed in, are already two weekends into conference play, having dropped two of three to Iona and taken two of three from Manhattan. Princeton has faced Iona this season, winning 7-5 on the season's first weekend last month in Jacksonville.Â
The Ivy title run: Princeton has won the last four Ivy League titles, which are decided on regular-season play, and has hosted the last four Ivy League postseasons, including the 2022 Ivy League Playoff Series (winning two of three from Harvard), the 2023 Ivy League Tournament (made final, which Harvard won), the 2024 Ivy League Tournament (won), and the 2025 Ivy League Tournament (made final, which Brown won). Only one other time in Ivy League history has a team won at least four Ivy League titles in a row, and that was Princeton as well, which won seven straight from 1983-89.
Coaching staff: Princeton head coach Lisa Van Ackeren is in her 14th season at Princeton and is the dean of the current Ivy League coaches. All-time, Van Ackeren is the second-winningest coach in program history and sixth-winningest head coach in Ivy League history, at 262 wins. She could become the fifth-winningest coach in league history this season, with former Brown coach Phil Pincince currently in that spot with 269 wins. The top four, all former coaches in the league, are Harvard's Jenny Allard (688), Cornell's Dick Blood (623), Princeton's Cindy Cohen (559) and Penn's Leslie King (354). Princeton has won six of the nine Ivy League Coach/Coaching Staff of the Year honors since the award was inaugurated in 2015, including 2016, 2017, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 (no award in 2020 or 2021). Assistant coach Alyssa Davis is entering her seventh season, Ashley McDonald her second, and Nicole Arias her 12th.Â
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Players Mentioned
IF
/ Softball
IF/C
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
IF/UT
/ Softball
C/IF
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
IF/UT
/ Softball
C/UT
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
IF/UT
/ Softball
P
/ SoftballMonday, May 11
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Friday, May 08
Thursday, May 07