Five Games in San Diego Up Next for Softball Team

Saturday, March 7

San Diego, Calif.

1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT

Princeton University

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

March 02, 2026 | Softball

Five games in San Diego are ahead this weekend as the Princeton softball team as the Ivy League opener on March 21 against Cornell draws closer.

Here's a look at the Tigers and their opponents for the weekend:

No. 20/23 Grand Canyon
Saturday, 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT
2026 record (entering week): 22-0
2026 conference poll: 1st of 10 in the Mountain West; 2B Savannah Kirk was the Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year, and Kirk and 1B Emily Gonzalez, DP/Util. Jada Cooper, and P Taryn Batterton were four of 15 on the preseason all-conference team
2025 finish: 47-8, WAC Tournament champion, NCAA Tucson Regional
Series vs. Princeton: GCU leads the all-time series 5-0, with all five meetings coming between 2014 and 2024. The 2024 meeting was at Long Beach State, a 7-3 GCU win
Notes: GCU will put its undefeated start on the line in three games in San Diego before meeting Princeton, against Wisconsin, Notre Dame and San Diego. The team enters the week ranked second in the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio, at 5.96, with pitchers striking out 143 batters and issuing 24 walks. The team is fifth in ERA, at 1.30.

Notre Dame
Sunday, 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT Live Stats
2026 record (entering week): 7-12
2026 conference poll: 11th of 15 in the ACC
2025 finish: 23-31-1, ACC Tournament first round
Series vs. Princeton: Notre Dame leads the all-time series 4-0, with the four games coming between 1996 and 2022
Notes: Utility player Sydny Poeck leads the Irish at the plate, hitting .400 (20-50).

San Diego State
Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT Live Stats
2026 record (entering week): 12-8
2026 conference poll: Third of 10 in the Mountain West; three Aztecs on the preseason all-conference team, including 2B Lala Macario, CF Julie Holcomb, and SS Quinn Waiki
2025 finish: 38-19, NCAA Los Angeles Regional
Series vs. Princeton: SDSU leads the all-time series 2-0, winning games in 2012 and 2016
Notes: Head coach Stacey Nuveman Deniz is a three-time Olympic medalist, helping Team USA softball to gold in 2000 and 2004 and a silver in 2008.

San Diego
Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT ESPN+ | Live Stats | Monday, 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT ESPN+
2026 record (entering week): 10-9
2026 conference poll: Sixth of seven in the West Coast Conference
2025 finish: 20-29
Series vs. Princeton: Series tied 1-1 with each team winning one game in 2004
Notes: Kaitlyn Wynia leads the team in batting average, at .404

NCAA stat rankings: Princeton entered the week eighth in the nation in fielding percentage, at .984 with just four errors on the season. The Tigers haven't benefited from opponent miscues, with other teams making just two errors against Princeton. Individually, Braeden Hale's .607 batting average was good for second in the nation, and her .633 OBP was sixth. She and Sonia Zhang were two of 21 players in the nation co-leading as the toughest players to strike out, having not struck out and with enough at-bats to qualify for the stat. Hale's 0.50 doubles per game was also good for 17th in the nation.

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.

Who's back: Reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Brielle Wright is back for her senior season, leading five of the team's six 2025 first-team All-Ivy honorees who return, including Sonia Zhang (3B), Julia Dumais (SS), Braeden Hale (utility) and Karis Ford (DP). Second-team pitcher Cassidy Shaw is back, as is honorable mention Graciela Dominguez (2B) giving Princeton seven returning 2025 All-Ivy Leaguers. Graduated from Princeton's 2025 all-league honorees are outfielder Allison Ha, a four-time All-Ivy Leaguer, three-time All-Ivy outfielder Lauren Sablone, 2025 honorable mention All-Ivy catcher Lauren Pappert. Along with Wright and Shaw, who accounted for 235 2/3 of the team's 301 1/3 innings pitched, Princeton returns sophomore Keala Hollenkamp, who was third on the team with 43 2/3 innings pitched.

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 258 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.

Newcomers: Five Tigers join the team this year, all first-years including infielder/utility player Mia Valenzuela, catcher/infielder Maddie Ratcheson, outfielder Lola Coole, infielder Camryn Bradshaw, and pitcher Reece Uehara.

Next up: Princeton will open season two at Cynthia Lynn Paul '94 Field next weekend, hosting a three-game series against Binghamton March 14-15.