Softball to Open Ivy Season This Weekend, Hosting Cornell

The Ivy League season will begin on Saturday for the Princeton softball team, which is aiming for its fifth straight Ivy title in May.

vs. Cornell, Saturday, 12:30 p.m. DH | Sunday, 12:30 p.m. single game
ESPN+ Game 1 | ESPN+ Game 2 | ESPN+ Game 3 | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Team Yearbook | Free Admission

On Princeton: Princeton is 10-9 overall entering the weekend after a Thursday doubleheader split against Rider, coming up just short in a comeback bid in a 4-3 opening-game loss before scoring six seventh-inning runs to rally for an 8-7 win. Standing seventh in the nation in doubles per game (0.47), Julia Dumais leads the team in batting average (.424) and leads the conference with nine doubles and 1.26 runs per game. Princeton stands 14th in the nation in doubles per game, at 2.00, and leads the league in batting average (.333), doubles (38), fielding percentage (.974), hits (183), RBI per game (5.21), RBI (99), slugging percentage (.498), and runs scored (105).

On Cornell: Cornell opened the Ivy League season last weekend, taking two of three from Yale in New Haven to stand 7-8 overall and 2-1 in the league. That series was the only Ivy series to be played last weekend. The Big Red's Lauren Holt stands eighth in the nation in on-base percentage (.614) and 12th in batting average (.511), while Emma Harshberger is the 18th-toughest player to strike out (once per 49 ABs), and Ella Harrod is 19th in triples per game (0.14). Cornell leads the league in on-base percentage (.406), runs per game (6.33), and stolen bases per game (1.67).

Series history: Princeton has won five straight against Cornell, sweeping the three-game series in Ithaca last season after taking two of three in Cornell's last visit to Princeton, in 2024. The last time the Big Red were in town, on May 4, 2024, Princeton was down to its last strike in its pursuit of the 2024 Ivy League title, trailing 4-2 before Lauren Sablone '25 hit a three-run home run on a two-out, 3-2 pitch to give Princeton a 5-4 win. In 2025, Princeton outscored Cornell 27-4, Jessica Phelps hit .583 in the series (7-12) with Julia Dumais hitting .571 (4-7), Karis Ford hitting .500 (6-11), Sonia Zhang hitting .500 (4-8) with the team's only two home runs of the series, Abby Hornberger hitting .500 (1-2), and Graciela Dominguez hitting .375 (3-8), giving Princeton its top six players by batting average from that series as returners this year. All 19 of Princeton's innings in the circle are back as well, with Brielle Wright having thrown 11 1/3 shutout innings of the team's 19. For the Big Red, Maddie Ullensvang hit .500 (3-6) and Ella Harrod hit .400 (4-10). Four arms saw action for the Big Red in the series last year, but two of those arms accounted for 16 2/3 of the team's 19 innings, and of those, only Kyrie Denny returns after throwing eight innings in last year's series with a 4.38 ERA. Princeton outhit Cornell .366 to .222 in the series and held a 1.47 to 5.16 ERA advantage.

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 263 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.

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