Ivy Title at Stake This Weekend as Softball Team Heads to Harvard

Saturday, April 25

Cambridge, Mass.

12:30 PM

Princeton University

Harvard

Julia Dumais had an outstanding four games against Harvard last season.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Ivy Title at Stake This Weekend as Softball Team Heads to Harvard

April 19, 2026 | Softball

At 14-1 in the Ivy and with a four-game lead over Harvard, the Princeton softball team will head to the home of their closest pursuers this weekend, needing two wins to wrap up the Ivy League title and Ivy League Tournament hosting duties before heading back to Princeton.

at Harvard | Int'l Video | Live Stats
Saturday, 12:30 p.m. DH | ESPN+ Game 1 | Game 2
Sunday, 12:30 p.m. single | ESPN+

Ivy standings: At 14-1 in the Ivy, Princeton holds a four-game lead over second-place Harvard (10-5). Though the Tigers took their first loss of the Ivy season last weekend, the team tied the program's best-ever Ivy start, alongside the 14-0 start the 2008 team put together, and Princeton came up just short of matching the best start across any Ivy team, with Dartmouth having started league play 15-0 in 2014. The Ivy season grew from 14 to 20 games ahead of the 2007 season and then to 21 ahead of the 2018 season.

Here's a look at where the Ivy standings are as we head into the weekend:

Team	Record	GB	This weekend's series	Next weekend's series
Princeton	14-1	--	at Harvard	vs. Dartmouth
Harvard	10-5	4	vs. Princeton	at Columbia
Columbia	9-6	5	at Penn	vs. Harvard
Penn	7-8	7	vs. Columbia	at Brown
Brown	6-8*	7.5	at Cornell	vs. Penn
Cornell	7-11	8.5	vs. Brown	Off
Dartmouth	4-10*	9.5	vs. Yale	at Princeton
Yale	5-13	10.5	at Dartmouth	Off

*Dartmouth will host Brown for a postponed game on 2/28

Two Princeton wins this weekend will get Princeton to 16 wins, a number no other team could reach. One win would clinch a share of the Ivy title, but only one win (or no wins) would give the series tiebreaker to Harvard and keep the Crimson alive for the Ivy title and Ivy tournament hosting into next weekend. The top four finishers will make the Ivy League Tournament.

On Princeton: The Tigers (26-11, 14-1) have achieved their fifth straight 20-win season, having averaged 28 wins over the last four seasons. Princeton has had as many as 30 wins in a season during Lisa Van Ackeren's tenure (2024), and should Princeton surpass that, it would be the team's most wins in a season since winning 34 games in 2006. The Tigers were the last conference-unbeaten team in Division I, and Princeton was included in D1Softball's Mid-Major Top 25 for the second straight week, again at No. 25. Entering the week, Princeton led the Ivy League in ERA (3.09), fielding percentage (.977), fewest batters hit by pitchers (eight), hits (362), shutouts (eight), strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.32), triples (11), triples per game (0.30), WHIP (1.47), and winning percentage (.703). Individually, Julia Dumais led the Ivy in assists per game (2.05), doubles (14), doubles per game (0.38), times hit by pitch (11), and times hit by pitch per game (0.30), while Cassidy Shaw leads with fewest hit batters (two) and wins (12), Brielle Wright and Reece Uehara co-lead in saves (three), Uehara leads in ERA (2.30), Wright leads in fewest walks allowed (14), and Sonia Zhang leads in triples (five) and triples per game (0.14). In conference-only games, Princeton has the league's best batting average (.360), co-leads in triples (six), leads in on-base percentage (.436), and has a league-low eight errors on the way to a league-best .982 fielding percentage. The Tigers also have the lowest ERA in league games (1.87), and lead the league in shutouts (five), saves (six), fewest wild pitches (three), and fewest hit batters (two). Individually, Brielle Wright's 0.76 league ERA is the best, as are her three saves, .172 opponent BA and league-low 11 hits, two runs, and two earned runs allowed. Cassidy Shaw's eight wins in league games lead the league, as do Julia Dumais' 43 assists.

On Harvard: The Crimson (18-17-1, 10-5) are coming off taking two of three from Penn, and have won three straight Ivy series and four of their five Ivy series on the season, only seeing Dartmouth take two of three. The Crimson lead the Ivy in double plays (12), double plays per game (0.33), and total sacrifice flies (18). Individually, Nicolette Hunter has a league-high 26 wins, Audrey Szollosi has a league-high 140 at-bats, Ryan Grace has allowed a league-low 42 hits, 24 runs, and 19 earned runs and seven doubles. In league games, Harvard batters have struck out a league-low 58 times, and have not grounded into a double play, and the team has a league-low three sacrifice hits against. Finley Payne has a league-best eight stolen bases in league games.

Series history: Princeton leads Harvard 62-41 all-time and won all four meetings in 2025, sweeping the series in Princeton in the first games at Cynthia Lynn Paul '94 Field and later knocking Harvard out of the Ivy League Tournament. While the Tigers have won the last five in the series, Harvard took two of three in the last visit to Cambridge in 2024, but Princeton won two of three in the 2022 visit there. Since the post-pandemic resumption of play, Princeton is 14-7 against Harvard. In the four games last season, Julia Dumais hit .625 (5-8), had an .813 OBP with five walks and three times hit by a pitch, and slugged 1.625, with a double, two triples and a homer. Karis Ford hit .571 (4-7) and drew six walks for an OBP of .714 while adding a double and two homers for a 1.571 slugging percentage. Princeton's pitching staff had a 2.33 ERA in the four games, with Cassidy Shaw throwing 14 innings with a 2.00 ERA and Brielle Wright throwing 10 2/3 with a 3.28 ERA. Wright had two of the wins, Shaw had one, and Keala Hollenkamp had one, throwing 2 1/3 shutout innings. Finley Payne led Harvard at the plate with a .538 average (7-13) with two doubles and a homer to slug .923 as Harvard hit .271 as a team. The Crimson pitching staff had a 7.10 ERA, using six arms in all with three of those each throwing either 7 1/3 or 7 2/3 and three others each throwing 1/3 of an inning. Nicolette Hunter and Ryan Grace each had a 5.48 ERA in 7 2/3 innings pitched, and Riley Flynn had a 5.73 ERA in 7 1/3. Hunter and Flynn split the four decisions, with two each.

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. Princeton has won 23 Ivy titles in program history, more than double any other team, with Harvard's 10 as second-most.

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 is the fifth-winningest head coach in Ivy League history, at 279 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.