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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Stanford
NCAA Regional Set to Open Friday on the Plains as Tigers Face Stanford
May 12, 2026 | Softball
vs. Stanford, Friday, 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT | ACC Network | ESPN+ | Live Stats
vs. Eastern Illinois/Oklahoma State, Saturday, 1 p.m. ET/12 p.m. CT OR 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT
Team Notes:
Princeton is making its 13th NCAA tournament appearance and third in the last five NCAA tournaments, following trips in 2022 and 2024. Princeton's NCAA tournament appearances have come in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2022, 2024 and 2026.
Princeton won the Ivy League's automatic bid by going 3-0 in the Ivy League Tournament at Cynthia Lynn Paul '94 Field, defeating Brown 7-5 in the opener before beating Columbia 6-1 and 8-0. Princeton hit .359 as a team in the tournament, outscored its opponents 21-6, and the Tiger pitching staff had a 2.37 ERA with 21 strikeouts and just one walk in 19 innings.
Princeton will face Stanford for the sixth time and first time since 2010. The Tigers are 1-4 all-time against Stanford, with the lone win coming in 2005. The teams have met three times in California since then: a 1-0 Stanford win in 2006, a 10-0 Stanford win in 2008 and a 7-0 Stanford win in 2010.
Princeton and Oklahoma State have met twice, both times in the 2005 NCAA Regional in Tucson, Ariz. Oklahoma State defeated Princeton 6-1 in the regional opener and 6-3 in the regional final, with Princeton defeating Lehigh 3-1 in between.
Princeton is 2-0 all-time against Eastern Illinois, with wins in 1992 and 1998. The Tigers defeated Eastern Illinois 3-0 at the 1992 National Invitational Championship in Macomb, Ill., and 4-1 at the 1998 Winthrop Invitational in Rock Hill, S.C.
Princeton went 33-13 overall and 18-3 in Ivy League play entering the NCAA tournament. The Tigers won their final three games, all in the Ivy League Tournament, and were 18-4 at home, 10-6 on the road and 5-3 in neutral-site games.
Princeton's 33 wins are its most since winning 36 games in 2006. The Tigers' 18 Ivy League wins tied an Ivy League record set by Princeton in 2008 and equaled by Harvard in 2011 and Dartmouth in 2014. Princeton's 14-0 Ivy start tied its best in program history (2008) and was behind only Dartmouth's 15-0 start in 2014. The Ivy schedule went from 14 games in 2006 to 20 from 2007-17 and 21 since 2018 (no Ivy season in 2020 or 2021).
Princeton had nine All-Ivy League honorees this season. First-team selections were Cassidy Shaw, Graciela Dominguez, Karis Ford and Sonia Zhang. Second-team selections were Julia Dumais, Abby Hornberger, Maddie Ratcheson and Mia Valenzuela. Julieta Roa earned honorable mention All-Ivy League honors. Zhang was also an Academic All-Ivy League honoree (one per team).
Princeton led the Ivy League in conference play in batting average (.374), ERA (2.39) and fielding percentage (.977), becoming the only Ivy team to lead the league in all three categories. The Tigers went 18-3 in Ivy play and outscored league opponents 141-52.
Princeton hit .374/.443/.541 as a team in Ivy play, leading the league in runs (141), hits (230), doubles (36), triples (8), RBI (135), total bases (333), slugging percentage and on-base percentage. The Tigers also led the league with six shutouts and six saves in Ivy play and committed a league-low 14 errors.
Cassidy Shaw was named the Ivy League Tournament Most Outstanding Player after going 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 15 innings over three appearances. Shaw started all three tournament games and helped Princeton win the tournament without using a fourth pitcher for more than four innings.
Princeton placed four players on the Ivy League All-Tournament Team: Cassidy Shaw, Graciela Dominguez, Maddie Ratcheson and Jessica Phelps. Dominguez led the tournament with eight hits and nine total bases while hitting .800 with five RBI. Ratcheson hit .571, and Phelps hit .444 with a double and two RBI.
Graciela Dominguez had an outstanding Ivy League Tournament performance, going 8 for 10 with two runs, five RBI and a double. She led all players in the tournament in hits and total bases and ranked second in RBI.
Abby Hornberger led all players in the Ivy League Tournament with six RBI.Â
Princeton's pitching staff entered the NCAA tournament ranked among the national leaders in several categories. The Tigers ranked 17th nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio, 24th in shutouts, 29th in winning percentage, 34th in ERA, and 54th in WHIP.
Princeton's offense entered the NCAA tournament ranked ninth nationally in batting average at .353. The Tigers also ranked in the top 50 nationally in on-base percentage, hits, slugging percentage and RBI per game, ranking 44th, 48th, 50th and 47th, respectively.
Princeton led the Ivy League in batting average, ERA, fielding percentage, hits, doubles, triples, shutouts, strikeout-to-walk ratio, WHIP and winning percentage.
Princeton's .975 fielding percentage ranked 18th nationally entering the NCAA tournament. The Tigers committed 32 errors in 46 games and had four players with at least 40 chances and a 1.000 fielding percentage: Maddie Ratcheson, Camryn Bradshaw, Abby Hornberger and Cassidy Shaw.
Princeton's staff allowed just one walk in 19 innings during the Ivy League Tournament. In the tournament, Brielle Wright and Cassidy Shaw combined to strike out 21 batters while allowing 14 hits and five earned runs.
Cassidy Shaw enters the NCAA tournament with a team-best 16 wins and 102 strikeouts. Shaw is the first Princeton pitcher with 100 strikeouts in a season since Alexis Laudenslager in 2022 and the first to win at least 16 games since the 2006 season.
Brielle Wright enters the NCAA tournament as Princeton's and the Ivy League's career saves leader, with 15. Wright set both the Princeton and Ivy League single-season saves records with 10 in 2024, and has added three saves in 2026.
Current Princeton players who appeared in the 2024 NCAA tournament include Julia Dumais, Karis Ford, Allie Goodwin, Courtney Harrison, Cassidy Shaw, Brielle Wright and Sonia Zhang. Zhang, Dumais, Ford and Goodwin appeared at the plate, Harrison appeared as a pinch runner, and Shaw and Wright pitched.
In the 2024 NCAA tournament, current active Tigers combined for six hits and five RBI at the plate. Zhang went 3 for 9 with a double and three RBI, and Dumais went 2 for 8 with two RBI. Shaw went 1-0 with a 0.78 ERA and 12 strikeouts over nine innings, while Wright had a save and a 2.42 ERA over 8 2/3 innings.
Princeton's win over Ole Miss in the 2024 NCAA tournament was the program's first NCAA tournament win since 2005. Shaw earned the win, throwing five shutout innings with eight strikeouts, and Wright earned the save with two innings of relief. It was the Ivy League's first win in the NCAAs since Harvard in 2012, which lost its opener and then won twice to reach the regional final at Washington.
The 2026 regional will be the first for Princeton since 2008 in which the Tigers do not open against the highest-seeded team in the regional. That year, Princeton opened against UMass, which hosted despite Stanford being the highest-seeded team in the regional. The next year, in 2009, with Cornell, also at UMass with Washington as the highest-seeded team, was the last time that the Ivy representative opened against an opponent other than the highest-seeded team in the regional. At that 2008 regional for the Tigers, then-Lisa Sweeney, pitching for Lehigh, ended Princeton's season with a complete-game win in an elimination game. Five years later, in 2013, she became Princeton's head coach.
Lisa Van Ackeren is leading Princeton to the NCAA tournament for the fifth time, following appearances in 2016, 2017, 2022, 2024 and 2026. Van Ackeren has now matched Cornell's Dick Blood for the second-most NCAA tournament appearances by an Ivy League softball head coach, behind only Harvard's Jenny Allard (eight). With a win this weekend, Van Ackeren would become the third Ivy League coach to win games in multiple NCAA tournaments, joining Princeton's Cindy Cohen (wins in three tournaments) and Harvard's Jenny Allard (wins in two).
Van Ackeren has been part of eight NCAA tournaments as either a player or head coach, reaching three as a player at Lehigh in 2006, 2008 and 2009 and five as Princeton's head coach.
Princeton has won NCAA tournament games in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2005 and 2024. The 1995 and 1996 teams each advanced from regional play to the Women's College World Series.
Maddie Ratcheson was one of Princeton's top newcomers, earning second-team All-Ivy League honors, three Ivy League Rookie of the Week awards and a place on the Ivy League All-Tournament Team. Ratcheson hit .367 and fielded 1.000 behind the plate, handling 218 chances without an error.
Mia Valenzuela earned second-team All-Ivy League honors as a freshman after hitting .371 with 49 hits, 10 doubles, seven home runs and 32 RBI. Valenzuela was twice named Ivy League Rookie of the Week and was also Ivy League Player of the Week on March 23.
Sonia Zhang has now earned first-team All-Ivy League honors in each of her first three collegiate seasons. Zhang enters the NCAA tournament with 154 career hits, 116 runs, 17 home runs, 92 RBI and a .354 career batting average.
Zhang has struck out just 43 times in 435 career at-bats. In 2026, she struck out only nine times in 158 at-bats, ranking among the Ivy League leaders (fifth) and nationally (128th) among the toughest players to strike out.
Julia Dumais enters the NCAA tournament with 180 career hits, 136 runs, 42 doubles, 12 triples, 19 home runs and 119 RBI. Dumais has been All-Ivy League in all four seasons of her career, earning second-team honors in 2023 and 2026 and first-team honors in 2024 and 2025.
Karis Ford is a two-time first-team All-Ivy League honoree and the 2024 Ivy League Tournament Most Outstanding Player. Ford enters the NCAA tournament with 21 career home runs and 93 RBI.
Abby Hornberger has had the best full season of her career as a senior, earning second-team All-Ivy League honors after hitting .339 with 11 doubles, five home runs and 25 RBI. Hornberger drove in a tournament-best six runs during the Ivy League Tournament.
Jessica Phelps earned a place on the Ivy League All-Tournament Team after hitting .444 with a double, two RBI and a walk. Phelps enters the NCAA tournament as a career .350 hitter with 64 hits and 45 RBI in two seasons.
Julieta Roa earned honorable mention All-Ivy League honors after moving from a reserve role as a freshman to a starting outfield role as a sophomore. Roa has hit .322 with 39 hits, 23 runs and eight stolen bases.
Princeton has had five players hit .367 or better in 2026: Graciela Dominguez (.435), Julia Dumais (.386), Karis Ford (.377), Mia Valenzuela (.371) and Maddie Ratcheson (.367).
Princeton has had seven players drive in at least 25 runs in 2026: Julia Dumais (34), Sonia Zhang (32), Mia Valenzuela (32), Jessica Phelps (29), Karis Ford (28), Maddie Ratcheson (25) and Abby Hornberger (25).
Princeton has had seven players hit at least three home runs in 2026: Mia Valenzuela (seven), Karis Ford (six), Julia Dumais (five), Abby Hornberger (five), Jessica Phelps (three), Sonia Zhang (three) and Maddie Ratcheson (two). Braeden Hale also hit two home runs in just eight games before missing the rest of the season due to injury.
Princeton's roster has strong West Coast representation, with seven players from California and one from Washington, along with Texas, Georgia, Florida, Virginia (two each), Illinois, Michigan and New York (one each).
Princeton's academic range includes student-athletes majoring in fields such as economics, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, chemical and biological engineering, civil and environmental engineering, ecology and evolutionary biology, and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
