Softball: 48-game season opens in Maryland

The Tigers opened up the season the same way last year, going 1-2 in the tournament before the last day had to be cancelled due to rain. This year, the squad is slated to play in five games over the span of three days against University of Maryland, Baltimore County (2-6), Niagara (0-5), James Madison (3-6) and Canisius (1-3) twice.

In Princeton’s quest to get off to a good start and improve from last year’s record (16-26 overall, 7-13 Ivy League), the team will rely on several key returning players. Among them are junior outfielder Lizzy Pierce and senior infielder Kelsey VandeBergh, two members of last year’s All-Ivy League first team. Along with her team-leading 10 doubles and 25 RBIs, Pierce maintained a .330 batting average, which ranked 11th in the conference. VandeBergh hit .314, good enough for second on the team behind Pierce, and led the team with five homers and 24 runs scored.

Senior outfielder Nicole Ontiveros and junior pitcher and first baseman Alex Peyton also enjoyed success last year, as the two teammates led the Tigers with 38 hits apiece. Peyton dominated on the rubber as well, posting the league’s seventh-lowest ERA of 3.54.

Pierce, VandeBergh, Ontiveros and Peyton join five other Tigers from the 2011 team, which only graduated two seniors in pitcher Michelle Tolfa and infielder Megan Weidrick. However, the Class of 2015 welcomes in six freshmen who, according to Pierce, have added a new dynamic to the team and show great potential.

“The six freshmen have brought a different energy to our team,” she said. “Not only are they extremely talented, they are willing to sacrifice and fight for a championship. They are competitors and have made practice and game-day atmospheres more intense. Those six players will make a huge impact on our season.”

The addition of freshman pitchers Meredith Brown and Sarah McGowan will help replace the loss of Tolfa, while Libby Crowe, Rachel Rendina and Alyssa Schmidt will compete for positions in the infield. Cara Worden will join sophomore Maddie Cousens behind the plate.

As the Tigers will just be starting their season this weekend, they come in at a slight disadvantage to their four opponents, who have already played several games and thus have had time to experiment with their lineups — a yearly problem for the Tigers. This offseason’s mild winter has provided Princeton with the rare opportunity to practice outdoors. Usually the team must wait until game day to hit the dirt and grass.

The UMBC Retriever Classic, along with next week’s Maryland Invitational, will help prepare the Tigers for the stiffer competition they will face on their spring break trip to Northern California. There, Princeton will take on four of the seven 2011 NCAA Tournament teams featured on its schedule.

“This difficult schedule will give us some great challenges and force us to step up as a team,” VandeBergh said. “Stepping it up against tough competition allows you to gain confidence in your teammates’ abilities.”

The confidence and experience that Princeton hopes to gain from playing tough non-conference opponents could come just in time for the start of Ivy League play, when Dartmouth visits Class of 1895 Field on March 30. The Tigers will be looking to rebound from last year’s disappointing finish at the bottom of the league standings. In order to rise back to the top and make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2008, Princeton will need to improve its consistency in doubleheader games.

“In Ivy League play last year, we split a lot of doubleheaders, including our twin bills with top teams Cornell and Harvard,” Pierce said. “These results showed that we had the talent to beat any team in the Ivy League, we just were not consistent enough to do it twice in one day. This year, if we keep the same intensity, sense of urgency and competitive spirit through both games in each of our doubleheaders, we will come out on top.”

As the Tigers complete their 48-game schedule, they will continue to honor the life of former teammate Khristin Kyllo by wearing a patch on the right chest of their uniforms with Kyllo’s name and number. Kyllo, a freshman last year, unexpectedly died in early 2011 due to natural causes.

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“We know that if each person on our team played with the fire and desire that Khristin did there is no doubt that we will win the Ivy League. We want to win for her,” Pierce said.