Women's Softball sweeps Cornell en route to Ivy League Championship berth

There are several ways to cap off the regular season. Going on a seven-game winning streak and securing a spot in the Ivy League Championship series is a pretty good one. That is exactly what the Princeton softball team accomplished this Friday and Saturday. The Tigers swept Cornell in a four game series to grab the top spot in the Ivy South Division, advancing to the championships.

The Princeton squad traveled to Ithaca on Friday for the first two games of the series. Coming off a three-game winning streak from their match-up against Columbia, the Tigers carried their momentum into the first game against Big Red. This showed itself early as the Tigers began to gain a definite advantage, scoring the first five runs.

Princeton then carried its performance to the defensive end where they handed Cornell a shutout until the fifth inning, when Cornell’s Taylor Goodin put Big Red on the scoreboard with a solitary shot. However, the Tigers would more than return the favor heading into the end of the game. In the end, the Princeton squad captured an emphatic victory, 10-1, to set the tone for the rest of competition.

The Tigers would follow their early victory with another win, beating Big Red, 4-2, in game two. Again, the Tigers got a strong start, leading the Cornell team, 3-0. But Big Red would show its resilience, clawing its way back with two runs. However, Cornell would never get closer, as the Tigers took the seventh inning with a single run to ice the match.

With their two-game victory over Cornell, the Princeton squad closed out the Ivy South and gained its first Ivy Championship position since 2008. However, the Orange and Black would not rest on their laurels. Returning to home for the next two games, the Tigers showed equal effort as they completed a sweep of Big Red.

Perhaps Princeton’s gutsiest performance came in the first home game. While the Tigers would eventually prove victorious, they only narrowly managed to edge out well-balanced Cornell team, 4-3. As in their previous two games, it would be the Princeton team that would land the first blow. The Tigers scored a pair of runs in the second inning. Cornell would match the Princeton effort in the fifth inning, but the Tigers would once again find a response.

Princeton would complete the sweep in dominant fashion in its last competition against old Ivy rivals. The Tigers started the first two innings in modest fashion, scoring a single run as the game was tied at 1-1. However, the momentum quickly shifted in the Tigers' favor to start the third inning when the Princeton team scored five runs. They followed that remarkable spree by scoring another six runs in the fourth. The game was ultimately cut short by the fifth inning as the Tigers claimed a 12-2 victory.

The Tigers will now face either Dartmouth or Harvard in the championship game. The Crimson and Big Green are currently locked in their own four game series, which has been delayed due to poor weather. Dartmouth needs to win the two remaining games to advance, while Harvard only needs one more win to secure the Ivy North Division. Regardless of who the Tigers face, the championship match will certainly keep us on the edge of our seats.