Cornell's defending Ivy League champion softball team has not won a league game yet this year.
Cornell's defending Ivy League champion softball team has also not played a complete league game this year.
The Big Red's game versus Harvard this year was called in the fifth inning of the first game of the doubleheader due to rain, giving the team its lone loss, 1-0.
Cornell's other Ivy League games have all been postponed entirely due to bad weather. Princeton (15-17 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) — which plays the Big Red this Saturday — hopes that this string of bad luck will continue long enough for the Tigers' own string of good luck to continue.
Playing Ivy foes Penn (11-20-1, 0-4) in Philadelphia Friday and Cornell (17-5, 0-1) at home Saturday, the Tigers hope to defend their undefeated Ivy record.
"The last two years, we've dropped two games to Cornell, so there's a little bit of a revenge factor," junior centerfielder Lori Volker said.
Frozen tundra
The Tigers are especially looking forward to meeting the Big Red on their own turf — something they have not been able to do in the past few years.
Although Princeton is banking on home field advantage, the Big Red is most likely happy to get away from its snow-covered, ice-encrusted field in Ithaca, NY.
"A big advantage is that it will be a lot warmer here," Princeton head coach Cindy Cohen said. "But I want [my team] to be comfortable wherever they play."
The Cornell doubleheader looks to be a pitcher's duel. The Tigers' senior No. 1 pitcher Sarah Peterman was named Ivy League Pitcher of the Week, and sophomore No. 2 pitcher Brie Galicinao was named the Ivy Player of the Week.
The Big Red is not about to be intimidated by the hurling power of Princeton, however. Cornell has a star pitcher of its own in No. 1 Nicole Zitarelli.
Zitarelli's record is a nearly unblemished 11-2, with one of those losses coming in the shortened Harvard game. She, too, was recently named Ivy Pitcher of the Week.
Zitarelli had a 0.64 ERA in Ivy League games last season, and has started out this season with a 1.61 ERA and 57 strikeouts. In her lone outing in the league this year, she allowed only one run.
Peterman, despite a slow start, has won her last three games, including a nine-inning shutout of Brown last weekend. Her ERA has dropped to 1.70.
In Galicinao, the Tigers have not only a pitching arm, but an offensive threat. To earn the Ivy honors last week, the sophomore hit .417 while pitching 12.2 innings and allowing no earned runs.
Tale of two teams
The Big Red has five players with batting averages above .330, while the Tigers have no players hitting better than .260.
However, the Tigers hope that their newfound offensive success will continue against the Big Red.
"Hitting is contagious," Cohen said. "If we execute on offense and play our own game, I believe we will win."
Princeton also hopes to play better defense in this weekend's games.
"We need to solidify the defense — we had one or two bad innings last week and we need to eliminate those," Peterman said.
Before the Tigers face the bats of the Big Red, however, they must travel to Philadelphia to play the Quakers.
Penn is a young team, and Princeton has been successful against the Quakers in recent meetings. The Tigers had trouble earlier in the season with overlooking opponents and must therefore remain focused, despite Penn's 0-4 Ivy record.
"The only game that matters right now is the Penn game," Cohen said. "We are still improving, and we still need to take it one out at a time, one inning at a time and one game at a time."
Although the Penn game remains forefront in the minds of the Tigers, expect the weekend to really heat up when the present Ivy leaders meet the defending champs.
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