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Sometimes things just don't turn out as you expect them to.
As the Penn softball team gears up for the final contests of the regular season this weekend against Columbia (13-30, 5-11 Ivy), that seems to be the overarching theme.
Penn softball came alive this week. With their first-ever four-game sweep of Cornell, the Quakers extended their winning streak to six games after dropping three of four to Princeton last weekend.
“Taking four from a team in one weekend is really difficult to do,” Penn coach Leslie King said.
Maybe all they needed was just a little time away from the Ancient Eight.
In a brief interlude from Ivy League competition, Penn took both games of a doubleheader against Saint Joesph's yesterday, defeating the Hawks by scores of 7-0 and 4-1.
The two games signified a returned to early season form for the Quakers (17-19), who have struggled recently in Ivy play.
The first time that Penn softball coach Leslie King stepped onto a softball diamond, she broke her nose.
A freshman in high school at the time, King fell victim to an untimely groundball that flew up into her face rather then nestling into her mitt.
“I had never played before,” she explained.
Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, as the old saying goes, but Penn softball are surely wishing it counted in their sport after this weekend.
After a weekend road trip that saw Penn softball incur four straight losses, two of which went to extra innings, the Quakers were itching to head back to Philadelphia.
Penn softball may be down, but they are certainly not out.
Last weekend, the Quakers (13-16, 2-6 Ivy) played through a string of disappointing road losses to Dartmouth and Harvard.
For Penn softball, not much has changed in the last two seasons. They have had a strong offense, made several runs at the Ivy Title and had an ace starter named Alexis.
But this year, the difference is in the last name.
Just a year after graduating perhaps the most illustrious pitcher in program history in Alexis Borden, the Quakers have found a new star in the circle in junior Alexis Sargent.
After waiting in the ranks for two years behind Borden, Sargent emerged as Penn's next top starter early in the season, wasting little time in establishing herself as a bona fide ace.
Less than a day after their men’s hoops counterparts won a national championship on an improbable buzzer-beating three pointer, Villanova softball traveled to University City to take on its counterparts from Penn.
Unlike the Wildcats’ victory over North Carolina, however, the outcome of this cross-town matchup was never in doubt, with Villanova cruising to a 10-0 decision.
Not many players can look back at a season of batting .278 and tallying 31 RBI and call it an off year. But for Penn softball’s Leah Allen, that’s exactly what 2015 was.
Well, hopefully they got that out of their system.
In their last action before kicking off Ivy League play on Friday against Yale, Penn softball fell in both games of a doubleheader versus Lehigh at Penn Park on Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday night was a lesson in getting halfway there for the Quakers.
Despite recording hits in nearly every one of the 14 innings played against La Salle at home on Wednesday night’s doubleheader, Penn (9-7) couldn’t manage to bring most of those eager runners on base home.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
After a rousing comeback to win the first game 8-4, Penn softball dropped the second game of their doubleheader by the score of 13-0 to Army on Friday night at Penn Park.