Can 2-6 Softball climb Ivy ladder?

Six games are all that remain of the Penn softball team's Ivy League schedule. And the Quakers will play four of them this weekend, as they travel to Columbia and Cornell. Heading into the weekend, Penn finds itself in an uncomfortable, yet familiar, spot. After finishing 2-10 and last in the Ivies in 2000, the Red and Blue are once again in the Ancient Eight basement this season with a 2-6 mark. However, with two weekend opponents and Princeton left on their schedule, the Quakers could recover ground quickly and get right back into the Ivy race. Penn has this opportunity because of the parity of competition in the Ivies this year. Cornell, with an 8-2 record, is at the top. But several of the teams, including Penn, are bunched together in the standings and have the opportunity for a quick ascent. Columbia (3-7) and Penn are both five games out of the race, and are both right behind Princeton and Brown, who each own 3-5 records. "We still have a golden opportunity in the Ivies," Penn coach Carol Kashow said. The Quakers matched up moderately well against its Ivy opponents last weekend, going 2-2 against Brown and Yale. The team took a step back on Wednesday, though, when it lost a pair of games to Villanova in a doubleheader marred by errors and mental lapses on the field. "We can still finish in first place, but it will take the kind of effort that we had last weekend," Kashow said. "Not the effort, or lack there of, that we had [Wednesday.]" Penn will have to be back at the top of its game against the first-place Big Red and the quickly improving Lions. "We'll come back hard tomorrow on defense to be ready for Cornell and Columbia," Sophomore Deb Kowalchuk said after Wednesday's losses. "Cornell is tough, but we beat Columbia down in Florida." Cornell and Columbia are opponents coming from opposite directions. The Big Red are no stranger to first place after winning the Ivies in 1999. This season, they have used a balance of powerful offense and dependable pitching to garner a 24-13 overall record. Columbia, on the other hand, is in its first year of competition in the Ivy League and has struggled at times to put runs on the board. The Lions were shut out in all seven of their Ivy losses this season. The Quakers, however, will not be taking the Lions lightly. "I don't know what they're feeding them in New York," Penn co-captain Clarisa Apostol said. "But [Columbia winning games] just goes to show you that no matter how long you've been in the league, any team can walk away with a win on any given day." The Quakers will need to walk away with a few wins of their own this weekend if they plan on making a move to climb out of the Ivy League basement.

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