Softball set to battle the Northeast's best

Junior catcher Danielle Landolt has had the first weekend in April circled on her calendar for quite a while.

A veteran on the Penn softball team -- Landolt appeared in 41 of Penn's 47 games last season -- the Trenton, Mich., native understands that the Quakers can send shock waves through the Ivy League with wins against Northeast top-ranked foes Columbia and Cornell, who will be paying a visit to Warren Field.

"What we've got is a chance to show that even though we are not ranked, we are just as good as the teams that are," Landolt said. "We've got a real shot to prove ourselves."

Aside from her team proving itself, Landolt has her eyes particularly set on Columbia, against whom Penn will play the second of its weekend doubleheaders on Sunday.

Before coming to Penn, Landolt was recruited by the Lions, who at that time were not yet a member of the Ivy League in women's softball.

"I got a letter from them telling me that they were a club team and that I should keep them in mind ," Landolt said. "They were planning on moving up to the Ivy League in a year and were trying to get players."

Though Lindolt decided not to join the Lions, Columbia has not left itself wanting for any more talent.

While the Lions boast an impressive cadre of underclassmen, it has been the more senior members of the squad that have taken the lead in their surprising 11-9 start.

Columbia's top-two starting hurlers -- junior Allison Buehler and senior Katie Zunno -- have posted a staggering 1.53 ERA combined.

While Buehler leads the staff with six victories, it has been Zunno's name atop the lineup card that has spelled more doom for opposing batters.

The Mineola, N.Y., native has held Columbia's foes to a paltry .197 batting average -- .03 points below the famed Mendoza Line.

But Penn, to say the least, is not afraid of the upstart Lions.

"We want to show them that this is a tough conference," Penn senior Lindsay Wagner said. "I'd like to see us shut them out both games, and our offense really whip them."

But before Penn has the chance to quell the Lions, it will face perennial Ivy champion Cornell.

The Big Red (13-9) -- a team that crushed the Quakers twice last season, 9-1 and 7-0 -- again bring their trademark offensive firepower to Philadelphia.

This season, a new bat -- that of Cornell freshman Lauren May -- has taken the lead in the Big Red's nightly assault on the scoreboard.

May, the starting shortstop and clean-up hitter, has also terrorized opposing pitchers in her rookie year, batting .415 with 10 home runs and 27 runs batted in.

These numbers include her one-week line of six homeruns and 18 RBIs which helped the young star turned the impressive feat of being named both Ivy Player of the Week and Ivy Rookie of the Week.

And May is just one cog in the Big Red machine that has scored seven runs in a game seven times already this season.

"Cornell is the best hitting team by far in the Ivies," Lindolt said. "We know they're going to hit, and we've just got to hit with them."

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