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Due to Ivy League regulations, until this year Ancient Eight squads have been prohibited from starting their seasons before March 1. Across other conferences, many squads start in the second week of February.
In their opening weekend of conference play, the Quakers (13-11, 3-1 Ivy) swept Harvard for the first time since 2003, defeating the defending-champion Crimson on Friday at Penn Park, 6-3 and 7-2.
Charming their teammates with mischief and athleticism alike, seniors and New York natives Stephanie Caso and Samantha Erosa anchor the Quakers’ defense at shortstop and second base, respectively.
Sophomore Alexis Borden continued her pitching dominance by throwing a no-hitter until the seventh inning, giving the Quakers a 5-1 victory over Holy Cross in the first game of the doubleheader Saturday afternoon.
After a dismal start to the season, the Quakers have answered with four straight wins since last Friday. They hope to continue this momentum against Holy Cross on Saturday.
Penn scored early in each contest but went the distance in a dramatic 8-7 afternoon victory followed by a 2-0 shutout of the Hawks. The sweep marked the second of Lehigh during King’s 10-year tenure.
The Quakers had trouble gaining rhythm early in both games against Lafayette but quickly found their footing, posting an 8-0 afternoon victory followed by an 11-2 evening rout of the Leopards (3-8).
After a rough start to the season, the Quakers will have their first games at Penn Park and hope to continue the trend of doing well on their home turf.
While most students will be off relaxing, the squad will be heading to Florida for spring training before their season opener against Saint Joseph’s in mid-March.
Melendez and Erosa wrapped up a stint on the Puerto Rican national softball team over the weekend at the International Softball Federation’s World Championship, which was played in Whitehorse, Yukon.
The Quakers are sending one assistant coach, Lisa Sweeney of the softball team, to take a head coaching position at Princeton while taking one former head basketball coach on as an assistant, Jason Polykoff of the Friends’ Central School.
The Quakers posted a program-best record of 33 wins but could not overcome the repeat-champion Crimson, who won 1-0 and 5-2 in the championship series.
As Penn softball ace Alexis Borden churned out inning after inning of flawless pitching, nearly everyone in attendance began to realize that she was approaching a hallowed feat: the perfect game.
Currently tied with Cornell for the top spot in the Ivy League, the Red and Blue (27-15, 11-5 Ivy) will play Columbia (12-29, 6-10) for a chance to win their first division championship since 2007 and just second in program history.
For the first time in five years, the Penn softball team will face Cornell without graduated star pitcher Elizabeth Dalrymple. This time, the Quakers will feature the ace.
Under the lights for the first time at Penn Park, the Quakers came back from a deficit on two occasions and piled up a season-high 16 hits to beat the Dragons, 8-7.