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.

Perfection is hard to reach in sports. To be able to play an entire game without a single blemish is something that few can claim to do.

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.

Junior outfielder Leah Allen strides from the dugout to the batter’s box, pounding bass echoes through the relatively empty stands at Penn Park.

They've been so close, they could almost taste it. For consecutive years, Penn softball has reigned supreme in the Ivy South Division.

Following last May’s season-ending loss in the Ivy League Championship Series to Dartmouth, Penn softball said a heartfelt goodbye to a talented group of graduating seniors.

In poker and in softball, having an ace dramatically increases the likelihood of victory. In the initial stretches of the season, however, it is clear that Penn softball will have to bet with different odds.

Ten games in seven days. That’s how Penn softball spent its spring break, as the team kicked off their 2016 season with a week of training and competition in Clearwater, Fla.

While the rest of Penn’s student body will be busy relaxing and enjoying its week off, the Quakers will be hard at work as they kick off their season

Take a look at the statistical leaderboards from Penn softball’s 2015 season and one name appears over and over again: Jurie Joyner, Jurie Joyner, Jurie Joyner.

Thanks to Isaac Newton, it is a law of motion that an “object in motion tends to remain in motion.” This principle, otherwise known as inertia, holds true for Dartmouth softball.

Imagine it’s the bottom of the sixth inning in the rubber match of the Ivy League Championship series, your team is up 3-2 and just three outs separate you from an Ancient Eight crown, an NCAA berth and a chance at glory. Then, the opposing team drills in five runs, gains control of the lead in punishing fashion and all of that glory slips away. Penn softball doesn’t have to imagine.

Penn softball has been firing on all cylinders recently, having won six of its last eight, and Jurie Joyner has played a big role in the team’s thriving offense.

Contrary to the sport’s name, Penn softball balled awfully hard this weekend. The Red and Blue took three out of four games in a home-and-home matchup with Columbia this weekend, which — coupled with a pair of losses by Princeton — clinched the Ivy League South Division title for the Quakers. Having wrapped up the division, Penn will now square off with Dartmouth in the Ivy League Championship Series for the third consecutive season. The Red and Blue's weekend started Saturday afternoon when they squared off with the Lions in the Big Apple.

It’s familiar territory for Penn softball. Win this weekend and there will be playoff softball at Penn Park again this year.