Early on in the Ivy League schedule, it looked like the Dartmouth softball team was going to be in for yet another long and disappointing season. After starting off with a pair of 1-0 wins over Columbia in the conference openers, the Big Green was routed by the University of Pennsylvania the next day, giving up a combined 25 runs in two games, and lost four more games against Cornell and Princeton. After a brutal stretch against these South Division clubs, the Big Green was 6-21 overall and just 2-6 in the Ivy League.
But Dartmouth's fortune changed when the Big Green began the North Division portion of its schedule. The team has strung together eight consecutive league wins against Brown and Yale, the latest coming in an 8-0 mercy rule victory over the Bulldogs in Hanover last Sunday.
"Penn, Cornell and Princeton are very strong teams. Going into Brown, it was a bit of a confidence boost and things started to click," Angela Megaw '08 said. "Girls were stepping into the box with more confidence, and we've been able to build off of that weekend. I think it's more of an offensive turnaround. We've been hitting the ball real well."
The winning streak has propelled Dartmouth (14-21, 10-6 Ivy) to second place in the North, one game behind Harvard (25-12, 11-5 Ivy). This weekend, the Big Green will face the Crimson in a pivotal four-game series, with two games in Cambridge, Mass., on Saturday, April 28, and a doubleheader at Sachem Field in Hanover on Sunday, April 29.
If the Big Green wins at least three of four games, Dartmouth will take sole ownership of first place in the North Division and be guaranteed a spot in the Ivy League championship against the winner of the South Division on Saturday, May 5, and Sunday, May 6.
This is the first year using this playoff system. In previous years, the Ivy champion was determined by the best conference record out of all eight teams.
"I like the system," Megaw said. "It makes it feel like it's more of a league because we would only play one Ivy League school in one doubleheader. It also makes things more exciting toward the end. Almost everybody is still competing in it right now."
Last season, the Big Green won 3-0 and 3-2 against the Crimson in Dartmouth's final Ivy League games.
Part of the story for Dartmouth is an offensive resurgence. During the six-game losing skid, the Big Green posted only 10 runs. But in the past two weekend series, Dartmouth has tallied 40 runs. Recently, it was a late-inning grand slam by Katie Chifcian '09 against Boston College on Wednesday that helped give Dartmouth a 9-6 victory over the Eagles.
Leading the batting efforts is senior Kelly Fry. Fry leads the team in batting on the season with a .347 average in 35 games played, ninth-best in the Ivy League. She leads the teams in walks with 11 and is currently the Big Green's all-time leader in home runs with 15.
Ashley Gleason '09, batting .256 this season, leads the team with 20 runs batted in overall and 11 RBIs in Ivy League contests. Gleason also has four home runs, tied for the team lead with Alyssa Parker '10.
"Everything that happened in the beginning of the season is in the past," Megaw said.
Despite fielding just two pitchers, head coach Christine Vogt has found success in the pitching duo of Megaw and Stephanie Trudeau '09.
The two combined for three shutouts in the last eight games. Megaw, with a 4.37 earned run average on the year, has allowed five earned runs in that span, while Trudeau, owner of a 3.52 ERA, has given up eight earned runs. In that eight-game span, both pitchers have tossed three complete games apiece.
"We've been working a lot on the mental approach of it and trying to work on our game. If we focus on what we do well as a pitching staff, we can dominate the hitters," Megaw said. "It's more about us bringing our A game into the weekend rather than worrying what their hitters can do."
Harvard comes into the weekend riding its own seven-game winning streak, with the Crimson's most recent win coming in a 4-0 defeat of Providence on Tuesday. The Crimson played BC on Thursday afternoon.
On the year Harvard has a combined .290 batting average, good for third in the league. The Crimson also owns a .363 on-base percentage, third best in the Ivies.
Julia Kidder enters the series with the Big Green batting .374, third in that category in the conference. Teammate Lauren Brown is tenth in the league with a .333 average, and Lauren Murphy is tops in the league with 13 home runs.
On the pitching side, Harvard boasts two strong hurlers. Shelly Madick and Amanda Watkins are first and second in the league in ERA, with a 1.55 ERA and 1.65 ERA, respectively. Madick's 104 strikeouts are also third-best among Ivy League pitchers.
Both doubleheaders begin at 2 p.m.
