The Big Red (12-14, 2-2 Ivy) fell twice to the Yale University Bulldogs last week before getting a boost with a pair of wins against Brown University. Cornell's biggest strength is their batting, pitcher Kristen Rumley '15 said.
"[Our coach] stressed the fact that when I'm pitching I need to be a little cautious with them," Rumley said. "They're an aggressive team. We need to make sure we're not giving them anything they can hit hard."
The Big Red is currently leading the Ivy League with a .312 batting average, 244 hits and 23 home runs.
Last year, Cornell defeated Dartmouth in both of their matchups in Ithaca, N.Y. Captain Hillary Hubert '13 said the Big Red softball team is disciplined and well-coached.
"It's going to be a game that is won or lost on little mistakes," Hubert said.
The Big Green have seen significant contributions from some of the team's younger players this year. Rumley leads the Ivy League in the circle with 11 wins and 101 strikeouts so far this season. Rumley now has 252 strikeouts in her Big Green career, and is in fourth place on the Dartmouth all-time list.
Head coach Rachel Hanson lauded her ace's abilities and said "she can go up against the best."
Katie McEachern '16 is leading the team in most batting categories, with a .382 batting average, 5 home runs and a .460 on-base percentage.
Rumley praised the freshmen for their offensive contributions.
"The '16s have really stepped up hitting wise," she said. "It shows that they are officially ready to play in the Ivies."
Hanson cited the freshmen as a key factor to the team's successes.
"They don't play like freshmen, they play like they're a lot more experienced," she said. "They're not worried about anything but getting out there and playing hard."
After having Sunday off, the team went back to work this week to prepare for the Big Red. On Tuesday, they scrimmaged as a team, working on challenging the catchers to throw runners out at second base, minimizing opponents' scoring opportunities. On Wednesday, many players went in by themselves to practice hitting on their own.
This past weekend the team drove five hours to New York City and then another two hours to Philadelphia to kick off Ivy League play against Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania in a pair of twin bills. Both times, Dartmouth came out victorious in the first game but fell in the second. Hubert said that it has taken the team more time to start attacking and hitting in the second game, where they start hitting in the sixth or seventh inning.
"We come out fairly stronger towards the end of every game," Hubert said. "Winning can become easy to do and hard to repeat. It's hard to beat a good team twice."
The difficulty is remaining mentally focused for four hours straight during doubleheaders, Rumley said. Another contributing factor is that during the first game, players are prepared to go up against the opposing team's number one pitchers, but in the second game the team falls to the opposing team's second and third best hurlers, Rumley said.
"I think we are not mentally focused on the fact that we can hit these pitchers," she said. "[Our coach] has been telling us to come back refocused."
Hanson said the team does not plan to change anything major about team technique in light of approaching games.
"We're pretty big on getting a little better each day," she said. "Nothing big, nothing new. We've been hitting the ball well, preparing for their pitchers, different approaches at the plate."
The team will play a second doubleheader in Hanover on Saturday when they face Princeton University at 12:30 p.m..
