Almost Perfect: Softball Loses Once in Ivy; Makes NCAAs

The Harvard softball team got back to where it belonged this season--on top of the Ivy League.

The Crimson avenged last season's Ivy title loss to Cornell and fought off a challenge from up-and-coming Dartmouth to secure its second league title in three years and a trip to the postseason.

"It's really exciting to go out like this--graduating with an Ivy League championship," co-captain Deborah Abeles said. "It's just everything we could have hoped for."

A second Ivy championship seemed far away when the Crimson started its season in early March. Harvard began the year 0-5 at the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Lead Off Classic in March. Most of its opponents there had been playing since early February.

The Crimson fared better in its first games against local competition. Harvard earned a win over Vermont with a trifecta of home runs from Abeles, junior catcher Mairead McKendry and sophomore infielder Cherry Fu. The Crimson followed that up with a split at St. John's on the strength of a shutout by sophomore Suzanne Guy.

Over spring break, the Crimson did not relax a bit, playing 12 games in 10 days between the Buzz Classic in Atlanta, a doubleheader at Virginia and the Hokie Classic at Virginia Tech. McKendry led the team with five home runs on the trip, but Harvard managed just three wins and came home with a 4-15 overall record.

But Harvard managed to turn its season around in its Ivy opener at defending champion Cornell. Junior pitcher Chelsea Thoke and Cornell sophomore Nicole Zitarelli were locked in a scoreless pitchers' duel until Abeles finally broke the stalemate with a solo game-winning shot in the fifth inning. Thoke pitched hitless ball for the full six innings of the rain-shortened game to earn the win.

The crucial victory allowed Harvard to bounce back from a rough start to its season, which was made even tougher by the difficulties the team faced off the field.

"The team's been through a lot of personal tragedies this year, and we've always been there for each other," co-captain Ghia Godfree said. "But through everything, we still managed to win the Ivy League title."

With the momentum gained from the Cornell win, Harvard went on to maul its league opponents in eight Ivy games over the next three weekends.

The Crimson outscored its opponents by a 70-20 margin over that stretch. The rain, which postponed seven of 12 scheduled games, was the only force capable of slowing down the unstoppable Crimson bats.

"We've done a wonderful job playing together as a team, and people have been stepping up at key times." Coach Jenny Allard said during the streak.

The only game in which Harvard ran into any trouble was the first Penn game. The last-place Quakers went up, 5-3, on Harvard in the fourth to give the Crimson a scare, but the Harvard bats erased the deficit, and back-to-back home runs from McKendry and sophomore outfielder Sarah Koppel in the sixth iced the 10-5 Harvard victory.

Harvard further asserted its Ivy dominance by completely flattening traditional Ivy power Princeton in a Sunday doubleheader. The sweep was a day to remember for freshman Tiffany Whitton, who pitched the Crimson to a 6-2 win in the first game and hit her first career home run to lead off the scoring in Harvard's 9-1 win in the second.

Even after all the blowout victories, the Crimson still needed a split with Dartmouth in the season's final week to secure the Ivy title.

The first game matched up Thoke with Ivy Pitcher of Year Christine Quattrocchi. Abeles--who was three weeks removed from breaking her wrist in a game against Yale--came through in spite of her injury with a two-RBI single. But those were all the runs Harvard could manage, and Dartmouth went on to win, 3-2.

With its hopes of Ivy perfection crushed, Harvard came out loose and ready to play in the second game. Whitton, for the second time that week, homered to start off a game. That would be all the scoring Suzanne Guy would need on the day. She pitched a spectacular three-hit shutout in which just a few balls ever left the infield. Abeles--broken wrist and all--was perfect in the field with seven assists on the day.

The win over Dartmouth clinched the Ivy title and gave Harvard an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Two weeks later, the Crimson flew out to Oklahoma to begin double-elimination Regional play.

In the Regional opener, the No. 3 Sooners dominated the Crimson on both sides of the plate in an 11-0 blowout. McKendry and senior Crystal Springer--who batted .447 to lead Harvard in hitting on the season--were the only two Crimson players with hits. Thoke managed to strike out six for Harvard, but she gave up two home runs and could not keep the Sooners from invoking the mercy rule.

In an elimination game against Northwestern the next day, senior Jessie Amberg and Whitton hit back-to-back home runs to build a 4-0 Harvard lead. After the Wildcats came back to tie, Whitton hit a two-RBI double to give the Crimson the lead again. But it wasn't enough, as poor luck on defense and questionable umpiring allowed Northwestern to come back and eliminate Harvard by a 9-6 score.

While the NCAA performance was not what Harvard had hoped for, the Ivy championship was a well-deserved ending to the careers of Abeles, Godfree, Springer and Amberg. The 41-7 Ivy record over the senior class's four-year term is the best in the history of the program.

For the team that they leave, the future looks bright. With six All-Ivy players returning for next year, Harvard will be the team to beat in the Ivy League for the foreseeable future.