Harvard-Cornell: Five Years of Great Ivy Softball

In the mid-90's, two events dramatically altered the course of Ivy League softball: Cornell's hiring Dick Blood to develop its fledgling softball program and Harvard's hiring of Jenny Allard to revitalize a softball team that hadn't had a winning Ivy season since 1989.

Since arriving in 1996 season, Blood has transformed Big Red softball into one of the most successful programs at the school. Cornell athletics have produced just three Ivy titles over the past three years. Two of them belong to softball.

Only the Crimson softball team has found more success than Cornell in recent Ivy seasons. Through seven seasons at Harvard, Allard has won three Ivy titles and placed no worse than second. In the 14 years before Allard's arrival, Harvard finished as high as second just twice.

The two schools have combined to win every Ivy title since 1998. So when 2001 Ivy co-champs Harvard and Cornell face off in an playoff series tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. at Soldiers Field, it will hardly be the first time the schools have met with their respective seasons on the line.

The Harvard-Cornell rivalry begin in earnest in 1997, when both teams earned berths in the ECAC tournament, which brings together the top four eastern member schools that fail to make NCAAs. Harvard swept Cornell during the regular season, but the Big Red came back to take two of three games from the Crimson in the postseason to take the ECAC championship.

One year later, both Harvard and Cornell each landed pitchers who made immediate impacts for their respective teams-present-day seniors Chelsea Thoke of Harvard and Nicole Zitarelli of Cornell. Thoke and Zitarelli are entirely different pitchers. Thoke is a strikeout pitcher. Zitarelli is not. Both have found great success with their contrasting styles. The fate of this weekend's playoff rests largely in their hands.

Zitarelli is just 2-3 for her career against the Crimson, but those two wins stand among the most important in Cornell softball history. Thoke has won four of five career starts against the Big Red. Her first victory against Cornell came just over three years ago, on a day that Crimson softball made history.

Harvard Claims First Title

April 27, 1998-Harvard (8-0 Ivy) came into Ithaca with its first-ever Ivy title within striking distance. Cornell (8-2 Ivy) was the only Ivy team capable of catching the Crimson.

Zitarelli and Thoke would not meet in the doubleheader, as the freshmen were matched up against the oppositions' veteran aces, Cornell junior Julie Westbrock, who was riding a 14-game personal winning streak, and Harvard's Tasha Cupp `98.

The Crimson had roughed up Westbrock in their last meeting in the aforementioned 1997 ECAC Tournament, and was hoping for more of the same in game one. It didn't happen, as Westbrock limited Harvard to just two runs in seven innings.

But Thoke was better. She kept the Big Red off the scoreboard until the bottom of the seventh, and shut down a last-gasp Cornell rally with her 11th strikeout of the afternoon. Harvard won, 2-1.

The second contest was no contest. Zitarelli was shelled in her first career outing against the Crimson. The Harvard bats, keyed by a home run from Deborah Abeles `00, provided more than enough runs for Cupp. The Crimson won 10-0, and clinched the first league championship in the 18-year history of Harvard softball.

Zitarelli's Revenge

April 24, 1999-Courtesy of Princeton, Harvard (7-1 Ivy) trailed Cornell (8-0 Ivy) by a game going into a Soldiers Field doubleheader. The Crimson knew it needed a sweep to stay alive in the Ivy race.

As was typical of the season, a doubleheader sweep would have required Thoke to earn two complete game victories in one day, while outdueling both Westbrock and Zitarelli, who had been dominant all season.

Thoke was untouchable in the first game, holding Cornell hitless until the seventh in a 2-0 shutout. Hits from Tara LaSovage `99, Abeles `00, and a Westbrock error keyed Harvard's scoring.

Thoke and Zitarelli battled into extra innings the climactic game two. Zitarelli scattered eight hits, but the game was still knotted at 1-1 after seven innings, with Harvard's only run coming off an RBI double from freshman Sarah Koppel.

Thoke was resilient to the end, playing through a line drive that deflected of her knee in the top of the eighth. But then sophomore Kelli Larsen-who has been mostly a bench player to this day at Cornell-delivered a clutch, pinch-hit, two-run, and two-out RBI double to put the Big Red up 3-1. The Harvard bats could not answer. Cornell clinched the Ivy title with a sweep of Dartmouth the next day.

At season's end, Thoke was awarded Ivy Softball Player of the Year Honors.

The Beginning and the End

April 8, 2000-Going into their Ivy-opening doubleheader at Ithaca, Cornell and Harvard appeared to be two teams headed in opposite directions. Cornell (17-4 overall) was ranked among the best teams in the northeast, while Harvard (7-15 overall) suffered through a nightmarish beginning to its season.

But Thoke and Abeles turned that season around. In an encore of their extra-inning duel from the previous year, Thoke and Zitarelli battled to a scoreless tie through four innings, as rain clouds loomed overhead.

In the top of the fifth, Abeles ended the deadlock with a crisp solo blast out of Niemand-Robinson field. That was all the scoring Harvard would need, as Thoke held the Big Red hitless through the duration of the game, which was cut short by rain in the sixth inning.

The 1-0 Harvard victory sent the two teams spiraling in opposite directions. The Crimson went on to win its next eight Ivy games by a combined 70-20 score, while the Big Red struggled and fell out of Ivy contention.

May 6, 2000-Harvard made up the second end of doubleheader at the conclusion of its regular season. The Crimson (10-1) had already clinched its second Ivy title in three seasons, while Cornell (3-6) was looking for some form of redemption.

This time, freshman Tiffany Whitton got the call on the mound for Harvard against Zitarelli. She stepped up to the challenge and threw a three-hit shutout while striking out seven. The Crimson bats touched up Zitarelli in a three-run fifth for the game's only scoring.

Zitarelli's Ivy record for the season plummeted to a dismal 1-5. Her overall career record before the season's Ivy opener had been 46-10.

Zitarelli's Revenge, Part II

April 14, 2001-The Crimson (4-2 Ivy) needed a split with Cornell (7-1 Ivy) at Soldiers Field to maintain control of its own destiny in the Ivy race. It didn't happen.

Led by Thoke's arm and her bat, Harvard took the first game of the doubleheader, 7-3. She struck out eight in five innings, while giving up just one run. She also hit a two-run shot off of Cornell freshman pitcher Sarah Sterman.

Whitton and Zitarelli rematched on the mound in the second game, but he result was not the same this time around, as Cornell junior Kristen Hricenak's two-run home run in the fourth gave Zitarelli all the runs she would need in a 2-1 Cornell victory. Junior outfielder Lisa Watanabe doubled home freshman infielder Sarah Williamson for the lone run of the game,

The Next Meeting

Despite the split, Harvard still managed to came back and split the Ivy title with Cornell. The Crimson needed Cornell to lose one of its last four Ivy games between Penn and Princeton. The Big Red, like Harvard earlier in the season, could not figure out Princeton ace Brie Galicinao.

By Ivy rules, Harvard earned the right to host a tiebreaking playoff series with Cornell, thanks to its superior record against third-place Dartmouth. Now Cornell will meet Harvard at Soldiers Field tomorrow afternoon, with an NCAA berth and the pride of two remarkably successful softball teams hanging in the balance.