PRINCETON, N.J. -- The 2018 Ivy League softball season saw Harvard claim its first Ivy championship since 2012. The League’s Sports Information Directors and select media do not feel the Crimson will have to wait as long for its next title, as Harvard was picked to repeat in the 2019 preseason poll.
The defending champions Crimson garnered 120 points to hold off last year’s co-champions and Championship Series runners up Dartmouth, which totaled 112 points. Columbia was selected to repeat its third-place finish from a year ago, with Penn, Princeton, Cornell, Yale and Brown rounding out the rest of the poll.
The 2019 season gets underway on Friday, Feb. 22. Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton and Yale kick off their seasons that weekend, with Brown and Penn beginning their campaigns the following weekend.
A total of 31 All-Ivy honorees from 2018 are back this season, including eight of the 13 first team recipients. Reigning Pitcher of the Year
Katie Duncan will lead Harvard’s staff, while first-team All-Ivy catcher and Rookie of the Year
Schae Nelson of Dartmouth is back to lead the Big Green.
Harvard and Dartmouth each return three first-team All-Ivy performers from a season ago. Along with Duncan, the Crimson bring back senior shortstop
Rhianna Rich and senior designated player/utility
Meagan Lantz, while Dartmouth’s Nelson is joined by seniors
Morgan Martinelli (third base) and
Taylor Ward (outfield).
Columbia lost a pair of first teamers to graduation, including 2018 Player of the Year
Taylor Troutt, but brings back six All-Ivy honorees, including a pair of second-teamers in catcher
Amanda Nishihira and outfielder
Sommer Grzybek.
Ivy League softball also features a pair of first-year head coaches, as former Brown assistant coach
Kate Refsnyder returns to lead the Bears, while
Jennifer Williams takes over at Dartmouth.
2019 IVY LEAGUE SOFTBALL PRESEASON POLL
(first-place votes in parentheses)
- Harvard (10) 120
- Dartmouth (5) 112
- Columbia (1) 94
- Penn 75
- Princeton 61
- Cornell 50
- Yale 44
- Brown 20