Games 35-36: Cornell vs. Penn
First Pitch: Saturday, April 11, 2009- 12:30 p.m.
Site: Niemand·Robison Softball Field
Records: Cornell (27-7, 6-2 Ivy); Penn (9-20, 4-4 Ivy) 
Live Stats

Games 37-38: Cornell vs. Penn
First Pitch: Sunday, April 12, 2009- 12:30 p.m. 
Live Stats

ITHACA, N.Y.—The Big Red softball team opens Ivy South Division action this weekend as it plays host to Penn for two doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. Cornell leads the South Division with a 6-2 Ivy mark (27-7 overall), while Penn sits in second with a 4-4 record (9-20 overall).

Scouting the Quakers
Penn brings a 9-20-1 and 4-4 Ivy League record into the weekend against the Big Red. The Quakers are led by Alisha Prystowky with a .369 batting average and five home runs, while Jamie Boccanfuso has a .359 average. Keiko Uraguchi leads the Penn baserunners with 10 stolen bases. Jessie Lupardus paces her team with a 1.43 ERA and 6-4 record, while Cailyn Hennessy is 1-4 with a 3.78 ERA.

How We Rank…
The Big Red leads the Ivy League in team batting with a .304 average and in pitching with a 1.69 team ERA in overall games this season. Jessy Berkey (.396), Ashley Garvey (.394), Elise Menaker (.368) and Alyson Intihar (.364) rank third through sixth in the league, respectively. Freshman Lauren Marx leads the Ivies with a 0.66 ERA and 5-1 record. Dalrymple ranks third with a 1.25 ERA and 11-2 mark. The Big Red ranks first in seven individual batting categories including hits, home runs, runs scored, doubles, RBI, total bases, and slugging percentage.

League Only Games
The Big Red has a .338 team batting average against Ivy League opponents. Ashley Garvey ranks third in the league with a .480 batting average, while Jessy Berkey is fourth hitting .462.

All Things Ivy
Cornell sits in first place in the Ivy South Division with a 6-2 mark and is two games in front of Penn (4-4). In the North Division, Dartmouth paces the four teams with a 6-2 record, while Harvard is second with a 5-3 mark.

Ivy Honors
Junior first baseman Ashley Garvey was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on April 1 after leading the Big Red softball team to a perfect 4-0 conference start against Brown and Yale. Garvey hit .615 in the four games with two home runs and two doubles to put Cornell in first place in the Ivy South Division. Garvey drove in a team-high eight RBI and had a 1.231 slugging percentage. The first baseman was perfect in the field with 24 putouts and one assist. Garvey opened the weekend hitting .714 against the Bears going 5-for-7 at the plate.

On March 24, Cornell softball's Elise Menaker and Elizabeth Dalrymple swept Ivy honors. Menaker was named Ivy Player of the Week after notching a .436 batting average, while Dalrymple went 4-0 to earn Pitcher of the Week honors. Menaker started in all 12 games and notched 17 hits on Cornell's spring break trip. She totaled five doubles, a triple and a home run. With 27 total bases she had a .692 slugging percentage. Menaker went 3-for-4 at the plate with three RBI and a home run in Cornell's 7-2 win at Bethune-Cookman. The junior also went 3-for-3 in Cornell's last game of the week, and notched two RBI in a 9-1 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay. Dalrymple went 4-0 for Cornell on the mound during its Florida Spring Break trip. Dalrymple pitched four complete games to record a 0.94 ERA and held her opponents to a .180 batting average. She pitched 29.2 total innings and struck out a team-high 40 batters. Dalrymple struck out 10 batters and only allowed one hit in Cornell's 2-0 win over Manhattan. She struck out 10 or more batters in each of her last three complete games, and did not allow a single earned run in her last three appearances of the week.

Menaker was named the first Ivy League Player of the Week of the season on March 10. Menaker led Cornell with a .467 batting average for the weekend. The Big Red went 5-0 at the George Mason-Patriot Classic. Menaker went 7-for-15 at the plate with two doubles, a triple and a home run. The junior drove in 10 RBI and had a .933 slugging percentage. She was also perfect in the field.

Up Next
The Big Red will play a midweek non-conference doubleheader at Syracuse on Wednesday, April 15. Cornell will return to Ivy action next weekend to play four games at Columbia on Saturday and Sunday.