ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell softball team opens its 2018 home season with one of its toughest tests of the Ivy League slate when Harvard visits Niemand*Robison Field for a three-game series beginning on Sunday, March 26 at 2:00 p.m. The teams will meet for a single game on Sunday, then a doubleheader on Monday with a first pitch of 12:30 p.m. The games were originally scheduled for Saturday-Sunday, but were pushed back a day due to expected frigid temperatures in the Northeast.

The series is the first for Cornell using the new three-game series format against each of the other seven Ivy teams. With the balanced schedule, the league has eliminated divisional play. Now, the teams with the top two conference records at the end of the regular season will meet up in the best-of-three Ivy League Championship.

A year ago, Harvard won the North Division title with a 13-7 record before dropping consecutive games to Princeton in the Ivy championship series. At 22-19, the Crimson had the second-most wins in the conference. Cornell tied for seventh at 6-14, doubled its conference win total from 2016.  

The Big Red is off to a 5-8 start with five of its losses coming by two runs or less as third-year head coach Julie Farlow's program continues to show steady improvement. Cornell is hitting .288 as a team, with Rebecca Kubena leading five regulars hitting .350 or better at .517 (15-of-29). Senior Tori Togashi is batting .424 with three home runs and 10 RBI, sophomore Kate Jencarelli is at .421, senior Megan Murray is hitting .381 with six doubles and a team-high 16 hits and junior Erin Rockstroh (.351) has driven in seven runs. Cornell has posted a .965 fielding percentage over its first three weekends in front of a staff that features Lisa Nelson (2-3, 4.60 ERA in 31.1 innings) and Katie Lew (3-4, 4.83 ERA in 41.0 innings).  

Harvard is off to a 9-9 start this year after winning 2-of-3 games at Yale last weekend in the Ivy opener for both teams. The Crimson is hitting .268 as a team, with Maddy Kaplan batting .467 with 17 RBI and eight runs scored in 18 contests. Regulars Meagan Lantz (.367, 11 RBI) and Rhianna Rich (.359, nine RBI) are also hitting well above .350. The Crimson are fielding at a .958 clip behind a pitching staff that is posting a 3.85 team ERA. Kathleen Duncan is 6-6 with a 2.83 ERA in 64.1 innings of work, more than half of the team's total innings. Olivia Gianquinto has five starts and is 202 with a 6.00 ERA in 25.2 innings.  Head coach Jenny Allard, in her 24th season in the Harvard dugout, sports a 596-445-3 record with six Ivy titles in her career in Cambridge.

The Crimson lead the all-time series 32-25 thanks largely to Harvard's 10-3 edge over the last six seasons. Harvard has a slim 13-12 edge all-time in Ithaca, including a 5-5 tie since 2008. Prior to that, the Big Red had won six straight at Niemand*Robison Field.