ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell softball team will close out the 2022 season with a pair of Ivy League series, one at home and another on the road this coming week. The Big Red will play Harvard at Niemand*Robison Field for a rescheduled three-game set beginning on Tuesday, May 3, then heads to Dartmouth for a series in Hanover, N.H. beginning on Saturday, May 7.

The Big Red and the Crimson will meet for two on Tuesday and a single game on Wednesday, with first pitch at 1:30 p.m. both days. Cornell and Dartmouth will play two on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and another on Sunday at the same time. All six games will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

Cornell will attempt to bring some momentum into the offseason against two of the top three teams in the Ancient Eight, both of whom are jockeying for the second slot in the Ivy League Championship Series. It will also serve as the final games for eight Big Red seniors - Hanna Crist, Ashley Delany, Katie Hale, Allison Kerce, Emily McKinney, Emily Muniz, Olivia Rooney and Ruby Sugayan.

The Big Red enters the week with a 15-19 overall record and a 5-10 conference mark and is hitting its stride, going 6-4 in its past 10 and 13-11 over its most recent 24-game stretch. Cornell is 6-4 at home this season and is one victory shy of its first winning home slate in a full season since the 2010 campaign when it went 13-4.

Olivia Rooney is hitting a robust .333 with eight doubles, two home runs and 19 RBI, including a team-high .370 average in Ivy competition. Lilly Travieso (.291, seven doubles, one home run, 16 RBI), Hanna Crist (.291, eight home runs, 18 RBI, 20 runs) and Emily McKinney (.284, seven doubles, two home runs, 24 RBI) and not far behind as the Big Red is hitting .232 as a team. In the circle, Mia Burd (7-6, 3.20 ERA, 52 strikeouts) and Gabrielle Maday (4-9, 4.22 ERA) have pitched a majority of the team's innings and have limited opponents to a sub-.300 cumulative batting average. Burd is allowing Ivy opponents to hit just .252 and sports a 2.64 ERA in 11 appearances with seven starts.

The Crimson is 19-17 overall and 13-5 in Ivy competition after winning consecutive Ivy series at Brown and at home vs. Dartmouth. Harvard's Morgan Melito leads the Harvard offense with a .347 batting average, four home runs and 24 RBI. Allison Heffley (.292, three doubles, three triples, four home runs, 17 RBI) and Lauren Bobowski (.287, 21 runs, 17 stolen bases) have also been key parts of the lineup. Anna Reed is 12-5 with a 2.22 ERA in 97.2 innings in the circle as the team's primary pitcher, with Katie Arrambide (5-7, 2.64 ERA, 63.2 innings) also seeing significant action for head coach Jenny Allard, a NFCA Hall of Famer with a 656-498-3 record in 28 seasons on the Crimson bench. Harvard leads the all-time series 36-27 thanks to a 14-5 edge in its last 19 meetings.

Dartmouth is 18-23 this season and 12-6 in Ivy League competition, including 9-4 at home, following a series loss at Harvard. That came on the heels of 10-1 stretch in conference play for Dartmouth under head coach Jen Williams, who took over the program in time for the 2019 season. Billie McFadyen paces the team in hitting with her .344 average, with her four home runs and 23 RBI leading the team. She also paces the squad in runs scored (21), triples (3), stolen bases (8), slugging percentage (.523) and on-base percentage (.397). The Big Green ranks among the league leaders with its .966 fielding percentage in front of Brooke Plonka (11-11, 2.83 ERA, 115 strikeouts in 131.0 innings), who has thrown more than twice as many innings as any other player on staff. Opponents are hitting just .207 against her, and she has posted 13 complete games and five shutouts on the year. Cornell is 39-22 in the all-time series with Dartmouth, though the Big Green has gone 14-1 in their last 15 meetings.