Dartmouth Picked to Finish Second in Ivy League Preseason Poll

PRINCETON, N.J. – The Ivy League announced the softball preseason poll Wednesday morning and members of the media from around the conference selected Dartmouth, the reigning regular season champions, to finish second with 112 points and five first-place votes.

Harvard, the defending tournament champions, were picked to finish first with 120 points and 10 first-place votes. Columbia received the final first-place vote and was slotted to finish third, while Penn, Princeton, Cornell, Yale and Brown followed.

Despite losing three seniors from last season, the Big Green return 15 players from last year's team that hosted the Ivy League championship and went 22-18 (16-5 Ivy). Dartmouth added six freshmen into the mix and are now led by head coach Jennifer Williams, who comes to Dartmouth after spending eight seasons as the head coach at MIT.

Dartmouth returns five all-conference selections from 2018. Senior captains Morgan Martinelli and Taylor Ward were both named to the first team along with the 2018 Rookie of the Year, Schae Nelson. Junior Micah Schroder and sophomore Heather Turner also return after collecting Second Team All-Conference honors last season.

Ward hit .310 for the Big Green last season with seven home runs, 23 RBI and did not make an error in the outfield. Martinelli was third on the team last year with a .304 batting average, adding seven home runs, 22 RBI, seven doubles and 19 runs scored. Nelson led all freshmen in 2018 in runs, hits, home runs, RBI, doubles and walks.

Schroder led the Big Green last year with a .371 batting average with six home runs, 12 doubles, a triple and team-best 27 RBI. Turner leads a young pitching staff into 2019, the sophomore recorded a 3.63 ERA in 24 regular season appearances and struck out 21 batters.

Dartmouth begins its season on Feb. 22 for a weekend in South Carolina. The Big Green take on Appalachian State and Charleston Southern on Friday, Radford and the College of Charleston on Saturday and they wrap up the trip against Iowa State Sunday morning.

2019 Ivy League Softball Preseason Media Poll
Place	Team (first-place votes)	Points
1.	Harvard (10)	120
2.	Dartmouth (5)	112
3.	Columbia (1)	94
4.	Penn	75
5.	Princeton	61
6.	Cornell	50
7.	Yale	44
8.	Brown	20

Schedules