McFadyen, Panu Named Ivy Softball Player, Rookie of the Week

HANOVER, N.H. — The Ivy League office announced its weekly softball award winners today, and Dartmouth had two players make the cut in second baseman Billie McFadyen as the Player of the Week and outfielder Alaana Panu as the Rookie of the Week. These are the first weekly awards for either player in their career, and the first Big Green players to earn these awards this season.

McFadyen, a 5-0 senior from Flower Mound, Texas, sizzled at the plate in the six games last week, batting .450 (9-for-20) with a triple, two home runs, 10 runs scored and five RBIs. She also posted an on-base percentage of .560 thanks to five walks as well to go with a slugging percentage of .850. Hitting safely in each of the six contests, McFadyen was a driving force in the three-game sweep at Penn, launching a home run in a 4-2 victory and scoring six runs in all, including three in the wild 9-8 finale. In a crucial three-game set at Harvard over the weekend, she went 5-for-10 with a two-run homer in an 11-6 victory, then reached base four times, including a two-run triple, as she nearly willed the Big Green to a win in the rubber match.

A native of Los Gatos, California, Panu was just as lethal at the plate, collecting 11 hits in 21 at-bats with five runs, five RBIs and four stolen bases in as many attempts, plus came a single shy of the cycle in that 11-6 win over the Crimson. The 5-4 freshman also hit safely in all six games, collecting at least two hits in four of the contests, banging out two singles in each of the three wins at Penn. In her near cycle, she was 3-for-5 with two runs and three RBIs and even robbed a three-run homer with a terrific catch at the left-field fence.

Dartmouth (18-23, 12-6 Ivy) will finish the regular season this weekend by hosting Cornell (15-19, 6-9 Ivy) for a three-game series that will be streamed live on ESPN+ with the opening game on Saturday televised live regionally on NESN+ as well at 12:30 p.m. But Cornell will host Harvard for three games on Tuesday and Wednesday that could determine the Big Green's postseason fate as the Crimson's magic number is two to clinch the other berth in the Ivy Championship Series on May 13-14. Should Harvard win two of the three games, it will clinch second place and head to Princeton to play in the ICS. If the Big Red win at least two, Dartmouth could still overtake Harvard in the standings.

Notes: The last Big Green player to be named the Ivy Player of the Week was Micah Schroder on May 7, 2019, for the third time that season … the last Dartmouth Rookie of the Week was shared by current senior pitcher Madie Augusto and Bryce West on Feb. 25, 2019 … McFadyen has not struck out a single time against an Ivy League pitcher this year and has gone 84 straight at-bats (92 plate appearances) without whiffing … McFadyen is also sixth in the Ivy League with a .344 batting average overall and ranks among the top four in conference play only in average (.397, second), on-base percentage (.465, third) and slugging (.683, fourth) … Panu is on an 11-game hitting streak during which she is batting .447 (17-for-38) with 10 RBIs, while McFadyen has hit safely in 16 of her last 17 games for a .458 average (27-of-59).

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