Despite posting a 3-1 mark on the opening weekend of the Ivy League season, the Harvard softball team returned this weekend from a league road trip holding third place in the conference that it won handily last year.

The Crimson (12-14, 2-2 Ivy) dropped its only game in the first game of a doubleheader against Princeton (8-9, 1-3) on Saturday. Harvard came back to win three straight, including two against Penn (10-19, 0-4) yesterday.

Princeton

Harvard dropped the first game of the set, 2-1, as Tiger sophomore Brie Galicinao locked horns with senior hurler Chelsea Thoke in a pitcher's duel.

Junior right fielder Sarah Koppel continued her torrid start to the season, hitting a homerun over the left-centerfield wall in the second inning.

Koppel would go on to hit two more homeruns on the trip, giving her eight

for the year. She is only two shy of the Harvard record of ten in one season, set by Deborah Abeles in 1998.

Thoke went on to strike out six in the game, but got the loss.

The Tigers first run came off of the bat of Galicinao, who is the team's best hitter as well as its best pitcher. With the game tied, 1-1, Princeton scored a run in their half of the seventh to take the game. Senior catcher Devon Keefe singled in the game winner for Princeton.

Harvard would find revenge in the second game, and beat the Tigers 6-5, as the Crimson bats came alive in support of sophomore pitcher Tiffany Whitton.

Whitton helped her cause, as well. She lead off the game with a home rune, and received more run support in that frame. After tri-captain Mairead

McKendry singled, Koppel brought her home on her second round-tripper of the day.

Princeton would fight back, however, and took a, 5-3, lead into the fifth inning.

Having tied the score in the top of the fifth, the Crimson came to bat in the seventh knowing that it needed a run to get the split. Koppel stepped up

yet again, hitting a home run to give Harvard the lead. It would hold on for

the victory.

Penn

Whitton pitched well in the first game, earning a 7-1 victory over the Quakers and striking out seven in seven winnings of work.

Whitton was again strong on both sides of the ball, nabbing two RBI on a

homer in the sixth.

Sophomore Rachel Goldberg was the offensive leader in the game, going 4-for-4 against Nicole Borgstadt. Goldberg slapped two RBI singles against Borgstadt, and scored 2 runs.

Goldberg seemed to spark or cap off each of the Crimson's rallies, and was

the sparkplug again in the second game. She went 3-for-4 and scored three runs.

Harvard won, 9-3, in a game pitched by committee. Thoke started, and came out for freshman Kara Brotemarkle in the fourth.

On the offensive side, the Crimson knocked 16 hits for the second straight contest. Goldberg had three of those hits, and started Harvard's three-run

third inning rally.

Down, 1-0, with one out in the frame, Goldberg doubled to center field and moved to third on a Whitton single. Freshman center fielder brought both women in with a triple to center. She would score on the next play, as

McKendry reached base on an error at shortstop, allowing Koral to score the

third run.

The Crimson would strike for a series of runs in subsequent innings, and the Quakers never came close to threatening.

Harvard next hosts Columbia and Cornell this weekend. The Big Red (22-11, 6-0) lead Dartmouth in the Ivy League standings, and should present a

challenge for the Crimson.