As was typical of the season, a doubleheader sweep would have required Thoke to earn two complete game victories in one day, while outdueling both Westbrock and Zitarelli, who had been dominant all season.

Thoke was untouchable in the first game, holding Cornell hitless until the seventh in a 2-0 shutout. Hits from Tara LaSovage `99, Abeles `00, and a Westbrock error keyed Harvard's scoring.

Thoke and Zitarelli battled into extra innings the climactic game two. Zitarelli scattered eight hits, but the game was still knotted at 1-1 after seven innings, with Harvard's only run coming off an RBI double from freshman Sarah Koppel.

Thoke was resilient to the end, playing through a line drive that deflected of her knee in the top of the eighth. But then sophomore Kelli Larsen-who has been mostly a bench player to this day at Cornell-delivered a clutch, pinch-hit, two-run, and two-out RBI double to put the Big Red up 3-1. The Harvard bats could not answer. Cornell clinched the Ivy title with a sweep of Dartmouth the next day.

At season's end, Thoke was awarded Ivy Softball Player of the Year Honors.

The Beginning and the End

April 8, 2000-Going into their Ivy-opening doubleheader at Ithaca, Cornell and Harvard appeared to be two teams headed in opposite directions. Cornell (17-4 overall) was ranked among the best teams in the northeast, while Harvard (7-15 overall) suffered through a nightmarish beginning to its season.

But Thoke and Abeles turned that season around. In an encore of their extra-inning duel from the previous year, Thoke and Zitarelli battled to a scoreless tie through four innings, as rain clouds loomed overhead.