After a month-long preseason slate that saw the Harvard softball team endure long plane flights, controversy over a newly-enforced pitching rule, and a 10-game losing streak, it’s finally time to really play ball.

This afternoon in Princeton, N.J., the Crimson (6-14) opens the Ivy season with a doubleheader against the Tigers (6-17) before heading to Cornell (12-7) for a two-game set tomorrow. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. today and 12:30 p.m. tomorrow.

“We’re so pumped,” sophomore Whitney Shaw said. “There’s huge emotion, not only because it’s Ivies, but because of who we’re playing.”

This weekend represents not only the beginning of conference play, but also a chance for Harvard to see how it measures up to some of the Ancient Eight’s top squads.

Princeton won the Ivy title in 2008, while the Big Red took the crown in a dominating 2009 campaign. The Crimson proved it could compete with both squads last season—splitting a doubleheader with each and handing Cornell one of its three league losses—but a new season brings fresh faces and unique challenges.

For Harvard, the preseason slate brought tough competition and a number of losses, but that experience could prove crucial to the team as it prepares for the six-week conference marathon.

“Having a tougher preseason makes us realize that winning is not going to come easily,” sophomore Rachel Brown said. “That may have hurt us last season when we had a really successful preseason—we were kind of surprised when we weren’t winning as much as we had hoped. This preseason really got us in the mindset of making adjustments and fixing what we needed to to start winning.”

The Crimson was finally able to make those adjustments pay off on Sunday, when the team swept Fairfield in a road doubleheader that included a 10-run offensive outburst in the nightcap.

“Especially coming off of a long losing streak, we really needed something to prove to ourselves that we’re ready going into Ivies,” Shaw said. “[We needed] to just come out and hit the ball and remember that we still have a lot of power in our bats.”

Co-captain Melissa Schellberg led the charge last week, hitting .467 in four games and recording four RBI and two doubles. But Schellberg, who is also a Crimson sports editor, wasn’t alone, as the squad scored 21 runs last week, compared to just 28 in its first 16 games.

“Last weekend was a breakthrough weekend for us,” Brown said. “We realized that scoring a lot of runs is a lot more fun and makes it easier on ourselves.”

Keeping the offense going will be crucial this afternoon against a Tigers squad that relies on a pair of rookie pitchers, Alex Peyton and Lisa Kuhn, who boast ERAs of 3.97 and 4.20, respectively, this season.

The Princeton rotation is bolstered by senior Jamie Lettire, a former Ivy Player of the Year who has struggled to an 0-10 record and a 7.59 ERA this season.

But tomorrow in Ithaca, Harvard will have to rely on its pitching and defense to quiet one of the league’s most potent offenses in the Big Red.

Cornell senior Alyson Intihar, last year’s Ivy Player of the Year, hasn’t missed a beat in her final season. The infielder leads the Ancient Eight with a .435 batting average, and her classmate Elise Menaker has a league-high 20 RBI in 19 games.

“We know that Cornell hits really well,” Brown said. “We’ve all seen their stats, so we know going in what their strengths are, and they’re definitely formidable opponents. But we’re hoping we can string together the runs we need and really rely on our defense, which has been a strength for us.”

The Crimson will also have to rely on Brown, who has continued to carry the majority of the pitching burden in the follow-up to her Ivy Rookie of the Year campaign. The sophomore is third in the conference with a 1.86 ERA and has leads all Ivy pitchers with 86 strikeouts.

“We’ll definitely need to play our game, but when we have all three aspects of our game going, from pitching to defense to offense, we can pretty much play with anyone,” Shaw said.

Today, after thousands of miles traveled and months of anticipation since the disappointing end to last year’s Ivy season—Harvard finished a game out of first place in its division and missed the chance to play in the Ivy League Championship Series—the Crimson women are ready to prove that they belong back at the top of Ancient Eight softball.

“Our first Ivy weekend is always big, regardless of who we’re playing, but knowing that we’re playing two really good teams is going to be beneficial,” Brown said. “We’re going to come out really pumped up, really hungry for the wins. Playing Princeton and Cornell, we’re going to be really fired up.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.