There are only two things on the mind of the Penn Softball team going into the last two doubleheaders of the season against Columbia: its seniors, pitcher Emily Denstedt and outfielder Anna Puglisi.
As the season comes to a close, the Quakers (12-27-1, 7-9 Ivy) will use this weekend's games to honor their graduating players.
"If we play our game as we are capable, we could sweep," coach Leslie King said. "That would be a great way to end the season. Sunday is Senior Day. We definitely want to go out on a high note. Both of our two seniors . have put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears."
Saturday the Quakers will travel to New York, while Sunday they will face the Lions (14-30, 3-13 Ivy) again at Warren Field.
While King was happy with her team's 12 hits in the first game of Wednesday's doubleheader against Drexel, sophomore Kelsey Wolfe sees room for improvement against Columbia.
"We need to improve on offense," she said. "When we get runners on base, we have to score them. We need to work on things like laying down bunts and base running."
Even though the Quakers have had recent success against the Lions - including two wins that capped off their 2008 season - according to King, "They have several offensive weapons and have hit well against us in the past."
King named Lions senior shortstop Keli Leong and sophomores Maggie Johnson (pitcher/first base) and Anne Marie Skylis (catcher/outfield) as just a few of the weapons that Penn needs to keep an eye on.
But the Red and Blue have other goals besides simply defeating Columbia.
"We are committed to finishing the league strong," King said. "We have a series of mini-goals and one of them is to finish the season above Princeton."
(The Tigers, currently 8-8 Ivy, play four games against first-place Cornell this weekend).
With their seniors in mind, the Quakers are intent on making their final games memorable.
"We only have two seniors, and the juniors and sophomores are especially close with them," Wolfe said. "We want to make sure that we make them look good."
Staff writer Lauren Plotnick contributed reporting to this article.
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