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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. \u2013\u00a0The University of Pennsylvania softball team opens their 2026 season Friday, heading down south for the Lowcountry Classic tournament. #FightOnPenn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. \u2013\u00a0The University of Pennsylvania softball team opens their 2026 season Friday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-112662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nPenn (0-0, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. Western Carolina (2-0, 0-0 SoCon)
\nFriday, Feb. 13 | 10 a.m. | Live Stats
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\nPenn (0-0, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. Massachusetts (0-0, 0-0 MAC)
\nFriday, Feb. 13 | 12:30 p.m. | Live Stats
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\nPenn vs. Western Carolina Series
\n* The Quakers enter this game against the Catamounts with an all-time record of 1-1.
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\n* The first meeting came in 2007, when the Quakers won 7-6. The second meeting went the way of the Catamounts, when they topped the Quakers 5-4.
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\nPenn vs. Massachusetts Series
\n* This will be the first meeting between Penn and UMass in program history.
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\nQuaker Notemeal
\n* The Quakers return 12 members of the 2025 squad, including batting average leader Gigi Ganje<\/a> and slugging percentage leader Jade Montgomery<\/a>. Sophomore Ganje his .302 last season while senior Jade Montgomery<\/a> led the way in slugging percentage (.495) and homeruns (six).
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\n* The Quakers also return their top three pitchers from last season, with Ainsley Pemberton<\/a>, Kelly Zybura<\/a>, and Morgan Sullivan<\/a> accounting for 65 total appearances and 63 strikeouts last season.
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\n* Head coach Christie Novatin<\/a> enters her third season at the helm of the Quakers. She is joined by assistant coaches Kristin Hallam<\/a> (third season) and Laurin Krings<\/a> (first season).
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\n* The Quakers are joined by a host of fresh faces, with freshmen Jaz Johnson<\/a>, Alex Holeman<\/a>, Hannah Graveline<\/a>, Caroline Putnam<\/a>, Tannar Keenan<\/a>, and Sienna Acosta<\/a> all making their Penn debuts this season.
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\nScouting the Catamounts
\n* The Catamounts enter this meeting with a record of 2-0. They played host to North Carolina A&T, where they swept a double header 12-4, 16-2.
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\n* Last season, the Western Carolina went 22-31, 6-14 in the Southern Conference. The Catamounts finished sixth in their conference, falling to ETSU 12-9 in the first round of the conference tournament.
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\n* The Catamounts are led by four Preseason All-Southern Conference honorees, with juniors Lily Bell and Sydney Dirks leading the way on the first team.
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\nScouting the Minutewomen
\n* UMass enters this game with a record of 0-5. They’ve fallen to North Florida, Jacksonville, and Colgate to open the year.
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\n*Last season, the Minutewomen went 14-33 with a MAC record of 6-16. \u00a0
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\n* The Minutewomen return a number of key players. Sophomore Brooke Musch returns a .304 batting average and 24 steals from 2025. Junior Riley Kairer hit .300 with 12 RBI’s last year as well.
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\n\u00a0<\/p>\n