The New York University softball team opened its 2026 season with a pair of games at the Triangle Collegiate Softball Classic in Raleigh, NC, on Saturday, March 7.

The Violets faced the University of Mary Washington in the first game and Mary Baldwin University in the second.   

In the opener, NYU was defeated 11-2, and fell just short in game two 8-7.

The Eagles scored three runs in the top of the first inning of the first game and led the rest of the way.

The NYU runs were driven in by Naya Schubel on a solo home run in the first inning and on a sacrifice fly by Emma Sung in the fourth.

Siena Kiefer and Victoria Negron also had hits for NYU.

The Violets fell behind 5-0 after three innings of game two.

NYU rallied for two runs in the fourth as the Fighting Squirrels committed a pair of errors.

Mary Baldwin added three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to go up 8-2.

However, the Violets rallied again, plating five runs with two outs in the top of the sixth. Sung drove in the first run with a single. Keira D'Errico also had an RBI single before Kiefer added a bases-clearing three-RBI double.

NYU could not get the tying run across the plate, however, and fell one run short.

Kiefer, Sung and Nicole Cicchetti each had two of the Violets' 10 hits.

The Violets return to the diamond on Sunday when they face Sweet Briar College at 9:00am and Randolph College at 11:00am.