There’s a defining moment senior infielder Ella Harrod remembers from early on in her Cornell softball career. It happened in March 2023, as she and a fellow freshman — catcher Lauren Holt — were boarding the team bus after a disappointing road loss early in the Red’s conference schedule. 

“We both got on the bus, we looked at each other and we decided right then and there that we were changing a few things with the team, and we were going to try to change the culture of a program,” Harrod said. 

Changing the culture of a program. That’s a big goal for a pair of freshmen, especially a duo who at that point were still adjusting to the college game. 

It wasn’t necessarily that the team had weak leadership, or even a lack of talent. But simply put: the Red did not know how to win. Cornell’s last winning season came in 2012, which is also the last time the Red made the postseason. When Holt and Harrod debuted in 2023, it had been 13 years since Cornell last won the Ivy League. 

Flash forward to today, and the program has completely changed. A new head coach. A new mindset. And most importantly, new results.

The Red entered its final weekend of the regular season with a chance to finish above .500, a chance to capture 23 wins for the first time since that 2012 campaign and most importantly, the chance to make the Ivy League Tournament for the first time in program history. 

While Cornell ultimately fell short of those benchmarks, falling twice in a three-game series versus Brown, the Red’s 21-22 end-of-season record is its best since 2013. 

When it comes to bringing winning back into the culture of the program, Holt, Harrod and the rest of the Class of 2026 deserve a huge amount of credit. 

“They single handedly elevated the standard of the program based on their actions,” said first-year head coach Tara Smith. “They took the program in one direction, and they basically said, ‘We're going to carry people with us. You can come with us. Come with us as we climb this mountain.’”

And while that standard-lifting was spread amongst the five seniors who were honored on Sunday for senior day, on the field there’s one player who clearly has driven Cornell’s return to Ivy League prominence.

“We all are here today because of the contributions she’s made,” Smith said. 

…

WHEN Lauren Holt came to the plate for the final time at Niemand-Robison Field on Monday afternoon, she put the finishing touch on one of the most successful softball careers in Cornell history. 

With a two run lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, Holt knew this would be her last collegiate at bat. Entering the series with Brown tied for the Ivy League single-season home run record, Holt was held to just one hit (a single) in her first nine trips to the plate against the Bears.  

But after taking a first pitch strike, Holt got a fastball up in the zone and out over the heart of the plate. As soon as the ball left her bat, there was no doubt where it would land. With her last swing as a member of the Red, Holt cemented her legacy as the author of the greatest individual season in the 46 year Ivy League softball history. 

Holt finished the season leading the Ivy League in on base percentage, slugging percentage, runs batted in, runs, home runs, hits, walks and total bases, and tied for the lead in stolen bases. Her 1.015 SLG, 19 home runs and 137 total bases are all Ivy League single-season bests, while her 66 RBIs (second all-time), .565 OBP (fourth), .474 batting average (fifth), 30 walks (eighth) and 48 runs (ninth) will also also live in on the conferences record books.  

Holt’s career numbers don’t hold the same all-time Ivy dominance, but she still checks-in at second in Cornell program history — behind another Lauren, Lauren May ’05 — in most key offensive stats, including slugging percentage, on-base percentage and home runs, third in RBIs, fifth in total bases and sixth in stolen bases. 

Her 48 home runs and .744 SLG trail only May in Ivy League history, while her career OBP, total bases and RBIs also finished in the top-10.

Most impressive of all, she’s done it as the clear vocal point of the Red’s offense all four of her years in Ithaca. While oftentimes getting intentionally walked, or pitched around, Holt has still managed to post historically great numbers while shattering the program’s walk record. Her 85 free-passes are the most in Cornell history, and are just four ball-fours off the all-time Ivy League record.

“She’s in everybody’s scouting report as ‘don't let her beat you,’” Harrod said.

…

THERE are two ways to view Holt’s Cornell career. The first is as an individual. 

“From the first time I saw her on the field, [I could tell] she was an absolute gamer,” Smith said.  “When she stepped on the field, it was the highest level of competitive excellence that there was. She was there to compete. She was there to win. And that stood out.”

A native of Loveland, Ohio, Holt posted impressive numbers in high school, leading her conference in batting average her freshman season and earning a pair of second team all-district selections as an upperclassman. And though the pandemic disrupted the middle of her high school career, it also presented Holt the opportunity to work on a part of her game that would come to define her college career: her power at the plate.

“Once COVID happened, I started lifting a lot more because I had the time and didn’t really have anything else to do.” Holt said. “I think increasing my strength definitely helped with the power aspect of [my game].”

Combining her newfound strength with a retooled swing, Holt blossomed into a power hitter during her final years of high school, entering her first season at Cornell confident that her pop inside the batters box would carry into collegiate competition. 

Initially, both Holt’s power and ability to hit for average deserted her. She began her collegiate career 0-8 in her first three starts, and entered Ivy League play in 2023 hitting .192. 

Clearly needing to make an adjustment, Holt and Smith began to tinker with her approach, ultimately devising a new batting stance with Holt’s feet kept closely together. Perhaps it was the new setup or becoming more comfortable with college pitching, but when Cornell’s conference slate began, Holt caught fire. 

After hammering her second career home run against Harvard, Holt exploded a week later for four RBIs on three hits, including a home run, in a doubleheader split versus Yale. The rest of the spring was more of the same. Ending the season with an Ivy League leading nine home runs and a team-high 28 RBIs, Holt earned All-Ivy Second Team honors and tallied a .940 on-base plus slugging percentage. 

Her sophomore and junior years were nearly identical and marked a noticeable statistical improvement from her rookie season. Starting every game in both 2024 and 2025, Holt hit for a .309 average in both seasons, maintained her team-leading nine home runs and worked 20+ walks while cutting down her strikeout numbers. She was also excellent defensively as Cornell’s everyday catcher, throwing out the second most base stealers in the conference her sophomore season. 

According to Holt, her growth at the plate stemmed from a growing mental strength: an ability to silence internal doubt.

“I think each year, my confidence has grown knowing that I'm capable of helping the team,” Holt said. “I can't worry [about failure], because I just need to produce. It's more of a focus on ‘I know I can, and I need to do it,’ rather than freaking out about what might or might not happen.”

Still, Holt knew there was more offensive potential to unlock heading into her final year. In addition to playing through injuries, she faced Ivy League pitchers who identified weaknesses in her approach at the plate. In both 2024 and 2025, her late-season power numbers fell as both her body and plate discipline declined. 

In her final offseason, Holt worked to ensure her April struggles did not continue. Though opposing pitchers fed Holt a steady dose of changeups and avoided the inner half of the plate, Holt fought back. She spent hours taking front-toss focusing on pitches on the outer half of the strike-zone and worked to cut down on chasing pitchers up out of the zone.

“This year I kind of realized [that] I’ve also been playing against these pitchers, I know what they’re going to try to do to me,” she said. “I think having that adjustment of almost a reverse scout on myself — knowing what I'm going to get based on what they’ve done to me in the past and how I'm performing now — has been really helpful.”

The other advantage Holt has had this season? Trust in her teammates.

…

THE second way to view Holt’s Cornell career is as a member of a team. 

On and off the field, Holt has set the tone for the rest of the Red, pushing her teammates to be better. 

After their conversation freshman year, Holt and Harrod, alongside the rest of the Class of 2026, have worked hard to change the team’s expectations of winning.

“The mindset really has just been that we need to change the culture. We’re not losers, [and] it’s not even that we don’t want to be losers, we’re winners,” Holt said. “We can compete and we're really good.” 

Smith, who primarily focused on the team’s hitting before becoming head coach late last spring, has also noticed how Holt helps those around her improve. 

“She pushes the game, she pushes herself, and that inherently pushes the people around her and elevates the entire environment as a whole,” Smith said. 

Holt’s success trickles down the roster not only in the form of the runs she produces, but also in the boost it gives her teammates to see her succeed. 

“If I could say one word that would describe what it's like to be Lauren’s teammate, I would just say fun,” Harrod said. “She goes up to the plate, and I think everyone gains confidence from her. It’s a trickle down effect of when you see her in the first inning rope a double —  or even if it's an out and she's hitting it to the wall, you’re like, ‘okay, we got this.’” 

In fact, it’s the success of Holt’s teammates around her in the batting order that has allowed her to have a historically great season. Oftentimes during Holt’s time on the Red, Cornell relied almost exclusively on her bat to provide offensive thump. This year her teammates are punishing pitchers when they walk Holt. 

“I think in the past, sometimes it's been a little more stressful when I've gotten intentionally walked, or unintentionally-intentionally walked because then I feel like I can't do anything, and then it’s almost like ‘is something going to happen now?’” Holt said. “Whereas now, when I get walked I know that they’re going to produce. There’s multiple people behind me … I have so much faith in everyone in the lineup that they can get it done.”

Harrod, one of the players who often hits behind Holt in Cornell’s lineup, echoed her friend’s assessment.

“[Holt’s] a lot more patient with how she approaches the plate and I think that is really paying off,” Harrod said. “Her on base percentage is crazy because of all the walks and all the hard hits that aren’t home runs. … Her being on base [forces opposing pitchers] to throw to those hitters [after Holt] if they choose to pitch around her.”

With powerful bats flanking her, pitchers are pitching to Holt or paying the price. It’s no surprise that Holt’s 48 runs this season are double her previous career high. 

The other teammate-related boost to Holt’s dominant 2026 campaign has come in the form of freshman catchers Samantha Esparza and Delailah Lopez, who have started a combined 19 games for the Red.  

“It’s been nice to have a little bit of relief for catching. The past two years, I caught every game, [which] is definitely challenging,” Holt said. “I do think kind of a part of my success this year is I feel physically a lot better because I'm not catching all the time.”

Even though she no longer spends every game crouched behind home plate, Holt still plays a major role with the Red’s pitching staff. Instead of relying on a pitching coach to call games, Smith has entrusted Holt with calling pitches when she is catching.

“She knows our pitchers because she’s had the opportunity to be around them, she takes the opportunity to learn them, not only as pitchers, but as people,” Smith said. “She knows how to analyze hitters. So it’s advantageous, it’s a collaborative way to approach the game. And she’s been brilliant.”

For Harrod, who has been Holt’s roommate since sophomore year, what makes Holt so special isn’t her on field accomplishments and broken records, but the impact she’s had on Cornell’s softball program as a whole. 

“I'm most proud of the way that she committed to this school and helped change a culture that hopefully will last.”

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