Mai Falcone will be far from home in two years—she’s a junior from Pleasanton, Calif. and will be playing college softball in New York starting in 2026.

But, start talking to her a bit and you’ll learn that this successful athlete isn’t afraid of much, especially when it goes to her two loves: academics and softball, and she’s not intimidated to be close to 2,800 miles from home (or a mere 41 hour drive due East on the I-80 freeway).

“I love California,” she explains, “but that is all that I know and I’d like to experience other parts of the country and their respective cultures and traditions.”

Ivy League-bound, she looks to follow in her family’s strong educational path and study BioMedical engineering at Cornell while playing a sport she loves and has been pretty good at.

This year at the prep level alone, Mai has won a California high school state championship, earned 1^st Team All-State honors, was named to the All-Bay Area Team and earned the North Coast Section (Calif.) President’s List Scholastic Award.

*** You can watch some of Mai’s softball highlights by clicking HERE… ***

Personable, smart and funny, the 2026 grad even speaks a foreign language fluently which is just of the interesting things we learned about her in our Q&A with her from over the weekend…

*****

Line Drive Softball: Walk us through how Cornell first found out about you and how the recruiting process went with the coaching staff?
Mai Falcone: Great question! Actually, I’m not exactly sure.  I just remember playing in a top Southern California PGF tournament last fall and my AASA travel ball coach told me after the game that Cornell was impressed with the way I play softball.  After that, I worked very hard to build a relationship with (Head) Coach (Julie) Farlow and (Assistant) Coach (Tara) Tembey.  My dad encouraged me to attend their winter camp this past January so that I could experience upstate New York winter…wow, it was seriously cold, but I loved it!  Special acknowledgement to my travel ball coaches Coach Matt and Coach Niki Bryson who were amazing and completely supportive of my recruiting process.

LD Softball: Going Ivy League… that would make any student-athlete proud, sure, but how happy is your family for you?
MF: My family is 100 percent supportive!  As a family, we deeply value education (especially STEM) and are overjoyed and grateful for the opportunity to study at one of the best universities in the world!

LD Softball: How did you tell the Cornell coaches you’d be committing to play for them? And what was the keys to helping you decide to choose the Big Red?
MF: I had such a good call with Coach Farlow, but I was so nervous and excited that I could barely think!  Actually, we formalized the commitment via text so Coach Farlow couldn’t hear my scream of joy!

LD Softball: Great stat I came across: Cornell has had 63 Olympic medalists and 62 winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, so the university is great at producing athletes as well as brilliant minds. Do you know yet what area or field you want to study?
MF: Yes, my family is full of engineers and scientists; I plan on following the tradition at Cornell by studying BioMedical engineering.

LD Softball: Walk us through Sept. 1 and the start of the contact period… you had over a dozen D1 colleges reach out before noon that day! Were you up well past midnight? Did you get any sleep?!?
MF: Like probably every 2026, I stayed up until midnight hoping, anxiously, that my phone would ring!  To my delight, it did!  I stayed up until about 1 am, but there was too much excitement; so no, little actual sleep.  I woke up around 7:30 am to many text messages and emails.  Pretty much throughout the day I was in contact with coaches.  I am so thankful for every coach that invested their precious time with me.

Continue below to read the rest of the article on Mai including her biggest softball highlight and the biggest obstacle she’s faced in her young but prolific career…