Sports Shorts: Crew, Women's Volleyball, Cross Country, Men's Water Polo

Crew:Men's lightweight eight wins at Head of the Charles

Around the boathouse, all four of Princeton's rowing programs made their fall season debuts at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. The men's lightweight eight posted the best result this weekend, finishing first overall in 15:03.55 — more than eight seconds faster than Harvard, which took second. The women's lightweight four took 14th overall in 21:41.32, and the varsity eight finished seventh overall in 17:46.04. The men's heavyweight varsity eight crossed the finish line in 15:10.50, good for 13th place overall and seventh among college crews, and the women's open 1V took 12th overall and ninth among college crews in a time of 17:14.28.

Women's Volleyball: Rough weekend as Harvard, Dartmouth visit Dillon

The Tigers (6-11 overall, 2-5 Ivy League) put up a good fight and nearly came back to win a five-set match against Dartmouth last Friday but could not recover the next day, losing 3-0 to Harvard. After losing consecutive 25-20 sets to the Big Green, (9-10, 2-5), Princeton stormed back with a 25-20 win in the third and a 25-15 win in the fourth. Led by sophomore right side/middle blocker Kendall Peterkin and freshman outside hitter Cara Mattaliano, who had 15 and 12 kills, respectively, the Tigers mustered nine points in the final set but could not seal the victory.

Each of the three sets against Harvard (10-6, 5-2) was close, and the first was a thriller that ended 29-27, but Princeton never came out on the winning end, dropping its fifth league match of the season.

Cross Country: Both teams place well at PreNats

The No. 10 men's team's top runners finished sixth out of a highly competitive group of 52 teams at PreNationals in Terre Haute, Ind. Junior Sam Pons was Princeton's top finisher in the 8K race, crossing the line at 24:03.94 in 35th place. He was followed by seniors Tyler Udland and Alejandro Arroyo Yamin, both of whom finished within five seconds of him. Meanwhile, in Princeton, the rest of the team took third at the Princeton Invitational.

The No. 27 women's team finished 10th at PreNats, led by freshman Megan Curham, who finished the 6K race in 20:32.44, good for 15th place. Princeton's next-best finisher was senior Emily de La Bruyere, who came in 49th with a time of 21:00.91. The members of the team who stayed in Princeton came in seventh and second in two races at the Invitational.

Men's Water Polo: Tigers take Ivy Championship

After a powerful 20-point display in an exhibition match against Penn's club team, the No. 15 Tigers (15-4, 6-1 CWPA Southern Division) captured the Ivy League title in dramatic fashion. Brown was up 11-10 with 3:01 left in the championship match, but freshman utility Jovan Jeremic tied it up and sophomore center Tommy Nelson had two steals and a goal in the final three minutes as the Tigers came back to win 13-12.