Coming out of Intersession, the women's basketball team is sitting in a three-way tie for fifth in the Ivy League with Dartmouth and Penn. The Tigers (8-10 overall, 2-3 Ivy League) have shown the makings of an elite team over the course of the season, exceeding the expectations of everyone coming into the season, though they are "by no means where we need to be," according to head coach Richard Barron.
They have come leaps and bounds from last season's 2-25 debacle, with a record at one point of 8-6 overall and 2-0 in the Ivy League.
They even have a chance to overcome the Princeton record for highest scoring average in a season: 69.0. Right now, they are at 66.3 points per game. However, since its quick start, Princeton has dropped its last four games, three of which were to Ivy League opponents.
The Tigers now have nine games remaining to leapfrog Cornell, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, all of whom they will play at least once during the remainder of the season, Yale twice.
Detritus
Despite three consecutive Ivy losses, putting them at 2-3 in the league, the Tigers still have a chance to nab the title if Harvard and Cornell stumble. They play bottom feeder Brown (4-15, 1-5 Ivy) twice in the next two weeks, as well as one game each against Harvard and Penn, the Ivy teams Princeton has already defeated.
Four out of their last six games, the Tigers will play teams above them in the standings, giving them a viable shot at breaking through to the top of the league, though they will have to snap their current losing streak and hope one besets the Big Red and the Crimson.
Senior guard Lauren Rigney has been hobbled this season with a chronic back injury, playing in only 13 of the team's 18 games so far this season, but a strong supporting cast has picked up the slack.
Sophomore forward Kelly Schaeffer leads the team in rebounding at 4.7 rebounds. She also leads the team in efficency from the stripe, shooting 76. 8 percent.
Junior guard Allison Cahill is leading the Tigers with 15.8 points per game and 2.5 assists per game, up from 9.5 and 1.3 from last season.
Awards
Cahill was named Ivy League Player of the Week on Jan 2, after averaging over 25 points per game during a three game stretch.
Earlier in the year, freshman guard Karen Bolster was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week after the team's first four games when she led the Tigers to a 3-1 record with 14.8 points per game. She started her career off with a 23-point performance against Lehigh. Though she has cooled off a bit to 9.7 points per game, she is third on the team in scoring and first in three-point percentage.
With only Ivy League games left to play this year, the Tigers will have to play to their potential that they showed early on if they want to contend for the league title.
Princeton is a young team with every player but Rigney returning next season. After the turnaround the Tigers exhibited this year, much will be expected of a team that returns four starters and an experienced bench whose players average more than 12 minutes a game each this season.
It will be their task to prove that this year's success has not been a fluke and to continue to improve on it as the season comes to a close.
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