Women's water polo defeats Ivy foes

It was the final game of the 2001 Eastern Championship. Princeton was playing Brown at Providence, R.I., and the winner would head on to the NCAA final four. With seconds to go in overtime, the Bears scored and defeated the Tigers 11-10. Princeton was forced to go home and think about the next year.

Almost a year later, the Princeton women's water polo team (8-1) faced the Brown Invitational as their chance for revenge. And in the last match of the second day of the Invitational, the Tigers stepped into the same pool to face the Bears, who had won three games to improve their record to 6-3. Princeton showed no mercy and, with four goals by both juniors Adele McCarthy-Beauvais and Jenny Edwards, defeated Brown 11-4.

Senior captain Cassie Nichols scored twice and junior Melinda Martin registered one goal. In the net for the Tigers was freshman Madeline McCarthy, who had eight saves.

In the first day of competition, Princeton faced Queens College and the 13th-ranked University of Michigan.

The Royals proved not to be a problem for the Tigers and were blown out 18-2. Freshman Kathryn Parolin scored four goals while both McCarthy-Beavais and freshman Mariah Zebrowski connected on three goals for the Tigers in their win over Queens. Madeline McCarthy, playing only the first half of action, picked up five saves in goal. Sophomore Lauren Lister recorded six saves in the second half.

The game against Michigan was a completely different story.

With a 7-6 lead in the fourth quarter, Princeton was minutes away from defeating the Wolverines. But in the last four minutes of the match, Michigan managed to get two fast break goals and outscore the Tigers 3-0 to win the game 9-7. Two goals from freshman Julia Miller and a goal apiece by McCarthey-Beavais, Edwards, junior Joanna Armstrong and sophomore Annie Olson were not enough to defeat the Wolverines. The offense, which went 1 for 7 with the man-up advantage, was apparently used up after scoring 18 goals against Queens.

"We had a strong defensive effort today," said coach Luis Nicolao. "We just missed too many opportunities on the offensive end."

But the second day of competition proved that the offense was far from being dead. In the first match of the day against Harvard, McCarthy-Beauvais tallied five goals, Edwards four, sophomore Coutney Welsh two, and Martin one to lead Princeton to a 13-7 win.

In the final match at Brown, Princeton defeated the Bears, and took revenge for last year's defeat.

After a successful weekend, the Tigers will continue action on Saturday, March 9, when they compete in the League Tournament at George Washington and will face Bucknell, Villanova, and George Washington in Washington, D.C.