Tigers visit Monmouth, host Colgate

It has been 27 years since the women's basketball team has faced instate rival Monmouth in hostile territory. In fact, when the two teams faced off last year at Jadwin Gym, it marked the first time they had played each other since 1980. Tonight, the Tigers will return the favor by traveling to West Long Branch, hoping to repeat last season's performance with a win and level the all-time series, 2-2, before returning home to face Colgate on Sunday.

Princeton (1-3 overall) won last season's matchup in a 57-52 overtime thriller. The Tigers will likely be less challenged this time around, as the Monmouth team they face bears little resemblance to the team that outshot them from the floor 12 months ago.

Indeed, the Hawks (1-3) have struggled so far this season. They started the year by losing a close game to Delaware State before being soundly beaten by St. John's and Lehigh. Their lone victory was a high-scoring contest against Navy, the only time this season that Monmouth managed to score more than 50 points in a game.

All in all, the Hawks have been uninspiring both in the front and back courts, which is not surprising considering that they field a relatively inexperienced team. In fact, Monmouth is returning just two of the starting five that saw them to a third-place finish in the Northeastern Conference last year. Including in the returning two, however, is guard Niamh Dwyer, who leads the team in scoring.

The Hawks were particularly lackluster against St. John's. The Red Storm won that contest with a 22-16 advantage in turnovers and a 43-33 advantage in rebounds. Monmouth fared only a little better against Lehigh, a team the Tigers beat earlier this season.

Princeton has yet to beat a team with home-court advantage to date, though their victory against Central Florida over Thanksgiving break was on neutral territory. Chances are good that the Tigers can end that streak on Thursday.

Princeton returns to Jadwin for the first time in two weeks on Saturday. The Tigers will face Colgate, which has also had a tough start to its season, winning only one of five games, though all of them were on the road.

Princeton will look to avenge its 30-point defeat it suffered two seasons ago against a Colgate team that was en route to the NCAA tournament. The Tigers have improved immensely since then, whereas Colgate slumped to 12-18 in 2004.

So far, this season has proved no different for Colgate. After losing their opener to Vermont, the Raiders lost a close game to William & Mary before earning their lone victory against McNeese State at the Vanderbilt tournament.

That win earned them a matchup against the No. 19 host Commodores, a game that proved disastrous for Colgate: the Raiders went down, 72-33, converting just 20.9 percent of attempts off the floor.

Their latest game against Syracuse was little comfort. Though the team improved slightly to shoot 28.1 percent, Colgate was nonetheless decisively beaten, 92-56. Along with shooting 51.5 percent, the Orange outdid the Raiders in rebounds (57-32) and assists (27-12).

Colgate has suffered from weak offense even against more comparable opponents. The Raiders' overall shooting percentage stands at just 32 percent, compared to Princeton's 45.1 percent, while they have converted on just one-fifth of all attempts from beyond the three-point range.

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Colgate will undoubtedly seek to end its six-game away streak on a high note, but the Raiders will need to take full advantage of the extra rest they have and drastically improve their performance if they want to earn a "W" off the Tigers. For now, this is Princeton's game to lose.