No. 15: Theresa Sherry '04

In high school, exceptional two and even three-sport athletes regularly populate student bodies. While such large time commitments aren't easy in high school, they are still possible. In college, however, that traditionally isn't the case. Juggling multiple sports — and continuing to shine among the much deeper field of collegiate athletes — tends to be impossible. One truly amazing athlete, Theresa Sherry '04, however, managed to turn the impossible into the possible.

At Princeton, Sherry competed in both soccer and lacrosse and excelled in both. From the very beginning, it was obvious Sherry would be a special member of Tiger athletics. In her very first season in an Orange and Black uniform, Sherry scored eight goals for the women's soccer team. Her sophomore year, Sherry was an integral part of the team that won an outright Ivy championship, scoring another eight goals on the season.

Sherry also captained the soccer team her junior and senior years and ultimately helped lead it to three Ivy League championships and four NCAA tournament appearances during her four-year career.

While Sherry's feats on the soccer field are impressive in their own right, they become legendary considering that soccer wasn't even her best collegiate sport. No, Sherry will always be remembered, first and foremost, as the star player of the women's lacrosse team that she led to the 2002 and 2003 national titles.

Over the course of her illustrious career playing midfielder for the Tigers, Sherry scored 197 points and 161 goals at Princeton, fifth and fourth in the record books, respectively.

Perhaps her most defining moment came in the final seconds of the women's lacrosse national title game in 2003. With less than one minute and 30 seconds remaining in overtime and the game tied at seven, Sherry beat her defender one-on-one and fired a shot past the goalie, propelling the Tigers over Virginia to their second consecutive national championship.

Sherry was also a three-time All-American lacrosse player and a finalist for the prestigious Tewaaraton Award, which goes to the nation's best female lacrosse player, as a senior in 2004. That season, Sherry led the team to its first ever undefeated regular season, before falling to Virginia in the NCAA championship game.

In an interview with the Daily Princetonian in 2005, senior attack Kathleen Miller recognized Sherry's impact on the team.

"I think [2004's] team had one single leader on the field, who was Theresa Sherry," Miller said. "Everyone would look to her on the field for an answer, and I think this year we don't just have one — we have a handful."

Sherry graduated in 2004 and moved on to help coach Amherst College's lacrosse program. She also worked as an analyst for ESPN-U when the channel broadcasted women's lacrosse games.

More recently this past year, Sherry was hired as an assistant coach at the University of California. But Princeton fans and students alike can be proud that Theresa Sherry '04 was a great addition to the Tigers before anything else.