Colgan ends stellar career second all-time in goals

For a few glorious days at the end of April, visitors to goprincetontigers.com — the official website of Princeton athletics — were welcomed by the face and voice of the 2007 Daily Princetonian Female Athlete of the Year.

In a short video clip that played as soon as the website loaded, senior utility Elyse Colgan of the women's water polo team encouraged Tiger fans to attend the 2007 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Eastern Championships at DeNunzio Pool that weekend. In libraries and lecture halls around campus, her voice could be heard emanating from the laptops of students taking a break from their studies to check up on their favorite Princeton teams.

The role of ambassador fit this particular athlete to a tee, as Colgan's whole career at Princeton has been about reaching out.

First and foremost, Colgan reached for the top of the Tiger record books. After scoring 73 goals in 29 games this season, she now sits second on the all-time Princeton list with 272 career goals. Of the six highest single-season scoring totals in school history, three now belong to the four-year starter. She also moved into second place all-time on Princeton's career assists list, dishing out 25 this season to finish second on the Tigers and reach 71 assists for her career.

More importantly though, Colgan has helped her team reach its place among the nation's best. The Tigers had at least 20 wins in each of the four seasons she played, amassing an impressive overall record of 91 wins with just 33 losses.

The water polo team has captured seven Southern titles during its 11-year history. Four of those came in Colgan's four years with the Tigers, during which she led the team in goals each season.

Colgan's accomplishments have been noticed by those far beyond DeNunzio. In March 2006, midway through her junior season, she was named as one of the 25 members of the USA Water Polo Women's Senior National Team.

This year, Colgan led the No. 16 Tigers into the Eastern Championships. Princeton reached the tournament's final round for the first time since 2001, as Colgan earned All-Eastern honors for the fourth time in her career. Those accolades sit up on the mantle next to the four consecutive CWPA Southern Most Valuable Player awards she has earned.

Colgan has reached out in other ways as well. Two years ago, she reached out to aspiring water polo players everywhere, offering lessons to then-sophomore Daily Princetonian writer Sandy Zaeh for an article that appeared in the paper that March. As Sandy struggled with her sweep shot and eggbeater kick, Colgan was nothing but encouraging, lending as much of her expertise as she could. But later in the lesson, as the two talked about what an aggressive sport water polo can be, Sandy noticed that her teacher's Nike swimsuit was riddled with holes.

"Those are from the other girls," Colgan explained, conjuring up images of fingernails ripping through Lycra.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one reaching out. Over four years, opponents trying to keep up with her found that was about all they could do. From her first year wearing orange and black, Colgan paced the Tigers with 71 goals, with the team's next highest scorer netting 51. As a freshman, Colgan led Princeton to a 24-9 record and an undefeated mark in the CWPA.

Her scoring ballooned to 82 goals during her sophomore season, a campaign in which the Tigers improved their win total by three and again notched an 8-0 CWPA mark.

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That year, Colgan netted seven goals in a game against Hartwick, the second-highest single-game total in Princeton history.

Besides lighting up the box score, Colgan established herself as a leader and role model for the rest of her team.

"I think that over the past four years, Elyse's leadership was most obvious in her work ethic," senior co-captain and driver Karina Reyner said. "She was constantly in the gym or at the pool, looking for ways to improve. She was a positive role model for the rest of the team."

For her accomplishments this season as well as those over her entire Princeton career, The Daily Princetonian is proud to name Elyse Colgan its 2006-07 Female Athlete of the Year.