Sports Shorts: Men's Tennis and Women's Water Polo stay undefeated on season

Tennis: Men maintain undefeated record, women fall in ECAC semifinal

Friday saw the 69th-ranked women's team push past Dartmouth 4-2 to earn a spot in the ECAC semifinal the following day against Columbia. Playing in the number one spot, junior Lindsay Graff led the way, overcoming her opponent 6-1, 6-2. Freshman Alanna Wolff, ranked 62nd nationally, also made light work of her opponent in the number three spot, winning 6-1, 6-1.

Although holding a 27-4 all-time lead against Columbia, the Tigers fell to the 52nd-ranked Lions in Saturday’s ECAC semifinal matchup. Playing against a slew of nationally-ranked players, the Tigers struggled with only sixth spot freshman Dorothy Tang prevailing in three sets.

A strong showing by the singles contingent saw Princeton prevail over Brown in Sunday’s third place ECAC matchup. Wolff and sophomore Emily Hahn showed the most dominance, dropping just four games in their individual matchups.

This weekend’s series of home matches saw the men’s team get off to its first 5-0 start to the season since 1979. On Saturday, Princeton held off Marquette 4-3 in the first-ever meeting between the two teams. Marquette took the doubles point after a tiebreaker, leaving the Tigers in a tight position. But the team fought well, with both freshman Josh Yablon and senior Augie Bloom winning crucial three-set matches.

Sunday’s matchups provided far less drama as Princeton overwhelmed both Boston College and Monmouth 6-1. Even with nationally-ranked junior Zack McCourt missing from the day’s lineup, the Tigers still dominated, winning all doubles matches. Freshman Alex Day filled in nicely for McCourt at the number one spot against Monmouth, winning the match in his first appearance playing as the Tiger number one.

Women’s Water Polo: Johnson saves the best for first

The ninth-ranked Tigers took to the pool in dominating fashion this weekend, as they started the year off with a clean sweep of victories at the Princeton Invitational. Leading Princeton’s (3-0, 0-0 CWPA) performances was a record-setting outing by sophomore goalie Ashleigh Johnson in the opener against Wagner (3-4). A rocket could not have passed Johnson on Saturday morning, as she went to break her own record for most saves in a game with 20. Junior utility Ashley Hatcher scored a hat trick, with sophomore utility Diana Murphy and senior utility Katie Rigler adding two apiece in Princeton’s 9-4 win over Wagner (3-4, 0-0 MAAC).

The second game against Iona (0-5, 0-0 MAAC) was just as impressive as the Tigers took an 11-4 win with Johnson adding another 18 saves to end the day at 38. Murphy found the back of the net two more times, and Hatcher added a goal to bring both their tallies for the day to four goals.

Sunday’s third and final game against Virginia Military Institute (0-3, 0-0 MAAC) was a scud attack with Princeton putting away 17 goals and only letting in four. Freshman two-meter Hannah Lapkin picked up four while sophomore utility Kimi Klein and junior utility Jessie Holechek added hat tricks. Two other freshmen had solid outings, with center defender Morgan Hallock adding three assists and center Sydney Saxe adding two goals and an assist. Junior attacker CeCe Coffey was given her boarding pass and made her debut in goal; recording four saves in the second half.

Men’s Volleyball: Stearns and Kessel each notch 13 kills in two unfortunate losses

Princeton dropped its home opener to IPFW on Friday night, losing 3-2 in a drawn out nail-biter. Tied at two apiece going into the final set, the Tigers (0-4, 0-0 EIVA) held a 10-8 lead before IPFW (5-2, 0-1 MIVA) rattled off a 5-1 run and went on to hold the Tigers off 15-13. Senior outside hitter Pat Schwagler turned water into wine on offense with 19 kills for the day, while freshman setter Chris Kennedy played like a veteran in his home debut, adding 48 assists and 10 digs.

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Saturday’s matchup against 15th-ranked Ball State also went to five sets, with the Tigers coming close to an upset. Princeton got off to a fierce start, taking the first two sets 25-21 and 25-19 before dropping the third 25-20. Princeton came back from a 24-22 deficit in the fourth to even the set at 24, but Ball State (5-3, 1-0 MIVA) responded with consecutive points to take the set 26-24. Ball State kept the ball rolling in the fifth to take the win with a 15-4 last set. Schwagler followed up his form from the previous outing with 10 kills, nine digs and six blocks. Outside hitters sophomore Devin Stearns and junior Cody Kessel again both added 13 kills for the day.

Swimming: Men prevail, women fall in Senior Day duals with Columbia

Senior Lisa Boyce won the 50- and 100-yard freestyles, took second in the 100-backstroke, and swam the fastest leg on the winning 200-freestyle relay, but Columbia won nine events to Princeton’s seven and took home a 165-131 victory. The Tigers (4-3) dominated both diving events but lost both races in the breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly to a Columbia team (7-0) that will be favored to win the Ivy League Championships in two weeks.

Sophomore Nikki Larson won the 200-freestyle in 1:50.80 with a strong third 50 and freshman Rebecca Fleming won the 500-freestyle after being in a dead heat with Columbia’s Mallory McKeon at 450. Freshman Caitlin Chambers won the three-meter diving competition with 304.43 points and took second in the one-meter as well. Boyce’s 23.15 in the 50-free is Princeton’s fourth fastest time ever in the event and only a second off her school record.

Led in part by seniors Mark O’Connell and Ian Rea, the men’s team vanquished Columbia in the final dual meet of the season by a resounding score of 186-94. Princeton (6-2, 6-1 Ivy League) took 13 of the 16 events from the Lions (6-4, 4-3), including every freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke race.

Rea won the 50-freestyle in 20.44 seconds, the 100-butterfly in 48.61 and swam the fastest butterfly leg of the day on the medley relay. O’Connell won the one-meter diving competition with 322.72 points and nearly won the three-meter as well, losing to Columbia’s Micah Rembrandt 348.60-347.92. Sophomore Teo D’Alessandro joined Rea as an event winner, swimming a leg of the winning 200-medley relay. Freshman Lance Rutkin won a thrilling 1000-freestyle battle over sophomore teammate Zach Ridout, as Rutkin opened up an eight-second lead with 250 yards left before Ridout whittled it down to .37 seconds at the finish.