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Sports recap: Basketball teams dominate, lacrosse off to a strong start as spring season gets underway

Women's Swim & Dive.jpg
The Tigers finished fourth despite being in second through three sessions.
Courtesy of GoPrincetonTigers.com

Women’s swim and dive at Ivy League Championships

In Cambridge, Mass. this past weekend, the women’s swimming and diving team wrapped up their conference season by placing fourth at the Ivy League Championships.

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The team had just one swimmer win their individual event, with junior Nikki Venema winning the 100 butterfly with a time of 52.42 seconds, the second-best time in school history. The Tigers also took home the win in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:38.66. After seven events, the Tigers found themselves in second place. However, due to lower finishes during the second half of the competition — including just two top-three placements on the final day — the Tigers ended up dropping off of the podium.

Next up for the Tigers will be the NCAA Championships in Atlanta, Ga. from March 16–19.

Women’s ice hockey vs. Brown, No. 6 Yale

After picking up two wins from Dartmouth on Feb. 12–13, the women’s ice hockey team (11–13–5 overall, 9–10–3 ECAC) went cold this past weekend, tying Brown (6–18–5, 6–12–4) on Friday before losing 3–0 to then-No. 6 Yale (22–6–1, 16–5–1) on Saturday. Despite this, the Tigers still qualified for the ECAC Hockey Championships as the lowest-seeded team. They will take on top-seeded No. 6 Harvard in a best-of-three series beginning Friday, Feb. 25.

Check out Associate Sports Editor Lizzie Evanko’s coverage of the Yale loss here.

Women’s basketball vs. Brown, Yale

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It was business as usual for the women’s basketball team (19–4 overall, 11–0 Ivy League) this past weekend, as they made quick work of both Brown (6–18, 1–11) and Yale (14–10, 7–5) in similarly-dominant performances at Jadwin Gymnasium. In both games, the Tigers managed to double their opponents’ scores, beating the Bears 88–42 and the Bulldogs 74–36. The Tigers have doubled-up on their opponents’ scores in four of their last seven games.

Check out our recaps from the Brown and Yale games by contributors Akshay Swani and Eric Fenno, respectively.

Men’s basketball at Brown, Yale 

Men’s basketball (19–5 overall, 9–2 Ivy League) also handled the Brown-Yale pairing this weekend, although they did so on the road. Following a 69–50 win over Brown (12–15, 4–8) in Rhode Island on Friday night, the Tigers took on League-leading Yale (15–10, 9–2) in Connecticut, and came away with both a win and the top spot in the Ivy League. The 81–75 victory for the Tigers improved their conference record to 9–2 with just three games remaining, and avenged an 80–74 home loss that the Tigers suffered against Yale in January.

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Read the recap of both games, written by staff writer Le’Naya Wilkerson and contributor Kameron Wolters, here.

Men’s ice hockey at Harvard, Dartmouth

The men’s ice hockey team (8–16–2 overall, 7–11–1 ECAC) was not as successful as the basketball teams this past weekend, as they dropped two close games against Harvard (15–8–3, 12–5–2) and Dartmouth (6–18–3, 5–13–2). The Dartmouth game was scoreless for over 58 minutes before the Big Green snuck in two late goals to down the Tigers. Currently, Princeton is ninth in the ECAC; should they drop any lower, they will not host a game in the first round of the ECAC playoffs.

Read Associate Sports Editor Ben Burns’ detailed recap of the weekend’s action here.

Men’s tennis at ECAC Championships

After women’s tennis (3–7 overall, 3–0 Ivy League) won the ECAC title just a weekend ago, the men (6–4, 2–1) fell short, winning two of three matches. A 4–0 loss to Harvard (7–2, 3–0) derailed their hopes to bring back hardware from the tournament. The Tigers did manage a 4–3 win against Penn (6–1, 2–1) and a 4–2 win over Cornell (8–2, 1–2), which they take into the upcoming Blue Gray National Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala. from Feb. 25–26.

No. 20 men’s lacrosse vs. Monmouth (home opener)

The men’s lacrosse team (1–0 overall, 0–0 Ivy League) started their season off on a high note this past weekend, handling Monmouth (0–1, 0–0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) easily in a 22–6 win. With a 10–5 advantage at the half, the Tigers jumped ahead with nine more goals in the third quarter to put the game away. Leading the way for the Tigers were junior attackers Christian Ronda and Alex Slusher, each with five goals to their name. The Tigers will host their second consecutive home game against Binghamton on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

No. 16 women’s lacrosse vs. Virginia (season opener)

The women’s lacrosse team (1–0 overall, 0–0 Ivy League) got head coach Chris Sailer’s final season off to an impressive start Sunday with a 17–11 win at No. 10 Virginia (2–2, 0–0 Atlantic Coastal Conference). The No. 16 Tigers took a 9–5 lead into the half and didn’t look back, holding off a comeback from the Cavaliers en route to the victory. Sophomore midfielder Kari Buonanno led the Tigers and tied her career high with four goals. Princeton will next face Temple on Feb. 26.

Wilson Conn is a co-head editor for the Sports section at the ‘Prince’ who typically covers football, basketball, and breaking news. He is also a senior writer for the Podcast section. He can be reached at wconn@princeton.edu or on Twitter at @wilson_conn.