On a dreary November afternoon, Bob Surace ’90 sat in the cramped press room at the base of Princeton Stadium, a look of utter exhaustion etched on his face as he tried to answer the question on everyone’s minds: What went wrong?
The women's hockey team’s season began on a disappointing note, with the Tigers dropping five of their first six battles on the ice. This start was only the beginning of what became a roller coaster year for Princeton, characterized by both streaks of poor play and streaks of outstanding execution. A seven-game winless streak put the Tigers’ conference record at 3-6-1, and the team was at risk of missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2000-01 season.
The field hockey team, one of Princeton’s most dominant athletic programs, won the Ivy League title for 16th time in the past 17 years in the 2010 season. For such a consistently accomplished squad, though, the campaign was a bittersweet one for the No. 6 Tigers. Amassing both personal and team triumphs but plagued by injuries, the team found itself unable to match the success of the 2009 group that advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
It was a normal Thursday morning. Normal, except for the campus-wide tension due to first semester finals. You could walk outside and see people tracing familiar footsteps, going back and forth between the library and dining hall. And then, without warning, it hit. Freshman softball player Khristin Kyllo was found dead in her room on Jan. 13. For the entire Princeton community, and especially for the other 13 members of the Princeton softball team, things would never be the same.
The 2010-11 season brought much success for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, from winning two Ivy League titles to becoming a YouTube sensation.
Finishing fourth in the nation, behind top scholarship schools Duke, Penn State and St. John’s, is pretty impressive. The men's and women's fencing teams did just that this season, and the Tigers' fourth-place finish tied their best in program history, matching a feat they accomplished in the 1990s.
The men's and women's golf teams had success at points during the 2010-11 season. The Tigers competed in several fall tournaments and three spring tournaments to prepare for the Ivy League Championship in April.
Despite one of the best seasons ever by a goalie in program history, the 2011 men’s lacrosse team failed to qualify for the Ivy League Tournament and NCAA Tournament and had its worst season since 1988. The Tigers (4-8 overall, 2-4 Ivy League) have not won so few games since former head coach Bill Tierney’s first season.
When the women’s soccer team walked on the pitch at Roberts Stadium for their last game of the 2010 season, the Tigers knew that they controlled their destiny. They were about to face Ivy League nemesis Penn for the conference title and an automatic NCAA Tournament bid with the momentum of a hard-fought overtime win at Cornell fresh in their minds.
Last season, the men’s volleyball team hired head coach Sam Shweisky, who led the squad to an appearance in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association finals for the first time since 1990. There, the Tigers fell to undefeated Penn State, who would later be defeated by Stanford in the finals of the NCAA tournament. Shweisky was named the 2010 EIVA Bob Sweeney Coach of the Year.
Following a 4-3 conference finish last spring in which it was in contention for the Ivy League championship during the final weekend of play, the men’s tennis team entered this year looking to build off the success of last year’s strong freshman class and challenge again for the league title. The women’s team faced a different challenge, as it looked to follow up a dominating 7-0 Ivy League championship season last spring.
For 20 minutes on Saturday, the women’s lacrosse team gave No. 1 Maryland all it could handle, jumping out to an early 3-1 lead and keeping the hosts’ potent offense at bay. But the Terrapins broke through for seven goals in six minutes late in the half and cruised to a 15-6 victory, ending Princeton’s season in the NCAA quarterfinals.
The women's lacrosse team entered 2011 hoping to get back to its winning ways. Three months later, the 12-6 Tigers are three victories away from the national championship entering Saturday’s contest against No. 1 Maryland.
The women’s open and lightweight crews were undefeated in the regular season, and both lived up to high expectations at the Eastern championships in Cherry Hill, N.J. Both teams defeated top rivals from around the region to win championships at EAWRC Sprints.
The women's lacrosse team upset No. 8-seed James Madison on the road on Saturday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA tournament, holding on in an exciting final minute for an 11-10 victory. The Tigers advance to the quarterfinal round next Saturday, when they will face No. 1 Maryland, which defeated Navy 19-6 in the opening round.
The 2006-07 season appeared to be the death of Princeton basketball. In just three short years, the team led by head coach Joe Scott ’88 had gone from Ivy League champion to laughingstock of the league. The team finished with 11 total wins and a 2-12 mark in league. Scott resigned. The program had hit an all-time low.In stepped an athletic forward named Kareem Maddox.
On Sunday, all four Princeton crews will be taking on their toughest competitors in one of their final regattas of the season at the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges and Eastern Association of Women’s Rowing Colleges sprints. The regatta will include all the Ivy League teams, as well as nationally ranked teams including Wisconsin and Navy.
During a year in which many Princeton athletes had individual and team success, few accomplished as much as junior striker Kat Sharkey of the field hockey team. The most prolific scorer in the country, Sharkey set multiple program records while leading the Tigers to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.
Soccer may be the beautiful game, but FIFA, its governing organization, is the ugliest of the lot. FIFA is probably the most corrupt sporting organization in the world, and its president, Sepp Blatter, is an arrogant hack. The duplicitous leader of the world’s most popular sport has made so many public gaffes that he could easily be deposed on this premise alone. Speaking about women’s soccer, Blatter told the media that “women [should] play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball,” continuing to inexplicably state that if women played with a “more female aesthetic,” they might gain more international fans.
After a dramatic win on Sunday to dethrone two-time defending Ivy League champions Dartmouth, the baseball team will have to wait until May 30 to know against whom — and when — they’ll next be playing a game that matters. What to do until then?
