Whether in the DJ booth or on the soccer field, sophomore midfielder Lester Nare is always larger than life. With his signature dreadlocks and his huge personality he commands a crowd the minute he walks into a room.
For the men’s rugby team, Saturday’s match at Cornell was a must-win. Heading into the contest, Princeton and Cornell were the only two winless teams remaining in the Ivy League, and both sides were desperate to avoid the loneliness of last place.
It was a water polo fan’s dream when 15 of the top 20 teams in the nation gathered at the Spieker Aquatics Center at the University of California, Los Angeles this weekend for the SoCal Tournament. The men’s water polo team attempted to hold its own against the stiff competition, dropping its first three games before rallying to win the last game of the weekend.
In a dramatic double-overtime finish, the women’s soccer team fell 2-1 to underdog American on Monday night. Rainy and cold conditions and nearly 110 minutes of play made the game a competition of endurance.
This weekend, the men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled west to tackle some of the nation’s toughest teams.
Coming off a marquee win last Tuesday against No. 1 Maryland, the No. 4 field hockey team was riding high into this weekend, expecting victories at Columbia on Friday and against No. 14 American at home on Sunday. While the Tigers (8-1 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) easily topped the Lions, 6-1, they fell to the underdog Eagles (9-2) on Sunday in a hard-fought 3-2 loss.
In the men's soccer team's 3-1 win over Richmond on Sept. 24, junior forward Antoine Hoppenot led the offense with two goals off assists from senior midfielder Josh Walburn. The stats were reversed on Saturday night against Dartmouth, with Hoppenot’s clever setups allowing Walburn to score two goals in leading the Tigers (4-3-1 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) to a 3-0 shutout victory over the Big Green (4-3-1, 0-1) in the Ivy League opener for both teams.
Entering Saturday, the football team had played Columbia 79 times and had never lost consecutive games. But the Lions (2-1 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) ended that streak in emphatic fashion, cruising to a 42-14 victory at Robert K. Kraft Field. Princeton (1-2, 0-1) again came out flat in an Ivy League opener and has been outscored 80-14 in the last two meetings with its northern neighbor.
For the second consecutive year, the football team made history in its Ivy League opener against Columbia — the kind of history that most on the squad would rather forget. Princeton’s (1-2 overall, 0-1 Ivy League) 42-14 loss to the Lions (2-1, 2-0) marked the Tigers’ first back-to-back losses to their Manhattan rivals in the history of the series, and Columbia’s 42 points were the most that the New York school has ever managed against Princeton since the two teams began playing in 1874.
In its second Ivy League game of the young season, the women’s soccer team avenged last year's double-overtime loss to Dartmouth with a 2-1 win on Saturday.
Along with Princeton and Columbia, two other teams opened their Ivy League slate last weekend, while the rest split four non-league games. Here’s how they fared:
The sprint football team continued its steady improvement despite a loss to previously winless rival Mansfield on Friday night, coming as close to victory as it has in years. The Tigers ultimately fell to the Mountaineers 10-6.
The women’s volleyball team will travel to face Penn tonight to open its Ivy League season. The Tigers (5-6) had a strong start to their season at the Lafayette Tournament, where they came away with three straight wins, but have struggled in their past two tournaments.
Last weekend, the men’s water polo team conquered the East Coast, winning all three of its games against league opponents Johns Hopkins, No. 18 Navy and George Washington. This weekend, the No. 16 Tigers (8-2 overall, 3-0 Collegiate Water Polo Association Southern Division) will travel to the West Coast in an attempt to repeat their victorious weekend.
At 3:07 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2009, the football team took the field at Princeton Stadium in its Ivy League opener against Columbia with every expectation of extending Princeton’s dominant head-to-head record against its New York City rival. The final whistle blew at 6 p.m., and the Tigers were bounced from their home field in a 38-0 shutout —Princeton’s worst loss against Columbia in school history.
Princeton will send both its cross country teams out of state this weekend to prepare for the important Pre-Nationals meet later this month. The men will send their top runners to Madison, Wis., to compete in the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational. The women will field a squad at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind. Both teams will also send runners to the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa.
The women’s soccer team is looking to continue its unbeaten Ivy League record this weekend with its second Ancient Eight match of the year. The Tigers (5-3 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) host Dartmouth (3-4-1, 1-0) on Saturday at Roberts Stadium.
Vikram Rao and Gabriel Debenedetti discuss this week in sports.
