As the men’s soccer team kicks off its Ivy League campaign Saturday afternoon against Dartmouth at Roberts Stadium, it’s safe to say the team is back on track following a jittery start.
If the men’s soccer team were “mic’ed up” during an average practice session, you might hear this line from senior goalkeeper and team captain Sean Lynch: “Daddy wants some pancakes.”Say what?
What is the most unbreakable record in baseball history? Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak? Not quite. Cy Young’s incredible 511 career wins? Probably unbreakable, but theoretically assailable. How about 101 losses — on the road? No, nobody will ever pass the tremendous futility of my all-time favorite baseball team, the immortal 1899 Cleveland Spiders.
Sophomore midfielder Caitlin Blosser just wanted to pick flowers and stare at the sky when she was playing for her first soccer team at the age of 4. Her parents were worried she was not the athletic daughter they wanted her to be. But to their relief, Blosser soon found her athleticism in more ways than one, in tennis, football, baseball, basketball and — of course — soccer.
Tennis — unlike football, baseball or any other American pastime — has become a truly international sport. When one examines the draw for any Grand Slam tournament, abbreviations for obscure countries like Uzbekistan, Croatia, Chinese Taipei and Cyprus often litter the pages, next to the names of various players. The sports that generate the most fanfare in the United States, however, are largely Americentric.
In the women’s soccer team’s fourth match ever against Fairfield University, it continued the tradition of shutting out the Stags. The Tigers (5-3 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) won the game 2-0, with sophomore midfielder Caitlin Blosser scoring both goals of the game.
The Bowl Championship Series sucks. The vast majority of college football fans can agree on that. Don’t try to tell me that a playoff “devalues the regular season.” A playoff is the only fair way to determine a championship. Unfortunately, though, a college football playoff won’t be happening anytime soon. The BCS TV contract is not up until 2014, and it will likely be extended, as the current one rakes in a sweet $125 million per year.
After one semifinal loss in the NCAA tournament and 11 years of tough losses to Maryland, the field hockey team scored a triumphant 4-2 victory over the No. 1 Terrapins on Tuesday night at Class of 1952 Stadium.
After three seasons as a Tiger, senior center Michael Crowder took the field on Saturday to help lead the men’s football team to its 36-33 victory over Lafayette.
The men’s club rugby team opened its Ivy League campaign at home this weekend, meeting Brown on Saturday and Dartmouth on Sunday. These first league games came a week later than they did last year relative to Princeton’s academic calendar, giving the Tigers time to fit in extra preseason training and exhibition matches.
The men’s golf team traveled west this weekend and finished 16th at the Northwestern Windon Memorial tournament at the North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Ill.
For a moment on Friday night, it seemed like the sprint football team was coming close to overtaking Cornell in its first conference game at home this season.
The men’s tennis team had another successful weekend, as it competed in the USTA Men’s Collegiate Invitational in New York. The Tigers started off strong, collecting three victories in singles and five victories in doubles on the first day of play. Sophomore Matt Siow advanced in the A singles bracket while senior Alex Faust advanced in the B bracket and freshman Dan Richardson advanced in the C bracket. Siow, Faust and Richardson were dominant in the opening round, each defeating his opponent in straight sets. Princeton also advanced two doubles teams, as Siow and junior Coleman Crutchfield, along with Richardson and junior Ravi Yegya-Raman, each won two matches.
The women’s cross country team stole the show on Friday at the annual Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet in New Haven, Conn., outrunning Harvard and Yale to take five of the top 10 places.
Vikram Rao and Gabriel Debenedetti discuss this week in sports.
Generally, when a team graduates eight seniors, bumps in the road are a rite of passage on the path to recovery. Apparently, someone forgot to tell that to the men’s water polo team.Princeton (8-2 overall, 3-0 Collegiate Water Polo Association Southern Division) opened conference play with three wins in Maryland and Washington this weekend. The No. 17 Tigers posted tight wins in a difficult Saturday doubleheader, topping Johns Hopkins (7-6, 1-1) 10-9 in overtime in Baltimore before defeating No. 18 Navy (14-5, 1-1) 7-6 in the nightcap at Annapolis, Md. The following day, Princeton made it a clean sweep with a 13-9 win over George Washington (5-9, 1-1).
Saturday’s game began as a question mark. The football team had not faced Lafayette since ending a six-year series in 2007, and the Tigers looked weakened after just one game, with the team’s defensive captain and top tackler — senior linebacker Steve Cody — on the sidelines with a broken leg. As it turned out, the outcome remained a mystery until the very end, when a second-overtime touchdown capped an emotional contest in Princeton’s favor, 36-33.
Behind an threatening offense and a stifling defense, the men’s soccer team won the Princeton Invitational Tournament this weekend by beating Richmond 3-1 on Friday and crushing Adelphi 3-0 on Sunday.
The field hockey team has made a habit of running away from its opposition this year and its game on Saturday was no exception.Princeton (6-0 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) defeated Yale (4-3, 1-1) in convincing fashion this weekend, storming to a 7-0 win in New Haven, Conn.
Grit. The women’s soccer team lived up to its one-word motto for the season by defeating perennial rival Yale in New Haven, Conn., in a hard-fought and physical contest on Saturday.Sophomore forward Jen Hoy scored the Tigers’ (4-3 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) only goal, and the defense shut down Yale’s (2-5-1, 0-1) attackers to secure the 1-0 win for Princeton.
