For senior Cack Ferrell, this weekend's meet was just like old times ? competing in her hometown in front of family, friends and old coaches.
Showing the patience and confidence it had been lacking, and led by the young offensive players who had lain dormant so far this season, women's soccer (2-4-2 overall) defeated La Salle (3-6-1), 4-0, last night at Lourie-Love Field.After more than 70 minutes of scoreless play, the Tigers exploded with four goals ? while their leading scorer sat on the bench ? to earn the blowout win they had been searching for all season.The odds finally caught up with La Salle with just over 18 minutes to play.
Though the Farnsworth Invitational at the Lenz Tennis Center this past weekend showcased the men's tennis team's individual talent, the Tigers' focus as they commenced the season was on preparing for the matches that will be decided as a team."Although tennis may seem like an individual sport, the team most certainly plays best when it functions as a unit," senior Andrew Lieu said.
One year later, and still the same story for the men's water polo team. For the second consecutive year, No.
It was a familiar situation for the women's volleyball team (8-1 overall) this weekend at the Marist Invitational in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: three games, three wins, one title.On Friday night, the Tigers dropped host Marist (4-10) in four games.
With the men's soccer game score in a goose-egg tie and with regulation time winding down, Princeton senior forward and captain Darren Spicer rattled off a shot toward the opposing goal.
Playing its last home game until mid-October, women's soccer (1-4-2 overall, 0-1-0 Ivy League) takes a breather from Ivy League play tonight, hosting La Salle University (3-5-1 overall), at 7 p.m.
The Princeton football team picked up just nine first downs Saturday, compared with the University of San Diego's 22.
As the clock wound down Saturday afternoon at Princeton Stadium and the football team clung to a tenuous three-point lead, it looked as if the game between Princeton (2-0 overall) and the University of San Diego (3-1) would come down to the little things: a missed extra point 10 seconds into the second quarter, pass interference calls which led to a Torero field goal or two fourth-down conversions by San Diego on a long fourth quarter drive.But all those little mistakes were overshadowed by one big play.
The sprint football team's showing in the inaugural Adirondack Trust Allegiance Bowl in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
On Saturday night, the women's soccer team learned the hard way that few offensive threats lead to little offensive production.
It might have been just a matter of experience. Get a few games under its belt. Find a groove.Whatever it was, the field hockey team has found it.With 3-0 wins over both Columbia and Albany, Princeton has maintained its undefeated 3-0 Ivy record and brought its overall record up to 4-4.With Saturday's game against Columbia still scoreless entering the second half, the Tigers appeared to let up for just an instant.
Beginning Saturday, the women's soccer team's mediocre non-conference record will no longer matter.
After dropping heartbreaking one-goal losses to nationally ranked Farleigh Dickinson and Akron at Lourie-Love Field over the weekend, the men's soccer team could have been excused if it had entered Wednesday's non-conference matchup against Drexel (1-4-1 overall) in a bit of a funk.
One team has lost 35 straight games. The other is a perennial College Sprint Football League powerhouse.
For the first time since classes started, the field hockey team returns home to Class of 1952 Stadium on Saturday, where the Tigers will attempt to improve their Ivy League record to 3-0.The young Princeton squad has earned itself a spot at the top of the Ivy League standings and has begun to show some of the form that allowed it to win 32 straight Ivy League games between 1999 and 2004.Princeton now gets the chance to extend its current streak against Columbia, as the Tigers square off against Columbia (3-3 overall, 0-1 Ivy League) for the first half of the doubleheader weekend.Six games into the season, the inexperienced Tigers are slowly beginning to find a groove.
The men's water polo team looks to continue its winning ways as it hosts the Eastern Conference Athletic Conference Championship this weekend.
One of the first signs of greatness in a sports team is the ability to beat the best. Then, once a team is itself recognized as the best, it achieves true greatness when it proves it can keep winning against opponents eager to spoil the cream of the crop.Tomorrow afternoon against San Diego (3-0 overall), the football team (1-0) will get a taste of the second phase of this process before it has even had a chance to complete step one.Though the Tigers were picked to finish sixth in the Ivy League preseason media poll and have yet to prove they can hang with the Penns and Harvards of the world, the Toreros will arrive at Princeton Stadium prepared to do battle with what they, at least, consider the most worthy of hosts."I feel like this is the best team we'll see the entire season," San Diego head coach Jim Harbaugh said of Princeton.
In soccer, there are two types of leaders. The first is the one who leads by example on the playing field, always playing with a grim determination and coming through with the big play at the crucial moment.
Most Princetonians arrive on campus with personal sports baggage: hometown pride, high school spirit and perhaps even memories of that school's mascot.
