A second and a half. That's all that separated both the women's open weight and lightweight crew teams' first varsity boats from defeat Saturday.Yale had hoped for a solid home victory as it hosted the Tigers' open weight squad.
Despite entering this season as defending Ivy League champion, the softball team faced a cloudy future.
With the tie scored, 4-4, in the bottom of the sixth inning in yesterday's baseball game, Monmouth head coach Dean Ehehalt took out his starting pitcher, Joe Cummings, in favor of another lefthander, Gregg Petillo.
"Youth are the future."The above maxim proved itself undeniably true this weekend as the underclassmen of the women's track team dominated the standings by taking first in three separate events.The team divided its efforts over the weekend, sending three members off to sunny California in a bid to attain NCAA-qualifying times, before regrouping and challenging Rutgers, Iona, and Manhattan in Lafayette, Pa., at the Lafayette Invitational.While most of the team was still training and preparing for the weekend's events back at Princeton, three of the members of the team ? junior Emily Kroshus, freshman Meredith Lambert, and sophomore Chelo Canino ? were in Walnut, Calif., at the Mount SAC relays competing individually in an effort to secure NCAA-qualifying times in the 10k, 5k, and pole vault, respectively.Not only did both runners achieve their goal, they did it in style.
With the Heptagonal championships less than two weeks away, the men's track and field team sent a message to defending outdoor champion Penn and defending indoor champ Cornell that Princeton will be the class of the field.Competing against area schools Rutgers, Manhattan and Iona this weekend, the Tigers recorded some impressive marks, led by senior Josh Ordway's regional qualifying victory in the steeplechase.
The men's tennis team competed against the best and the worst of the Ivy League this weekend when Harvard (11-8 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) and Dartmouth (8-11, 0-5) came to town.On the brink of avenging last year's 6-1 loss to the Crimson, the Tigers (14-9, 3-3) fell just short by a score of 4-3.
As a sports reader, it is often easy to get caught up in records and final scores. This is in part the fault of sportswriters, who forego analysis for the sake of numbers, and yet it is sad to think that something very important is lost among all the statistics ? the struggles for victory, outstanding plays, and heartbreaking failures.Last Friday, the women's tennis team (9-8 overall, 2-4 Ivy League) was a shining example of how scoreboards can be misleading, as it took on Ivy League powerhouse Harvard."The game was so much closer than the score showed," junior captain Alex Kobishyn said.The Crimson (17-3, 7-0), ranked No.
The first step has been taken. The men's volleyball team looked Lady Destiny square in the eye last weekend, and she found the squad deserving.On Saturday night Princeton journeyed to Jun-iata College (16-9 overall, 7-8 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) for its first match of the single-elimination EIVA playoffs.The Tigers (17-8, 8-7) had twice fallen by a score of 3-1 to the Eagles in the regular season, but the team's continuing improvement over the course of the year left the probable outcome of this match in serious dispute.Princeton drove that point home to the Juniata faithful by battling through an electrifying five-game contest to emerge with a 3-2 victory and a ticket to the second round.In a match this close, "there really was no turning point," as junior setter Jason Liljestrom put it.
The women's lacrosse team's hammer was withdrawn when it lost to Yale, 7-6, a week ago. But on Saturday the Tigers (8-4 overall, 3-1 Ivy League) brought it crashing down on Harvard to give the Crimson (2-9 overall, 0-4 Ivy League) a 12-2 pounding.It was more than clear on Saturday that the Tigers were not about to be the first Princeton team since the 1988 season to lose two Ivy contests in a row.Most striking about the pounding was that the Tigers did it without the full help of their two top scorers ? junior attack Theresa Sherry and senior attack Whitney Miller ? who played limited minutes due to ankle injuries.
Putting the ball in the back of the net was a problem that had plagued the men's lacrosse team since the beginning of the season.
It feels good to be in the driver's seat.Locked in a first-place tie with Penn in the Lou Gehrig Division of the Ivy League, the baseball team (18-16 overall, 10-2 Ivy League) traveled to Philadelphia to play a four-game series on the Quakers' home turf.Despite dropping a heartbreaking 8-7 decision in the first game, the Tigers took the next three games by the scores of 6-2, 3-0, and 4-2, respectively, to come out on top in the series and take the lead in the Ivy League race."It was a big weekend for us," senior pitcher Mark Siano said.
It was the highest scoring of days; it was the lowest scoring of days. For softball, the weekend was indeed a tale of two cities.First, in Ithaca, N.Y., on Friday, Princeton (18-12-1 overall, 8-1 Ivy League) outslugged Cornell (24-6, 7-3), sweeping the League's best hitting squad, 8-3 and 8-7.The next day, in New York City, the Tigers could manage only one run over 23 innings of play, splitting a pair of extra-inning 1-0 thrillers with Columbia (15-17, 5-5).So how to explain the bipolarity?"It was a pretty unique weekend," sophomore pitcher Melissa Finley said.
Being a great sports team comes at the price of having to deal with high expectations.No one expected that the women's lacrosse team (7-4 overall, 2-1 Ivy League), which had won its previous 12 games against Ivy League opponents, would lose to Yale, 7-6, last Saturday.
"This is what you play for," men's lacrosse head coach Bill Tierney said of the team's upcoming battle with the Big Red.Facing this great of a rival always means a good game.
Right now, roughly midway through the Ivy League season, softball sits alone atop the standings. But the pinnacle position is up for grabs this weekend in New York.In all likelihood, this weekend's road trip to Cornell (22-4 overall, 5-1 Ivy League) and Columbia (13-5, 3-3) will determine whether Princeton (15-11-2, 5-0-1) will remain at the league's zenith at season's end.Friday's doubleheader in Ithaca will feature the Ivies' two hottest teams and four of its hottest players.
The twin titans of Ivy League baseball will battle it out today and tomorrow afternoon as the Tigers (15-15 overall, 7-1 Ivy League) travel to Penn to take on the Quakers (18-11, 9-3).Both Princeton and Penn are currently locked in a first place tie in the Lou Gehrig division of the Ivy League.
It's playoff time, BABY! Don't tell Dickie V., or men's volleyball fans will have to start looking out for flying spittle in addition to the occasional stray spike.The volleyball team (15-10) will travel to Juniata College (17-7) this Saturday night in the first round of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association postseason playoffs.
In Wednesday's doubleheader versus Lehigh the softball team brought its 'A' game for the first contest but did not have it for game two.The second game was a thriller as the Tigers (15-11-1 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) fell, 5-4, to the Mountain Hawks (26-7, 11-1 Patriot League) in extra innings.After crushing Lehigh 8-0 in the opening game, Princeton was in a position to sweep the series until the Mountain Hawks rallied back for the win.Game two went back and forth for five frames and the score was 3-2 in favor of the Tigers at the end of five innings of play.
After a nearly flawless start to their 2003 spring season, all four Princeton crew teams ? men's heavyweight and lightweight, women's open weight and lightweight ? take to the water this weekend to race a handful of challenging opponents.This weekend, men's heavyweight crew races on Lake Carnegie against crews from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.The heavyweights have gotten off to a good start, sweeping all four races in their seizure of the Child's Cup from Columbia and Penn in last weekend's race.
When basketball head coach John Thompson '88 was asked to describe Ray Robins, he replied, "Which Ray Robins?
