The No. 10 women’s water polo team kicked off its season by hosting the Princeton Invitational. The Tigers went 4-1 on the weekend, only falling to No. 4 Cal 5-7.
The pair of wins has significant implications for the Tigers in the ECAC standings. Princeton’s four-point weekend brought the Tigers to within two points of second-place Yale, whom Princeton will face at home on Feb. 23. In addition, the victories give the Tigers momentum heading into a crucial four-game home stand at Baker Rink, where Princeton is 6-2 this season.
The women’s basketball team steamrolled two of its lesser Ivy opponents over the weekend, nearly doubling both Brown’s and Yale’s scores. The Tigers’ 99 points against the Bulldogs set a new record for the program, for which the previous high was 97. It was the second weekend in a row in which the Tigers (14-5 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) defeated two opponents by a combined 77 points.
The No. 1 men’s squash team headed into last weekend’s matches against No. 5 Cornell and No. 11 Columbia as the unbeaten favorite to win the Ivy League title. They ended Sunday with a decisive 9-0 victory against the Lions in Jadwin Gymnasium. What happened on Friday night against the Big Red, however, unexpectedly changed the Tigers’ course and resulted in a tie for first place in the conference rather than an outright title.
The No. 1 nationally ranked Princeton men’s squash team will travel to Ithaca to face No. 5 Cornell this Friday. The Tigers are 9-0 and look to come out of tomorrow’s match with their unbeaten record intact. Cornell comes into the match with a 13-3 record, with losses to Yale, Trinity and Harvard. Princeton defeated Harvard and Yale in close matches (5-4 and 6-3, respectively) and will close out their regular season against Trinity. The women will open the weekend on Friday against Cornell. Their Saturday game against Trinity was cancelled due to the expected inclement weather.
The men’s hockey team (7-10-4 overall, 5-6-3 ECAC) will wrap up its current four-game road stretch this weekend, facing off in back-to-back road contests against conference rivals Colgate (13-9-4, 5-6-3) and Cornell (8-11-2, 4-8-2) on Friday and Saturday night. Princeton lost two straight games last weekend in road contests against no. 8 Yale and Brown.
The men’s basketball team moves into this weekend seeking to do the same thing it did last season in Ivy League play: take down Yale and Brown in successive games at Jadwin Gymnasium. The Tigers (10-7 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) remain undefeated in 2013, having rattled off five straights wins, including victories over their first three Ivy League opponents. They will also be looking to extend their streak of 20 consecutive conference home wins dating back to the 2009-10 season.
This weekend, the women’s basketball team will continue its road trip, visiting Brown on Friday and Yale on Sunday. The Tigers (12-5 overall, 3-0 Ivy) have dominated league play so far, defeating each of their three opponents by no fewer than 30 points. It is likely that Princeton will have no trouble defeating Brown (7-11, 1-3) and Yale (6-12, 1-3), two teams in the bottom half of the standings. However, away games always pose an extra challenge, as momentum can easily turn in a hostile environment.
The women’s hockey team, while at times showing flashes of brilliance, struggled through much of the first three-quarters of the season. The Tigers posted a 6-12-2 record and only notched two ECAC conference victories in their first 20 games. Since coming back from a two-and-a-half week hiatus for finals and Intersession, however, the Tigers have looked like a different team. Princeton will face off against Colgate (8-16-3) and fourth-ranked Cornell (19-4) on Friday and Saturday.
All-America defensive tackle Caraun Reid was granted a fifth year of NCAA eligibility and will return to the football team for the 2013 season. Reid will take the spring semester off and graduate with the class of 2014 in hopes of entering that year’s NFL draft.
Princeton will open its conference schedule with George Mason in a rematch of last season’s thrilling regular season finale, which saw Princeton win in Fairfax in five sets to clinch the final EIVA playoff spot.
With a scintillating senior season and an impressive all-star week under his belt, linebacker Mike Catapano is inching closer to his lifelong dream of playing professional football. The medically redshirted senior has been named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year and toiled his way into the NFL Draft spotlight. Catapano’s league-leading 12 sacks and All-America recognition attracted the attention of pro scouts and earned him an invitation to the next step in his NFL quest: the 2013 East-West Shrine Game on Jan. 19.
Sophomore Hallie Dewey is a player in the top nine of the women’s squash team. Dewey contributed to the team’s fourth-place finish at the Howe Cup last year and will play in the team’s three remaining Ivy League matches this weekend. Greenwich, Conn. is Dewey’s hometown, but attending Deerfield put her at odds with Greenwich Academy. Dewey recently sat down with the ‘Prince’ to discuss sibling rivalry, “Homeland” and Forbesian cockroaches.
Strange as it may seem, for some there is more freedom in a fighting cage than there is at a trading desk. Such is the story of Jake Butler ’06, a former Princeton wrestler who decided to quit his Wall Street job after just a few years to pursue a career in mixed martial arts.
Soccer stars since their freshman year, seniors Jen Hoy, a forward, and Mark Linnville, a defender, both learned of opportunities to extend their distinguished careers last month. Linnville will head to Philadelphia to join his former teammate, Antoine Hoppenot ’12, to play with the MLS team Philadelphia Union. The Red Stars, of the newly-formed National Women’s Soccer League, selected Jen Hoy to play in Chicago.
The final buzzer that ended the men’s basketball team’s 72-66 victory over Columbia this weekend doubled as a death knell for the Lions’ conference title hopes. They entered the winter as the Ancient Eight’s consensus dark horse, the only team that might be capable of challenging Princeton and Harvard atop of the standings. Now, Columbia is merely the latest example of the ruthlessness of the 14-Game Tournament.
Having already lost a tough 14-13 match against No. 3 Notre Dame, the No. 4 Tigers found themselves in the rare position of looking outmatched. The men’s and women’s teams are used to being the dominant powers in almost any arena — both went undefeated in the Ivy League last year and finished second in the NCAA. The women came into the Northwestern Duals undefeated, while the men had lost only once, to No. 2 Penn State at the Vassar Duals in December.
Princeton squash established itself as a force to be reckoned with this week, as both the men’s and women’s teams continued undefeated streaks. The Tigers went into this week’s matches with confidence, coming off of huge wins against Harvard.
As the indoor track season rolls into February, the Tigers are starting to look fit and dangerous. Coming back from several weeks of training free from competitions, the men’s and women’s track teams fired back into action at the end of winter break and have been racing off the cobwebs throughout January.
After two weeks off, the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams were back in action over the break with three games apiece. Three consecutive wins helped improve the women’s team to 9-12-2 overall and 4-10-2 in the ECAC. The Tigers currently sit in eighth place in the league with 10 points, but Colgate and Yale follow them closely in the hunt for the final playoff spot. The men started off Intersession with a win, but the momentum did not continue as they dropped their next two games on the road, leaving them with a 7-10-4 overall record and a 5-6-3 record in the ECAC. The Tigers are one of five teams currently tied at 13 points.
