When the field hockey team hoisted the NCAA championship trophy at Old Dominion last week, it was the culmination not only of a storybook season but also of years of close calls and missed opportunities.
One week after earning the first national title in Ivy League history, members of the field hockey team shared their reflections on the final game and the aftermath of an NCAA championship.
The women’s basketball team traveled to sunny Southern California for Thanksgiving weekend to take on UC-Riverside and No. 19 UCLA. The Tigers prevailed against Riverside 72-68 on Friday night but fell to the Bruins 65-52 on Sunday after holding a lead at the end of the first half.
The last time the men’s basketball team played at Syracuse, the iPhone and MacBook were figments of the imagination. But after an eight-year absence, Princeton (1-2) will return to the Carrier Dome tonight to take on the Orange (2-0), who are currently ranked No. 6 in the nation.Follow @PrinceSports on Twitter for live updates from Syracuse.
The 2012-13 wrestling team has entered its season with new faces and new fight.Two-time NCAA Championship winner Joe Dubuque has joined the coaching staff as assistant coach. His experience inspires the wrestlers to perform at a higher level, players said.
For the men’s hockey team (2-3-1 overall, 2-1-1 ECAC) this season, the key phrase is team-wide precision. On Friday night against head coach Bob Prier’s alma mater, the Tigers held themselves to that standard as they tied then No. 16 St. Lawrence. Though Princeton fell to a 2-0 deficit midway through the first period, senior defenseman Michael Sdao reminded the crowd in Canton, N.Y., why the Tigers possess the fourth-ranked power-play unit in Division I men’s hockey to date.
The men’s basketball team could not handle No. 6 Syracuse’s defensive pressure and offensive prowess at the Carrier Dome on Wednesday night. In a Thanksgiving-eve meeting of the two tallest teams in the nation, the Orange never trailed while cruising to a 73-53 victory. The Tigers (2-3 overall) recovered to beat Lafayette 72-53 on Saturday afternoon.
The scoring mishaps that plagued the women’s basketball team at Marist last weekend eroded on Tuesday night, as the Tigers opened their first home game with a high-flying 88-42 win over Rider.
Already one-third of the way through its regular season, the women’s hockey team has had an up-and-down start to the year. Princeton (3-5-2 overall, 1-5-2 ECAC), after a win and a tie the previous weekend, dropped two conference games. Friday night, Princeton hosted ECAC rival St. Lawrence (7-6-1, 5-1) and lost 2-6. The following afternoon, No. 3 Clarkson (12-2, 6-0) skated to a 2-1 overtime victory to remain unbeaten in conference play.
The women’s basketball team headed to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., over the weekend to take on Marist in a Saturday night showdown. The Tigers (1-1 overall) fell to the Red Foxes (2-1) 56-45 in an exciting, come-from-behind matchup featuring two teams that reached the 2012 NCAA tournament.
By the end of last season, I had become rather pessimistic about Princeton football, as had many of my peers. But it is our football team. It is the only one we have. Maybe it was a chicken and egg problem — Princeton football would not do well until we supported it, but we wouldn’t support it until it did well.And maybe miraculously, but probably not, the Tigers gave us something magical this season.
The men’s basketball team’s first home win of the season eluded the Tigers on Friday night, when they dropped a close contest to Rutgers. After leading most of the first half, Princeton fell into a six-point deficit by the end of the period and would never recover. The hosts eventually came up short by the same margin, losing 58-52.
Last Thursday, the women’s soccer team saw its 12-game win streak and season come to an end with a 3-1 loss to No. 12 Marquette in the second round of the NCAA tournament. While the Tigers undoubtedly hoped to advance further in the tournament, they still have much to be proud of.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams won their first Ivy League dual meets this weekend, beating Penn and Cornell in Philadelphia. And the men’s and women’s squash teams swept their season-opening matches at Jadwin Gymnasium this weekend.
The men’s water polo team rounded out its 2012 season with a third-place finish at Eastern Championships this weekend at DeNunzio Pool. The Tigers had hoped to see a repeat of their 2011 postseason run, in which they not only took first at Easterns but also went on to take third at the NCAA Championships, but St. Francis won the tournament and the automatic bid to nationals.
The field hockey team staged a furious second-half comeback to upset the nation’s top-ranked team, North Carolina, 3-2 on Sunday afternoon to bring home Princeton’s first-ever field hockey national championship. The Tigers (21-1 overall, 7-0 Ivy League) broke through in their first appearance in the title game since 1998.
When it has mattered most this season, the men’s cross country team has always brought its best. Staying calm and under control in the NCAA national championship meet last Saturday, the Tigers fought their way over the fast and flat course in Louisville, Ky., battling head to head with the country’s best teams and individuals. Surging over the last miles, the men placed a program-best 11th in the deep and talented field.
At the beginning of the year, who would have thought students at Princeton would be referring to “after the game” on a regular basis and planning their Saturdays around the football schedule? After two seasons of being almost completely irrelevant in the Ivy League, this season was more than just an effort to improve the record; it was also a push for respect and a drive to bring excitement for athletics back to the community.
Despite faltering late in the season, Princeton still entered Saturday’s game with its hopes for the Ivy League title still alive, needing a win over Dartmouth and a Penn loss to Cornell in order to share the title. However, the game against the Big Green (6-4 overall, 4-3 Ivy League) went very similarly to the season as a whole — a hot start by the Tigers (5-5, 4-3) being undone by poor play in the second half.
At 7:24 p.m. Saturday evening, football cocaptain Mike Catapano ’13 marched onto Cannon Green with a long, silver torch, ready to ignite Princeton’s first bonfire in six years. Thousands of students and alumni watched as Catapano lit the large pile of firewood, sending a bright orange flame into the black night sky.“It’s an awesome feeling to be able to unify the University and to have everyone be able to come for a single cause and be proud to be a Princetonian,” said wide receiver Roman Wilson ’14, whose last-minute touchdown catch against Harvard last month helped make the bonfire happen.
