Sports

Sprint Football: With new talent, hosts scare Mansfield

Sprint Football: With new talent, hosts scare Mansfield

After the final whistle sounded on the sprint football team’s 2012 opener against Mansfield on Friday, the Tigers had a reason to be optimistic. Sure, they had come out on the wrong side of a 23-16 score, extending a 13-year losing streak against varsity teams. But the hosts had led briefly in the first quarter, which they hadn’t done in a game since 2009, and finished with more total yards than their opponent, which they hadn’t accomplished since 2004. All in all, they looked like a different team than in years past.

SPORTS | 09/16/2012

Column: Football analysis - A tale of two halves

Expectations for the 2012 Princeton football team are understandably low. The Tigers are coming off consecutive 1-9 seasons and have not won a game by more than three points since 2009. So when Princeton fell on the road to No. 13 Lehigh, 17-14, there were no surprises. Or were there?

SPORTS | 09/16/2012

Football: Comeback attempt falls short in opener

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The football team came into its season opener with a host of unanswered questions. How would it replace reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year Chuck Dibilio? Who would start under center? Could they manage to beat heavily-favored Lehigh? The answer to the final question was no — the Tigers fell to the Mountain Hawks, 17-14 — but they put on a solid performance despite those uncertainties.

SPORTS | 09/14/2012

Column: QBs, defense often keys to rapid improvement

Four teams have gone had a stretch similar to 2010-11 for the Tigers, with two consecutive seasons at 1-6 or worse in league play; four finished above .500 in the conference the following year. How did these teams turn their fortunes around so quickly, and what would it look like if Princeton did the same this year?

SPORTS | 09/13/2012

Football Offense: As season approaches, questions abound — starting under center

Competition is the name of the game coming out of training camp. After going 1-9 in each of the past two seasons, the football team is looking to finally come out with a winning season. To determine this season’s starting quarterback, head coach Bob Surace ’90 and the Tigers aim to take advantage of an in-house contest to bring out the best in their developing roster.

SPORTS | 09/13/2012

Football: 2012 schedule analysis

The football team plays a 10-game schedule every year, with three non-conference games and seven Ivy League opponents. Here’s our breakdown of Princeton’s 2012 slate.

SPORTS | 09/13/2012

Women's Volleyball: Spikers ready to feed off Dillon energy

The women’s volleyball team is poised to make another run at the Ivy League title this season. The Tigers’ record is a bit misleading at 2-4, as it includes two heartbreaking five-game losses to Siena, each by a two-point margin. It also does not include their victory last weekend over the University of Montreal, a match that does not count for NCAA standings. Despite losing two All-Ivy selections in Cathryn Quinn and Hillary Ford, Princeton has reloaded its roster with five freshmen.

SPORTS | 09/13/2012

Men's Soccer: Tigers kick off tough slate

Uncertainty looms as the men’s soccer team embarks on its 2012 season. Ready to return to the level of play it reached two years ago when head coach Jim Barlow ’91 coached the team all the way to the NCAA tournament’s first round, the Tigers scheduled a series of challenging opponents to open the season.

SPORTS | 09/13/2012

Football Defense: Experienced — and talented — linemen lead recovering unit

Coming off yet another disappointing season, it is clear that the football team must improve in many different ways in order to become relevant in the Ivy League again. The defense is looking to prove that it able to step up to the task.

SPORTS | 09/13/2012

Women's Soccer: Better shooting pays dividends in early action

When a team takes a shade under twice as many shots as its opponents over a 17-game season, you might guess that the team has at the very least tasted significant success, if not challenged for a trophy. The women’s soccer team, however, struggled to a 6-10-1 overall record last year, with strong overall performances undone by poor finishes.

SPORTS | 09/13/2012

Men's Water Polo: Princeton aims to repeat 2011 success

The men’s water polo team faces a difficult task this season, trying to repeat last year’s magic. After winning the Eastern championship and then the third place match against University of California, San Diego in the NCAA Championships, this team will definitely have big shoes to fill and high expectations to meet. Yet, this team is poised for a great run and has the chance to top last year’s success.

SPORTS | 09/13/2012

Football: Ivy League sportswriters poll tabs Harvard as favorite

See the results of our Ivy League sportswriters football poll, which surveyed representatives of all eight student newspapers, including The Daily Princetonian.

SPORTS | 09/13/2012

Princeton in the Pros: Davis ’12 signs with new set of Tigers

Doug Davis ’12 may still be playing for Tigers, but he will be taking the court far, far away from Jadwin Gymnasium and the Orange Bubble. Davis and Devona Allgood ’12 have become the latest Princeton basketball alumni to take their talents to Europe. Over the summer, Davis signed with Walter Tigers Tubingen in Tubingen, Germany, while Allgood joined Telge Basket in Sodertalje, Sweden.

SPORTS | 09/12/2012

London 2012: Small midfielder comes up big

Diana Matheson ’08 has always been the playmaker, able to find and set up one of her teammates with a perfectly positioned ball for a shot on goal. So when Matheson found herself with the ball at the top of the penalty box, with a bronze medal on the line, she passed it just beyond two converging defenders to teammate Sophie Schmidt. As the script was drawn up, the ball would find the back of the net and Matheson would add yet another assist to her record while her teammate got the goal and glory. But not this time. Instead, France's goalie blocked the shot — directly to an attacking Matheson, who instinctively volleyed it into the open net.

SPORTS | 09/12/2012

London 2012: Lawrence, Scanlan take team bronze

Maya Lawrence '02 spent two unforgettable weeks in London this summer, and not just because she and junior Susie Scanlan, along with two other American fencers, took bronze in the women’s team epee.

SPORTS | 09/12/2012

London 2012: Crew quartet continues U. tradition

Princeton has displayed its dominance in the world of rowing at the Olympics at the past 12 Games, and London was no exception. Of the 15 current and former Princetonians who competed at the 2012 Olympics, eight were rowers. Even more remarkably, four Tiger rowers walked away with medals at this year’s Games.

SPORTS | 09/12/2012

London 2012: Blatt '81 leads Russian hoopsters to surprise showing

When Dave Blatt '81 was hired in 2006 as the first non-Russian head coach of the Russian national basketball team, he found he had to earn respect as a head coach. As a Jewish American who has lived in Israel for much of his adult life, winning people over was a challenge. But through a self-described desire to bridge cultural divides through sports, Blatt turned around a struggling basketball team and won the respect of a nation while leading Russia to a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

SPORTS | 09/12/2012

Field Hockey: With stars back, Tigers’ outlook is bright

After a dominant start to the season, the field hockey team hopes to win its eighth-straight Ivy League championship and possibly earn some larger postseason honors this fall. Coming off of last season’s 10-8 record and NCAA tournament appearance, Princeton welcomes 10 new faces to the field this season: six freshmen and four veterans returning from a year training with the U.S. national team.

SPORTS | 09/12/2012

London 2012: For one moment, leading in London

Walking into the tunnel to the track in the London Olympic Stadium, Donn Cabral ’12 could feel the thunderous roar of the crowd vibrating in the air. Flashbulbs popped and TV cameras relayed the athletes’ focused faces from country to country — from Cabral’s Glastonbury, Conn., hometown to the screens of eager Princeton fans around the world. Walking out into the night with the rest of the world’s best steeplechasers, Cabral prepared himself for the biggest race of his life so far: the Olympic final.

SPORTS | 09/12/2012

Sports Shorts: Academic scandal puts Harvard basketball in flux

The Harvard men’s basketball team, which won the Ivy League title and was occasionally ranked in the national top 25 in 2011-12, will look very different this season, as key players will reportedly miss the season after being implicated in the university’s academic scandal.

SPORTS | 09/12/2012

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