In ‘Quick Hits,’ we give our immediate thoughts after the biggest games on campus. Today: the men’s lacrosse team’s showdown with Johns Hopkins and the men’s basketball team’s victory over Yale.
It may be early in the season, but the men’s lacrosse team will face an important rival this Friday, when No. 12 Princeton (2-0) will host No. 2 Johns Hopkins (3-0) at Sherrerd Field in the 82nd meeting between the Tigers and the Blue Jays. For both teams, this will be their first ranked opponent of the year and an opportunity to make a statement in a nationally televised game on ESPNU.
“Get the biscuit in the basket,” sophomore goaltender Sean Bonar said.“Put the fish in the cooler,” defenseman and Bonar’s classmate Kevin Ross said.Put the puck in the net. That’s what the men’s hockey team plans on doing often against Yale in a three-game series in New Haven this weekend. The series opens up what the Tigers hope to be a deep run in the ECAC Hockey tournament, for which they are the 11th seed of 12 teams.
The women’s lacrosse team is looking to bounce back from an upset loss to Rutgers when it takes on No. 5 Duke at home on Saturday. The Tigers were shocked in double overtime on Wednesday by the Scarlet Knights and are looking to make up for it with what would be a very impressive victory over Duke.
Spring may still be 18 days away, but already the weather is beginning to turn, just in the nick of time for the start of the softball team’s 2012 campaign. This weekend, the Tigers will travel to Baltimore, Md., to compete in the UMBC Invitational.
The women’s basketball team will be on the road this weekend to play against Yale on Friday and Brown on Saturday in its last away games of the regular season. Princeton (21-4 overall, 11-0 Ivy League) clinched its third consecutive Ivy League title after last weekend’s victories over Harvard, 74-44, and Dartmouth, 94-57, and is now looking to close the season out strong.
As the Ivy League season motors to its finish, the men’s basketball team will take the floor against Yale and Brown this weekend knowing that the title is perhaps only mathematically in reach. Table-topper Harvard plays Columbia and Cornell for its last two contests, the former of which has lost the last five. A single win will elevate the Crimson beyond the reach of the resurgent Tigers.
After winning its first game 16-3, the women’s lacrosse team faced a tighter game on Wednesday. No. 8 Princeton played from behind for most of the game and came back to force overtime, but Rutgers had the final word, winning 11-10 in the second extra frame.
At the start of his second season, sophomore midfielder Tom Schreiber is already a leader on the men’s lacrosse team. Last season, injuries forced him into that role. This season, he’s ready and willing to lead.“He’s one of our best players,” head coach Chris Bates said. “He helps quarterback our offense. He’s the guy that really leads by example.”
New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin has captured the imagination of many people across the globe for the qualities that make him unique: Chinese-American, Harvard-educated, religiously Christian point guard who emerged from relative obscurity to become a basketball star in America’s media capital. Perhaps lost in the discussion of Lin’s uniqueness, however, are those qualities of Lin that are not unique but exemplify certain trends in the NBA that have made the last half-decade a golden age for professional basketball.
Nearly one month into the season, the men’s volleyball team finally made its home debut on Tuesday night with a 3-1 victory over Rutgers-Newark. The 25-14, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19 win moves the Tigers into a second-place tie with St. Francis in the EIVA standings.
In front of a modest midweek crowd, the men’s lacrosse team rolled over Manhattan 13-7 for its second straight win. Princeton (2-0) pegged down the Jaspers (0-2) with an offensive onslaught throughout the game.
This Saturday, the four Princeton crews will compete in a 2,000m race on rowing machines. The indoor regatta, called Crash-Ps, begins at 9 a.m. in the C. Bernard Shea Rowing Center. Often likened to a track meet on treadmills, this will be the first race of the year and the only race on land.
Junior Mack Darrow is a center on the men’s basketball team. He has averaged 6.8 points per game this season — the fourth-highest on the team — and he played a big supporting role in the team’s achievement of the Ivy League title last season, even though he is too modest to admit it. Darrow recently spoke with the ‘Prince’ about 1,000-piece puzzles, his athletic role model Brian Cardinal and junior forward Ian Hummer’s questionable diet.
One year after dropping its 2011 season opener at Hofstra 11-9, the men’s lacrosse team exacted revenge on the Pride in a convincing 12-6 victory at Sherrerd Field on Saturday. The win leaves Princeton, who won only four of its 12 games last season, with high hopes of turning its program around and competing for an NCAA tournament bid.
A team effort, led by junior attacker Jaci Gassaway’s seven points, propelled the women’s lacrosse team to its first victory in its season opener at Villanova on Saturday afternoon. The No. 8 Tigers defeated the Wildcats with a decisive score of 16-3 on a cold and windy day. Netting their first goal before five minutes had ticked off the clock, Princeton dominated from the start and maintained its energy and intensity throughout the game.
The men’s and women’s tennis teams continued dual match play this weekend, as the men hosted Buffalo and Fairleigh Dickinson in a doubleheader on Sunday and the women traveled to Birmingham, Ala. to compete in the Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic. The men’s team swept its doubleheader while the No. 40 women’s team was swept in three matches.
After three days of fierce competition, the women’s swimming and diving team finished in second place in the Ivy League Championship meet. The 1310.5 points scored by the Tigers were not enough to defeat rival Harvard, which ended with 1478.5 points.
Despite superior performances by junior Mike Condon and sophomore Sean Bonar in the cage, the men’s hockey team finished its regular-season play against Yale and Brown at Baker Rink without a win. Even with the goaltender’s guard, the Tigers (8-14-7 overall, 6-12-4 ECAC Hockey) were dropped 5-2 by the Bulldogs and, in a battle for last place, tied the Bears 2-2. With the regular season complete, Princeton’s 11th place conference finish sets up a rematch with sixth-seeded Yale in the first round of the ECAC playoffs.
