Vikram Rao and Gabriel Debenedetti discuss this weekend's big games.
The football team played its best 30 minutes of the season on Saturday, taking a 13-0 lead into the locker room at Princeton Stadium. But the first half also took a major toll: The home team saw three key players leave the game due to injury. Over the final 30 minutes, Brown dominated a depleted Princeton offense and came back for a 17-13 victory.
The women’s soccer team was ranked No. 1 in the Ivy League as it headed to Columbia to face the second-place Lions on Saturday. But the Lions (8-2-3 overall, 3-0-1 Ivy League) handed the Tigers (8-5, 3-1) their first league loss of the season in a 2-0 decision and extended their own unbeaten streak to seven games. With the win, Columbia moved past Princeton into first place in the Ivy League.
If there were a theme for the season that the football team is currently slogging through, it could be summed up by a single word: injuries. From senior tri-captain and inside linebacker Steve Cody’s season-ending leg fracture in the first game of the year to the upper-body injury to junior quarterback Tommy Wornham that took him out of Saturday’s matchup against Brown, the Tigers have suffered setback after setback in their personnel department this season.
NEW YORK — As time expired on Saturday night and Columbia players fell to the turf in disappointment and disbelief, the men’s soccer team breathed a collective sigh of relief. The Tigers (3-0 Ivy League, 8-3-1 overall) had just pulled together a 3-2 victory over Columbia (0-3, 4-7-1) in a game in which they were, for the most part, outplayed by the home team.
This weekend, the last two undefeated Ivy League women’s soccer teams will battle it out on the field for control of the first place spot in the league. Princeton (8-4 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) will travel to Columbia (7-2-3, 2-0-1) on Saturday for the pivotal Ancient Eight matchup.
Coming off a weekend split against No. 3 Virginia and No. 10 Louisville, the field hockey team will once again square off against one of the nation’s best teams when it plays No. 5 Connecticut on Sunday afternoon. Princeton’s other opponent this weekend is Brown.
The men’s and women’s cross country teams will be very busy this weekend, as both squads are competing in the Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute, Ind., and the Princeton Invitational. The Pre-Nationals meet will be held on the same course as the NCAA championships so that teams can gain experience before competing for the national title.
With the loss of their first-team All-Ivy League senior quarterback Kyle Newhall-Caballero to a season-ending wrist injury two weeks ago, the Brown Bears may have less bite in store for the Princeton football team on Saturday.
The men’s soccer team will find it difficult to keep its feet on the ground going into Saturday’s game against Columbia in New York. Indeed, one can hardly blame the optimism in the Tiger camp after the team recorded its sixth victory in a row Tuesday night, soundly beating Lafayette 3-0.
When the men’s water polo team played Navy in the Eastern Championships last year, it was for a berth to the NCAA Final Four. This time, Princeton’s undefeated conference record is on the line.
If the first two weekends of Ivy League play are any indication, the women’s volleyball team knows how to play from behind. Princeton (8-6 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) opened league play with a come-from-behind upset against defending Ivy League champion Penn and followed that five-set performance with a thrilling win over Brown that also went the distance. A 3-1 victory over Yale last weekend, which ended a two-year drought against the Bulldogs, propelled the Tigers to first place in league standings going into this third weekend of Ancient Eight play.
With the Major League Baseball division series in the books, let’s take a look at the biggest questions about each remaining team in the upcoming American League and National League championship series, which start Friday and Saturday. Then I’ll make my patented predictions for the series winners.
One year ago, the men’s cross country team finished 10th at the Notre Dame Invitational. Then-sophomore Brian Leung led the Tiger pack with a sixth-place finish, and classmate Donn Cabral followed him, finishing 39th. The Tigers considered the results a good forecast for the championship season.
Just about every athlete has his or her traditions and superstitions. Baseball pitchers step over, not on, the white foul line between innings. Michael Jordan used to wear his North Carolina shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform. Hockey players avoid mentioning a shutout when their goalie is working on one.
The women’s soccer team earned a hard-fought victory over Lehigh at Princeton Wednesday night to head into the final stretch of Ivy League season on a two game winning streak. Sophomore forward Jen Hoy’s seventh goal of the season powered the Tigers (8-4-0 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) past the visiting Mountain Hawks (7-3-2).
While sophomore setter Molly Bagshaw of the women’s volleyball team may not agree, the other players would certainly consider Bagshaw one of their quirkiest teammates. Bagshaw’s wit keeps the Ivy League-leading team’s training sessions and games particularly interesting.Bagshaw has been injured for part of this season with a stress fracture in her back, but she has still recorded 52 digs, 9.5 points and eight blocks. She is working to recover and looks forward to being back on the court before long.
One of my favorite things about college sports, as opposed to professional sports, is the occasional extremely silly nickname, like the University of California, Santa Cruz, Banana Slugs; the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs; or even the Centenary Gentlemen. But there was a time when pro sports teams had much better names than they do now. I present to you the 10 greatest nicknames in the history of American professional sports, as well as three that I’ve invented. Can you spot the ones that aren’t real?
As the eighth of nine children, sophomore Kristin Watson, the starting goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team, is used to being in the thick of things. Growing up in a family large enough to field its own starting line, soccer was part of everyday life.
