'Prince' Sports editors discuss this weekend's victories in men's basketball, men's soccer, field hockey's loss this weekend, football's loss to Yale (by one point) and the women's basketball team's impressive victory over Farleigh Dickinson.
The football team may not have come out with a win against Yale, but the Tigers did prove that despite all their injuries, they can still run with the big boys in the league.
With a 2-1 victory over Yale on Saturday afternoon, the men’s soccer team finished the season with a 7-0 Ivy League record for the first time in program history. The Tigers (13-3-1 overall), who had clinched the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with last weekend’s 2-1 victory over second-place Penn, hope the victory will grant them a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the second round.
In a disappointing ending to a promising season, the women’s volleyball team failed to defeat Harvard (9-17 overall, 6-8 Ivy League) and Dartmouth (14-11, 5-9) and fell out of the Ivy League race for this season.
The men’s cross country team could have fallen short at this weekend’s NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional meet and still boast phenomenal improvements over last year. The women’s team could have run poorly at their meet and still have a record-breaking year.
A season that began with national championship hopes for the field hockey team ended Sunday afternoon, as the No. 6 Tigers (14-5 overall, 7-0 Ivy League) fell 4-2 in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament to No. 3 Virginia (18-3). Princeton advanced to the quarterfinal round following Saturday’s 3-1 victory over No. 13 Wake Forest (10-10).
When the men’s basketball team took the court on Friday night, there was no talk of preseason rankings or expectations of conference championships, NCAA tournament bids or any postseason play. There was only Rutgers (0-1), a Big East team that until this year had defeated Princeton (1-1) in 10 of the two teams’ last 11 meetings. Princeton’s singular focus paid off, as the Tigers defeated Rutgers in overtime, 78-73. Two days later, though, against a formidable Duke side, Princeton was unable to play the same kind of disciplined basketball as it fell 97-60 at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C.
Halfway through overtime during the men’s hockey team’s game against Cornell on Saturday night, freshman forward Will Ford snagged a loose puck and made a beeline to the net, hoping to best Big Red goaltender Andy Iles. He fired off a shot, which was blocked. Not to be deterred, Ford took another only a few seconds later, putting his first collegiate goal into the back of the net and delivering to the Tigers (3-3 overall, 3-1 ECAC Hockey) their second goal of the game and their second upset of the weekend.
With last weekend’s strong 2-1 victory over Penn, the men’s soccer team fulfilled its main goals for the present: winning at least a share of the Ivy League title and securing a berth in the NCAA tournament. But in Saturday’s matchup against Yale, the last regular-season game of the year, the Tigers (12-3-1 overall, 6-0 Ivy League) have a chance to make history.
For the Yale football team, Princeton is an orange-and-black nuisance standing between the Bulldogs and a potential share of the Ivy League crown. For Princeton, Yale is one of two remaining opportunities to avoid a winless league record — an unprecedented fate.
The men’s basketball team opens its season this weekend with a home game against Rutgers at Jadwin Gymnasium tonight before heading to Durham, N.C., to face No. 1 Duke on Sunday.
With a tough nonconference schedule survived and another undefeated Ivy League campaign on the books, the field hockey team now looks to make a deep run into the NCAA tournament and contend for the national championship. No. 6 Princeton (13-4 overall, 7-0 Ivy League) will take on No. 13 Wake Forest (10-8) on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Charlottesville, Va., in the first round of the tournament.
When the women’s basketball team opens its season with a game against Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday, much may seem similar to last year’s historic 26-3 squad. The team will still be led by head coach Courtney Banghart, still have the same five starters and still play in Jadwin Gymnasium.
How do two teams riding off undefeated seasons and Ivy League championship titles prepare this season? According to the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, by getting lean, mean and tan.
After falling out of first place a few weekends ago with a loss to Yale, the women’s volleyball team is hoping for a little bit of luck and a pair of wins against Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend to stay in the race for the Ivy League title.
Going in to this weekend, the men’s hockey team is looking to maintain and redeem — their game record, that is. In its second weekend of league play, Princeton will travel to upstate New York this weekend to face Cornell (1-3 overall, 1-1 ECAC Hockey) and Colgate (2-3-1, 0-1-1). Coming off their first win of the season against Brown last Saturday, the Tigers are looking for a positive weekend while relying particularly on work ethic.
Are there any good teams in the National Football League this season? It’s hard to tell. This past week certainly did not help at all.
After 23 consecutive losing seasons in the Ivy League, the men’s wrestling team entered last year with some moderately optimistic expectations. With a strong recruiting class coming in, the Tigers were hoping to improve on their two wins from the 2008-09 season.
