This weekend, the men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled west to tackle some of the nation’s toughest teams.
Coming off a marquee win last Tuesday against No. 1 Maryland, the No. 4 field hockey team was riding high into this weekend, expecting victories at Columbia on Friday and against No. 14 American at home on Sunday. While the Tigers (8-1 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) easily topped the Lions, 6-1, they fell to the underdog Eagles (9-2) on Sunday in a hard-fought 3-2 loss.
In the men's soccer team's 3-1 win over Richmond on Sept. 24, junior forward Antoine Hoppenot led the offense with two goals off assists from senior midfielder Josh Walburn. The stats were reversed on Saturday night against Dartmouth, with Hoppenot’s clever setups allowing Walburn to score two goals in leading the Tigers (4-3-1 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) to a 3-0 shutout victory over the Big Green (4-3-1, 0-1) in the Ivy League opener for both teams.
Entering Saturday, the football team had played Columbia 79 times and had never lost consecutive games. But the Lions (2-1 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) ended that streak in emphatic fashion, cruising to a 42-14 victory at Robert K. Kraft Field. Princeton (1-2, 0-1) again came out flat in an Ivy League opener and has been outscored 80-14 in the last two meetings with its northern neighbor.
For the second consecutive year, the football team made history in its Ivy League opener against Columbia — the kind of history that most on the squad would rather forget. Princeton’s (1-2 overall, 0-1 Ivy League) 42-14 loss to the Lions (2-1, 2-0) marked the Tigers’ first back-to-back losses to their Manhattan rivals in the history of the series, and Columbia’s 42 points were the most that the New York school has ever managed against Princeton since the two teams began playing in 1874.
In its second Ivy League game of the young season, the women’s soccer team avenged last year's double-overtime loss to Dartmouth with a 2-1 win on Saturday.
Along with Princeton and Columbia, two other teams opened their Ivy League slate last weekend, while the rest split four non-league games. Here’s how they fared:
The sprint football team continued its steady improvement despite a loss to previously winless rival Mansfield on Friday night, coming as close to victory as it has in years. The Tigers ultimately fell to the Mountaineers 10-6.
The women’s volleyball team will travel to face Penn tonight to open its Ivy League season. The Tigers (5-6) had a strong start to their season at the Lafayette Tournament, where they came away with three straight wins, but have struggled in their past two tournaments.
Last weekend, the men’s water polo team conquered the East Coast, winning all three of its games against league opponents Johns Hopkins, No. 18 Navy and George Washington. This weekend, the No. 16 Tigers (8-2 overall, 3-0 Collegiate Water Polo Association Southern Division) will travel to the West Coast in an attempt to repeat their victorious weekend.
At 3:07 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2009, the football team took the field at Princeton Stadium in its Ivy League opener against Columbia with every expectation of extending Princeton’s dominant head-to-head record against its New York City rival. The final whistle blew at 6 p.m., and the Tigers were bounced from their home field in a 38-0 shutout —Princeton’s worst loss against Columbia in school history.
Princeton will send both its cross country teams out of state this weekend to prepare for the important Pre-Nationals meet later this month. The men will send their top runners to Madison, Wis., to compete in the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational. The women will field a squad at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind. Both teams will also send runners to the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa.
The women’s soccer team is looking to continue its unbeaten Ivy League record this weekend with its second Ancient Eight match of the year. The Tigers (5-3 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) host Dartmouth (3-4-1, 1-0) on Saturday at Roberts Stadium.
Vikram Rao and Gabriel Debenedetti discuss this week in sports.
This weekend, the field hockey team (7-0 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) hopes to put two more teams away and continue its seven-game winning streak. At 6 p.m. tonight, the No. 4 Tigers travel to the Big Apple to play their third Ivy League game against Columbia (4-3, 1-1). Then on Sunday at 1 p.m., the Tigers return home to play No. 16 American (7-2) in the annual Play 4 the Cure game, the proceeds from which help support breast cancer awareness and research.
As the men’s soccer team kicks off its Ivy League campaign Saturday afternoon against Dartmouth at Roberts Stadium, it’s safe to say the team is back on track following a jittery start.
If the men’s soccer team were “mic’ed up” during an average practice session, you might hear this line from senior goalkeeper and team captain Sean Lynch: “Daddy wants some pancakes.”Say what?
What is the most unbreakable record in baseball history? Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak? Not quite. Cy Young’s incredible 511 career wins? Probably unbreakable, but theoretically assailable. How about 101 losses — on the road? No, nobody will ever pass the tremendous futility of my all-time favorite baseball team, the immortal 1899 Cleveland Spiders.
