Men's Basketball: Ivy hopes take a big hit
Two nights, one incredible high and one agonizing low. That’s one way to describe the weekend the men’s basketball team just had.
Two nights, one incredible high and one agonizing low. That’s one way to describe the weekend the men’s basketball team just had.
Though no points were put on the board, the men’s and women’s track and field teams made their point on Saturday: They’re ready. The teams hosted the Princeton Invitational at the Lawrenceville School as a final “tune-up” meet before both teams compete at the Heptagonal Championships next weekend in Hanover, N.H. The meet came on the heels of a remarkable performance at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet last weekend, with both teams crushing their Harvard and Yale counterparts.
The women’s basketball team began its second round of Ivy League play last weekend, traveling to New England for rematches with Yale and Brown. Thanks to a pair of spectacular defensive performances, the Tigers were able to complete the sweep with two more 20-point victories, remaining undefeated in conference play.
The women’s hockey team came back fighting after falling 4-3 in overtime to Brown on Friday to silence Yale on Saturday in a 4-0 shutout win. After the defeat to Brown (3-20-4 overall, 1-17-3 ECAC Hockey) denied Princeton (13-12-4, 11-7-4) a chance to contest the quarterfinals on home ice, the team rallied to wrap up its home season in style, with an impressive victory over Yale (10-16-3, 8-13-1) to finish sixth in the ECAC standings.
The women’s basketball team is looking to extend its 14-game unbeaten streak this weekend as it travels to play Yale and Brown to start the second round of Ivy League play.
The men’s basketball team began its Ivy League journey on the road three weekends ago with double-digit victories over Brown and Yale. Princeton (15-6 overall, 6-1 Ivy League) starts its second round of Ivy League games when the Tigers square off against the Bulldogs (10-15, 4-4) in Jadwin Gymnasium at 7 p.m. tonight. On Saturday, Princeton will take on the Bears (8-17, 2-6).
The women’s water polo team kicks off its 2010 season tonight at DeNunzio Pool in the Princeton Invitational. The Tigers are looking to take the next step after a season that saw them fall just a game short of winning the Southern Championships.
The men’s hockey team will make its way back to New York this weekend for its final road trip of the regular season. Princeton (10-12-3 overall, 6-10-2 ECAC Hockey) will face No. 16 Union (16-8-6, 10-4-4) in Schenectady, N.Y., tonight and will play Rensselaer (16-13-3, 9-7-2) on Saturday. Both teams defeated the Tigers in early January, so Princeton will be aiming for redemption this weekend.
Heading into its final weekend of regular-season play, the women’s hockey team has a close focus on the games ahead.
What the 1990–1993 Buffalo Bills are to the Super Bowl, the men’s squash team is to the Potter Cup, the trophy awarded to the winner of the national team championship. Like the Bills teams of that era, Princeton has lost in the final match of the national tournament four years in a row. Each of those losses came at the hands of Trinity, a team that brings a streak of 221 wins and 11 national titles into this year’s tournament, which takes place this weekend at Yale.
Freshman forward Ian Hummer is no stranger to Princeton basketball. His father, Edward Hummer ’67, played three seasons on the men’s basketball team, as did his uncle, John Hummer ’70. The Hummer family represented the Tigers well: Edward ranks 10th in program history with 550 career rebounds, while John’s 15.4 points per game place him seventh.
Ironman is a perfect nickname for Jesse Marsch ’96. Like baseball’s Cal Ripken Jr., Marsch excelled in his ability to endure on the field. Marsch’s unbelievable longevity in the sport of soccer will not go unnoticed.
February. it’s a month that traditionally strikes fear — or boredom — in the heart of every sports fan. Football is done, baseball hasn’t started and the basketball and hockey seasons are dragging on, seemingly with no end in sight.
We’ve all seen it: Cases of kids groomed to be serious athletes from the age of five. Luis Ramos is decidedly not one of those kids, but at the rate he’s progressing, he may as well be.
Since arriving at princeton, senior outside hitter Carl Hamming has been a vital member of the men’s volleyball program. The tallest member of the team — at 6 feet, 7 inches — Hamming possesses enormous strength and power on the court. He has hit his stride recently, achieving double-digit kills in every contest since the team returned from Intersession.
Too often in this day and age we find ourselves looking for the negative while watching sports. For example, former University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow devotes hours of his time to charity and has tremendous faith in God, yet he gets criticized for his annoyingly pompous persona.
PHILADELPHIA — With just over five minutes to go, sophomore guard Doug Davis sent up a stray shot. It missed the basket, but freshman forward Ian Hummer was there with the rebound and the put-back, giving the men’s basketball team a 45-40 lead over Penn and renewed momentum for the final stretch.
An old rivalry will be renewed when the men’s basketball team travels to the Palestra to face Penn tonight. While the rivalry has been dormant in the past few years as both teams have gone through a rare period of struggle, Princeton’s recent successes this year appear to have infused it once again. Despite the Quakers’ poor record, it may not be as easy to bounce back from Saturday’s tough loss to Ivy-League-leading Cornell as the Tigers would like.
Eleven straight national titles, a 221-match win streak and the top national ranking: The Trinity Bantams are nothing short of dominant in men’s college squash. The men’s squash team has played second fiddle to the Bantams recently, losing the national title match to Trinity each of the last five years. Last year, Princeton was within points of beating them both during the season and in the national championship but came up short both times. The result was the same last weekend.
For a one-hour span on Saturday night, I was unsure how I would write this column. The Princeton men’s basketball team had just suffered a painful 48-45 loss to Cornell. The previous night, your Penn Quakers handed the Big Red a 79-64 loss — its first in the Ivy League. Hard to talk trash in that situation.