In Ivy League baseball, there's Harvard, Dartmouth and Princeton, and then there's everyone else.Those three teams have combined for every Ivy League championship in the past nine years.
The Nittany Lions' Aaron Smith set the tone for the Penn State-Princeton volleyball game this past Saturday by hitting five service aces in a row within the first few minutes of the match.
It was an extended weekend for the Tigers (24-9 overall; 5-1 Ivy League) as they took on both Columbia (14-18 overall, 1-1) and Cornell (16-13, 2-2) in tough doubleheaders.
Last summer, Geoff Petrie '70, the Sacramento Kings' president of basketball operations, offered fellow Princeton alumnus Chris Young '02 a guaranteed two-year contract and the chance to become an NBA center.Petrie had every reason to pursue Young ? in just two seasons at Princeton, Young proved he could score points from in the paint or beyond the arc, while becoming the Tigers' second leading all-time shot-blocker.
All eyes were on the women's tennis team's No. 3 doubles match Saturday against Yale (10-4 overall, 1-1 Ivy League). Down 8-7, senior Stephanie Berg and sophomore Laura Trimble rallied to push the match to a tiebreak, but soon found themselves in a 6-2 hole against Reshmi Srinath and Rashmee Patil.
The women's water polo team (23-7 overall, 8-0 College Water Polo Association Southern) faced an unusual obstacle to success when it hit the pool Saturday in its first game of the day against George Washington (11-12, 4-3). Princeton often finds itself competing against top teams with strong players, but for this matchup, the most daunting threat on the field was not any player but the pool itself."The pool is shallow on one side and deep on the other," sophomore driver Danielle Carlson said.
Sophomore goaltender Colleen O'Boyle played 35 minutes in the women's lacrosse team's first nine games.
PISCATAWAY ? It's hard to be perfect for 16 years ? just too hard, it seems, for the Tigers.The men's lacrosse team (1-6 overall, 1-1 Ivy League) lost to Rutgers on Saturday for the first time since 1989, 8-5, amid the same face-off and shooting problems that have plagued the Tigers throughout the 2005 season.
With each passing day of warm weather, more and more boat shoes are popping up around campus. But speak to any member of the Princeton sailing team, a proud group of about 30 students, and they will tell you that the majority of those who adorn their feet with these shoes are just wannabes.
When the newest Princeton shell is christened in a few weeks, both the current Tigers who will enjoy the boat and the former Tigers who funded its purchase
Even the wind's hard blowing from rightfield was not enough to knock down Princeton's home run power as the softball team (21-8 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) swept Lehigh (22-6) twice on Thursday afternoon.
Tomorrow, senior Will Venable and the baseball team (9-12 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) will return to Hanover, N.H., where, in the Ivy League championship last May, the Tigers were powered by their star outfielder's six hits to a sweep of Dartmouth.If Princeton's perfect Ivy League record survives its bout with the Big Green (5-9, 2-2), fans in attendance for Sunday's matchup at Harvard (11-7, 4-0) could be treated to a battle of conference undefeateds.As the Tigers fight through this season's first pair of true Ivy challenges, they will be led by some holdovers who came up big as last year's squad secured the league title.
This Saturday the men's lacrosse team travels just a few miles north to New Brunswick to face Rutgers in the team's final non-Ivy League game of the season.
When the women's lacrosse team meets Yale in New Haven, Conn., on Saturday, something will have to give.The matchup promises to pose a classic sports conundrum: what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?
Some say that a win is a win, but with the high expectations that the women's lacrosse team imposes upon itself, it's not always enough.
Their first win came by the narrowest of margins, in double overtime and only after several close saves, but the Tigers can finally breathe a sigh of relief.Princeton's men's lacrosse team (1-5 overall, 1-1 Ivy League) defeated Penn (1-8, 0-4), 6-5, ending the Tigers' five-game slide to start the season and keeping hopes alive for an 11th consecutive Ivy League title."It's great to get that first win ? we really feel a little bit relieved, and I feel like this team deserves that win," head coach Bill Tierney said.While a win is a win ? and this is Princeton's 16th straight against the Quakers ? the Tigers experienced some of the same problems they've faced this season, particularly with shooting.It didn't look that way in the beginning of play, though.
On the walls of men's lacrosse head coach Bill Tierney's office sit Ivy League championship plaques, pictures of his national championship teams and numerous other reminders of Princeton lacrosse's glorious tradition.But no matter how hard you look, you won't find any remembrances of an 0-5 team ? not just because such a feat wouldn't warrant attention, but because there has never been a team off to such a poor start during Tierney's tenure at Princeton.With an 0-5 start comes the usual barrage of questions.
Last Friday night, the baseball team went to sleep anxiously awaiting the start of its Ivy League season, expecting to play home doubleheaders against Yale and Brown scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
Revenge is sweet ? especially when the result is an Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship title.
With the women's lacrosse team's season just over halfway done, the Tigers (6-2 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) have had time to establish their game and character.
