Sports

Young offense must learn on the job

Freshmen aren't the only ones on campus who might have been feeling a bit confused this week ? the football team has been trying to figure a few things out as well.With the graduation of quarterback Matt Verbit '05 and the running back duo of Branden Benson '05 and Jon Veach '05, Princeton's offense has found itself without any clear answers so far."We've got a more experienced offensive line, but we really don't have any established skill players," head coach Roger Hughes said.But, as he also noted, inexperience brings forth opportunity, and with several players competing for each of the vacant starting spots, the Tigers certainly have plenty of viable options.The questions surrounding who will attempt to fill the gaping hole at running back was settled only in the past few days.

The Air Apparent

No matter what happened over the last two seasons, varsity football head coach Roger Hughes knew he could count on one thing: Matt Verbit '05 was his starting quarterback ? and a good one at that.But with Verbit's Princeton days now just a memory, Hughes was forced to spend the off-season trying to figure out who his starting quarterback would be when the 2005 season opened.He had plenty of time to make his decision ? nearly 10 months ? but he needed it all.Four candidates for the job took snaps last spring: juniors Jeff Terrell and Chris Lee and sophomores Bill Foran and Greg Mroz.

Princeton Pigskin Picks

Tigers open season with two victories, one loss

Princeton's freshman class seemed to dominate the offense as the women's volleyball team kicked off its season with two wins and a loss last weekend.

Faceless No Longer

Football fans, as normally-proportioned people following the exploits of giants, have traditionally cheered the loudest for the Doug Fluties of the world ? those average-sized players they might most easily imagine as stunt doubles for themselves.In the future, though, as the obesity rate rises past the 50-percent mark and the everyman becomes a heavy man, a heretofore unheralded sect of the football community may emerge as heroes.

Tigers win four, lose to No. 7 UCSD

After reaching the NCAA Final Four last fall, the members of the men's water polo team began their 2005 season last weekend with giant bullseyes on their backs.But despite the pressure, the Tigers (4-1 overall, 0-0 College Water Polo Association) emerged from the Princeton Invitational ? and its rigorous schedule of three games in five days schedule ? mostly unscathed, winning four games before dropping the tournament finale to No.

Bienvenidos a Miami

MIAMI ? It was three o'clock in the morning on the Sunday before Labor Day, and I was somewhere in the Miami metropolitan area, shirtless, wet and soapy, covered in grass, three sheets to the wind, and starting to get close with a girl from Trinidad.

Princeton crushes Yale in Ivy opener

As the field hockey team walked off the field Saturday at Class of 1952 Stadium after its first Ivy League game of the year, nearly every member of the Princeton roster sported a giant smile.The grins were easy to understand: the Tigers (1-3 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) had played by far their best game of the season, dismantling Yale (1-2, 0-1) by a 5-1 score.Saturday's result was starkly different from that of their first two games, losses to non-conference foes American and Penn State.

Tigers tame American but fall to Loyola

WASHINGTON, D.C. ? After a neck-and-neck first half, men's soccer needed some kind of spark to edge past the small but aggressive American team.

Rough start for Princeton

MIAMI ? With the graduation of the most talented class of women's soccer players ever at Princeton, no one could be sure how the Tigers would fare this year in trying to repeat last year's 19-3 season.

Men, women both take first at meet

In their opening meet of the season on Sept. 10, the Princeton men's and women's cross country teams outran their competition to finish in first place at the Fordham Cross Country Invitational.In the women's meet, the Tigers stayed together to finish five athletes in the top 10, outpacing stiff competitor Providence, ranked No.

Dear Daily Princetonian

Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of postcards that Daily Princetonian sports staff writers wrote about their experiences in the wide world of sports this summer.

Summer News and Notes

Princeton 42nd in Director's CupFor the eighth consecutive year, Princeton was the top non-scholarship athletic program, according to the 2004-05 Director's Cup Standings released in June.The Orange and Black finished 42nd overall in the national rankings, edging 43rd-place Harvard by two points."It is gratifying for everyone in our department," Director of Athletics Gary Walters '67 wrote in an email, "to know that we've been able to sustain an almost unprecedented level of athletic performance for a significant period of time."Disappointing seasons by several of Princeton's signature programs, however, dropped the University to its lowest finish in the overall rankings since 1997, when it placed 60th.

Cowher, women's basketball show signs of bright future

If the women's basketball team walked away from the 2004-05 season muttering "wait 'til next year," it's hard to blame them.In head coach Richard Barron's fourth season at the helm, the Tigers (13-14 overall, 5-9 Ivy League) were still undeniably in the midst of an oft-painful rebuilding process.

Crimson tops men's, women's swimming

Seven times at the 2004 Ivy League women's swimming championship meet, senior captain Stephanie Hsiao dove into the water.

Ferrell sets pace for Tigers

By the mid-March day when junior Cack Ferrell stepped onto a track in Fayetteville, Ark., to run in the 3,000-meter race at the NCAA indoor track and field championships, the phrase "All-American" had already become automatically attached to any mention of her name.

Women's hockey topped in first round of ECACHL playoffs

Good teams win all the games they should, but great teams win ones they should not. This saying held true all season for the women's hockey team which ended its season sooner than it hoped to when the Tigers were swept out of the East Coast Athletic Conference Hockey League (ECACHL) quarterfinals by Yale.

Men's soccer loses season opener on late goal

For 89 seconds, it appeared the men's soccer team would need more than 90 minutes to decide its season opener Friday night at Lourie-Love field.After giving up a goal just before halftime, Princeton had spent the entire second relentlessly attacking the Loyola goal.

Three boats second at Easterns

Just 500 meters into the Eastern Sprints men's heavyweight grand final on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., on May 15, it was clear the race would come down to two boats: Princeton and Harvard.Both crews had gone out extremely fast, and by the 1,000-meter mark, the Tigers trailed the Crimson by half a boat length with the rest of the field well behind.

Behind steady Sabbatini, men's water polo earns trip to Final Four

On Nov. 14, in Lewisburg, Pa., senior goaltender Peter Sabbatini refused to let the men's water polo team lose.