The women's lacrosse season is 16 games long. Princeton lacrosse fans will not have to wait that long to forecast their team's chances to repeat as national champions, however.
Six national championships in eleven seasons. Three straight championship game appearances. Thirteen returning seniors, seven of whom are starters.
The season is not over. Contrary to what many Princetonians have been saying, the men's basketball season is still going, and the Tigers will do battle against Cornell tonight and Columbia tomorrow night, both at home.Yes, an Ivy title and NCAA tournament berth are unlikely, but there is still a lot of basketball left to be played.In order for Princeton (13-10 overall, 8-3 Ivy League) to earn a share of the Ivy title, they need Penn (19-5, 11-0) to lose out and for Brown (15-11, 10-2) to lose at least one of their final two games.
If you thought the road would get any easier for the men's lacrosse team after last week's painful 10-8 loss to Johns Hopkins, think again.Tomorrow, No.
The wrestling team goes to the mat this weekend as part of the oldest and most revered wrestling tournament in the nation.
A year ago, women's hockey captured home-ice advantage in the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference playoffs, only to lose the best-of-three series in a sweep to Harvard.This year, Princeton ? the third seed in the ECAC tournament ? is back at Baker Rink for round one, and the collapse against the Crimson is a distant memory.Sixth-seeded Yale visits campus for this year's best-of-three conference quarterfinal starting tonight, continuing Saturday and, if necessary, Sunday.
"I know the Syracuse men beat Princeton," George Bush told the 2002 Syracuse men's national championship team earlier this year, "it's lucky you didn't play the women."The president of the United States was not exaggerating.
At this point in the season it is no longer make-or-break.Playing this weekend to hold on to fifth place in the Ivy League, the more appropriate term for the women's basketball team's situation is salvage-or-junk.The Tigers (9-16 overall, 4-7 Ivy League) will take on Cornell (9-16, 3-9) tonight in Ithaca, and then travel to Columbia to face the Lions (10-15, 3-9) Saturday night.Both Cornell and Columbia are currently locked in a three-way tie for sixth place with Yale, just a game and a half behind the Tigers.
"The problem with the defense [in Saturday's loss to Johns Hopkins] was me," men's lacrosse head coach Bill Tierney said.It was an ironic statement, seeing as how it came from the mouth of a man who was recently inducted into the United States Lacrosse Hall of Fame as one of the greatest coaches the sport has ever known.On the surface, a lacrosse coach blaming himself for his team's ineffective defensive performance sounds self-deprecating, something only a coach without the foggiest idea about what he is doing would admit.
For the past three seasons, there has been just one tough question in men's college lacrosse: would the National Championship fall into the hands of Syracuse or Princeton?This year, however, the questions abound and answers are impossible to decipher.Last weekend, in the first full week of lacrosse, No.
"It ain't over till it's over." As the men's volleyball team learned last night, Yogi Berra knew what he was tallking about.The Tigers had good reason to be confident entering the match against NYU, having stomped the Violets in fifty-five minutes in their last meeting.
What can a team that finished last season on a 19-game winning streak, won the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship and paid a visit to President Bush in the offseason possibly do that could begin to match up to its former feats?Demolishing its first opponent to continue the nation's longest win streak is not a bad start.The women's lacrosse team (1-0) opened its 2003 season Wednesday by destroying Lafayette (0-1), 15-6, in a game that was nowhere near as close as the score suggests.With the win, head coach Chris Sailer earned her 200th career victory in just over 16 seasons.
Think of the Princeton offense as nothing more than a big toolbox. If the right tools are used at the right times, open baskets will be as common as birdhouses in shop class.
A 9-0 regular season dual meet record ? outstanding. A victory at the H-Y-P meet ? thrilling.
You know what is probably one of the worst ideas ever?The business of sports.I'm so fed up with professional sports these days, that I can't stand to watch them, let alone read about them.
Providence, R.I. has not treated Princeton very kindly this year. The men's basketball team lost to Brown for the second time this season last weekend, while women's basketball and men's hockey have also left College Hill with an embarrassing "L" tattooed across their foreheads.But the men's hockey team is going back into the Bears' lair this weekend.
Princeton squash already had one national champion. Could the women's team make it two? Freshman Ruchika Kumar qualified for the quarterfinals, but could not beat Yale's top player.
It is always difficult to take the stage following a flawless performance. On Sunday, women's tennis did not rise to the challenge after the men's consecutive 7-0, 7-0 victories the previous day against Army and Temple.
"Princeton sucks, Princeton sucks."Now let me preface this column by saying that I don't believe the above quote, but rather heard them this past weekend when sitting as a spectator at a number of Princeton athletic events.My ears, and those of the few Tiger fans around me, were rendered helpless by the onslaught of vulgar chants hurled at our innocent University by the blood-red Cornell hockey faithful and the ravenous Johns Hopkins lacrosse groupies.What specifically dismayed me was my observation of the dearth of Princeton students in attendance at these games.
Space is tight in the up coming four-team Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association playoff, especially with one of those spots virtually guaranteed to nationally-ranked Penn State.
