The start of a race is usually marked by reverential silence, particularly if that race includes world 100-meter record holder Maurice Green.
A week ago, life did not look so good for women's golf. The Tigers finished second at the Ivy League Championship ? and without the automatic bid to the NCAA Regional.This past weekend, things looked better as the team was in a familiar place ? at the top.
To run your best, you have to run against the best.Or so the general theory goes, at least.
The Princeton sports world is in balance again.Penn remembered it had more talent than the men's basketball team, the men's lacrosse team remembered it was good and 'Prince' sports beat WPRB sports Saturday night in the annual basketball game between the campus's two sources of athletics news.The 44-40 win at Jadwin Gym for the 'Prince' was its first in the last three years, but the sports scribes still hold a 82-3 all-time series edge.Holder Hall bookies put the athleteics announcers as early 22.5-point favorites, but the gap closed when the gaps started opening in the radio station's once-formidable lineup.Freshman Zack Pierce, a baseball beat writer and WPRB play-by-play man, decided Thursday to compete with the 'Prince.'"It's just a better group of people," Pierce said.
There's an old sports saying: "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game."Luckily for women's lacrosse, that saying isn't exactly true.
It's always sweet to win a championship, especially at home. Winning it is even better if it gets you a bid to the NCAA Championship.
The Tiger baseball team wanted to go to bed Sunday night above .500 for the first time since coming back from its spring trip 4-11, and senior captain Pat Boran played the role of Sandman.Boran's one-out double in the bottom of the ninth inning in game two of Saturday's doubleheader with Pace (10-30) scored sophomore utility man Steve Young and capped a 5-4 victory and two-game sweep of the visiting Setters.In the first game, freshman Ross Ohlendorf shook off a rocky third inning to lead Princeton (19-18 overall, 11-5 Ivy League) to a 9-3 win.
With the Ivy League season coming down to the wire, the baseball team puts it all on the line this weekend when it takes on:Pace University?The Tigers (16-18 overall, 11-5 Ivy League) and the aptly-named Setters (10-25) square off in a doubleheader Saturday at Clarke Field before a Sunday finale at Pace.
With only one game left in the regular season, women's lacrosse has checked off almost everything that would appear on any team's to-do list.
The climax of most Division I sports is competing in the NCAA Tournament.The Tournament gives the team a chance to prove that it is among the nation's elite, but in order to get that chance the team must play well and earn a berth.
Just as the men's football team traveled to Dartmouth this fall to take on the Big Green, the men's lacrosse team will do the same this weekend.
On Sunday, the women's softball team returned to prominence in the Ivy League by capturing its first league title since 1996.It was the team's 14th overall in the 23 years the sport has been a part of the league.The Tigers finished with 13 league wins, which is the most in the history of the program.
Two weeks ago when the Princeton men's lacrosse team was ranked No. 12 by the USILA coaches poll, this newspaper said that they were by no means a No.
Just about the only thing that could have made the baseball team's 13-1 victory over Monmouth better was if the bands on Prospect Ave.
Rachael Quinn Becker, a junior from Broomall, PA, is the leading defender on the top-ranked women's lacrosse team, with the highest number of turnovers caused and groundballs.
For the first time in six years the softball team has won the Ivy League title. Maybe it is the weakness of the Ivy League this year, or possibly it is the strong core of freshman who have helped the Tigers reach the top of the Ivy League.
The first twenty minutes gave no indication of what was to come.Down 5-0 with ten minutes left in the first half, the women's lacrosse team looked, perhaps, star-struck by its opponent, Maryland ? the Maryland that eliminated the Tigers from the tournament last year and went on to win the national title.The reigning champions jumped ahead just 45 seconds into the match, as the Tigers struggled to maintain ? or even to gain ? possession of the ball.Following a tricky save by freshman goalkeeper Sarah Kolodner seconds after the first Maryland goal, Princeton (14-1 overall, 6-0 Ivy League) tried to take advantage of the turnover and was able to transition smoothly into its usually unstoppable offensive set-up.
In the last 132 seasons of Princeton football, only 16 teams have had multiple captains. Next season will be number 17, with captains Chisom Opara, a senior wide receiver, and senior linebacker Drew Babinecz.
With the football team losing senior place kicker and punter Taylor Northrop to graduation, the team's kicking game is, as head coach Roger Hughes puts it, "one piece of the puzzle that we don't have the answer to." Northrop led the team in scoring last year with 55 points, making up one-quarter of the total points scored by the entire team (200).However, a piece of the puzzle that Princeton does have the answer to is the offense.
The Princeton men's golf team won the Ivy League Championship this past weekend by a commanding 13 shots over Yale.
