This past weekend, Princeton was a site on the "road to the Final Four." It hosted part of a national Sweet 16 where teams such as Stanford, Illinois, Penn State and Princeton came together to vie for the rights to a national title. But the title was not the NCAA basketball title — nor was it the NCAA lacrosse championship, for that matter.
Instead, teams gathered to battle for the USA Rugby championship, and for the first time in Princeton history, both the men's and women's rugby teams earned a spot in the final 16, giving them a chance to achieve national glory while playing a club sport.
"There is such a thrill of being able to come to college and start something new, without much experience, and rise to be the best at it." women's rugby junior captain Emilie Fisher said.
"It is such a great, exciting sport where teamwork is really everything," junior president Stacie Crain said. "Once you get involved in it, you can't stop. It's addictive."
Great expectations
In the past, the early-season aspirations of the men's team have always been limited to the Ivy championship and nothing more. Yet, with a coaching staff to organize practices and a consistently larger pool of talented ex-varsity athletes from which to draw, everyone involved knew this season had the potential to be the best yet.
"When we saw the determination and commitment the guys were putting forth every day [especially in the early fall games], we all knew that nationals was a great probability," junior captain Stan Ruda said.
The hard work paid off — Princeton went a perfect 6-0 in the fall and then defeated East Stroudsberg, 29-19, to win the team's first-ever Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union title.
Success continued into the spring as the team finished a strong third in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union Tournament, the next step to nationals. This solid performance, on top of the perfect fall season, qualified the men's team for its first rugby berth at nationals in the club's 69-year existence.
The first round of the Sweet 16, however, saw the Tigers face arguably one of the top three teams in the nation — Indiana. While Princeton managed to stay close in the first half — only trailing 13-12 at halftime — the bigger team barreled over the exhausted Tigers and won the match, 25-12.
"We were starting guys that had just started this year so obviously, they were sort of inexperienced," junior president T.J. Dammrich said. "But that means we have a solid core returning for next year and we'll be ready to go back to Nationals."
Perennial power
For the women's squad, a berth in the Sweet 16 is nothing new. The Princeton women's team is a national powerhouse in rugby — having won the national title in both 1996 and 1997. After losing the majority of the team in 1997, the Tigers looked as if they would need a couple of rebuilding years to reestablish national prominence.
After a mediocre 1998 season, though, Princeton surprised everyone by rising quickly to the championship match in 1999 against Stanford — losing an incredibly tight match to the Cardinal in double overtime, 45-31. The rebuilding effort was over.
The 1999-2000 campaign, however, did not start off on the right foot. Bad luck plagued Princeton as injuries struck some of its key players. But the Tigers were still able to pull together an EPRU title — and then a MARFU title by defeating perennial rival Penn State on a last-second score.
"This year, we had a lot of injuries," head coach Alex Curtis said. "But the team has shown incredible mental toughness by coming back and covering for each other.
"They have won many times this season by sheer determination," he added.
Entering this past weekend, Princeton faced Clemson first and won handily by the score of 67-0. Then, Princeton caught a break when the No. 1 seed in the Northeast — UMass — was upset by Eastern. Eastern had no such magic left to counter the experience and quickness of the Tiger squad, however, as Princeton earned another spot in the Final Four, which will take place in Tampa May 5-6. The Tigers will play their first match against an up-and-coming Illinois squad and if they advance, the Tigers will face the winner of the other semi-final between Stanford and Penn State — considered the top two rugby teams in the nation.
Knowing that it will not be the biggest team down in Florida, the women's squad will have to depend on its main assets — quickness, experience of the senior class and its overall smart play — to remain close in the games.
"We just need to show up like a Princeton team," said Crain. "We know that there are no easy games left. We just need to be a team that knows that it can play with anyone in the nation.
"It's going to be a battle."
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