Softball fades down the stretch; Cohen departs after 560 wins

At the beginning of the season, the softball team knew it faced a difficult puzzle. The team had the pieces that could potentially form a championship-winner, but they had to be put together in just the right way.

The Tigers were unable to find that perfect combination this season, and the puzzle remained unsolved.

Princeton came into the season with the goal of recapturing the Ivy title, which had been missing from 1895 Field since 1996. Instead, the Tigers ended the year with a conference record of just 6-6, a third-place Ivy finish and a 23-25 overall mark.

The Tigers had hoped to have a stronger pitching corps than in 1999, when three of their four starters were freshmen. Those freshmen had matured into sophomores, but almost immediately, Sarah Jane White '02 and Dana Freiser '02 were on the injury list, and the pitching staff was reduced to two — Sarah Peterman '00 and Brie Galicinao '02.

The team as a whole was ravaged by injuries during a Spring Break visit to Florida. During that trip, the Tigers played some of the best teams in the country, and although they came out of the week with only a 3-7 record to show for it, the Tigers felt the trip was a success.

"We played pretty well and we came out of those matchups knowing that we could compete with the bigger schools," Peterman said.

On this positive note, the Tigers started 4-0 in the Ivy League, with doubleheader sweeps of Yale and Brown on April 8 and April 10. This perfect start put Princeton in first place in the Ivies for the first time in four years and energized the team.

"We're really excited about the Ivy League," catcher Devon Keefe '01 said at the time. "It gives us a lot of momentum."

That momentum did not last, however, as the Tigers moved into their next set of league games. April 14-15, Princeton split two doubleheaders — with defending Ivy champion Cornell, but also with perennial cellar-dweller Penn.

In the second Penn contest on April 14, Galicinao pitched a perfect game, only the third in Princeton history. But these games proved to be the turning point of the season. The wins over Cornell and Penn would be the last Ivy victories the Tigers would see.

No margin for error

In order for Princeton to have any shot at the league title, it needed to sweep its remaining four games, including a doubleheader against league-leading Harvard. Instead, in a complete reversal from its opening Ivy record, the Tigers were winless in their last four games, which were spread out over two weekends due to poor weather. These losses dropped Princeton to a 6-6 league record, disappointing the team after its promising start.

Throughout the season, Princeton seemed to have the potential for success, but could never quite put everything together at the same time. The team will have another chance next year, but it is losing two crucial pieces: Peterman has graduated, and head coach Cindy Cohen — who has led Princeton to 12 Ivy titles — resigned May 15 to take a job as the associate director of athletics at the University of Rochester.

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"I've worked with some great softball players — but people, more importantly. I feel privileged for the opportunity," Cohen said, looking back on her career.

With 560 career victories, Cohen had more wins than any coach in any sport in Princeton history. Without her guidance, the team faces an even more difficult puzzle next season.