Entering the final week of Ivy League play, one team has already clinched the conference title, but two others have a chance to share it. What’s at stake in the final games? We break it down for you.
For the men’s squash team, the 2011-12 season will be a tough one to beat. After finishing with a national championship upset over Trinity and its 13-year winning streak, Princeton starts its season at the top. The Tigers are not resting on their laurels but rather are working hard to repeat those successes this year. Princeton has been working to improve on its weaknesses and maintain its strengths.
Maybe you’ve heard: Princeton will not be hosting any NCAA championship events this year. Neither will the entire state of New Jersey. This is because the NCAA has once again mounted the highest, flimsiest soapbox in all of institutionalized athletics to tell us a thing or two about “integrity.”
Four years, 67 starts and at least three Ivy League First Team awards later, it is obvious that senior defender Mark Linnville was not out of his league in Division I college soccer. In fact, as his college career has come to a close with a 1-0 victory at Yale on Saturday, which brought the Tigers’ final record to 8-6-2 (4-1-2 Ivy League), Linnville hopes for the opportunity to continue to play at a higher level — in Major League Soccer.
Senior Tim Kingsbury is a linebacker on the football team and one of Princeton’s leading tacklers this fall. He made his presence felt in last Saturday’s victory over Yale, in which he recorded seven tackles, two of which were for a loss. He recently sat down with the ‘Prince’ to talk about Owl City, Mario Kart and this weekend’s bonfire.
The men’s basketball team dropped a nail-biter in its first home game of the season Tuesday night, falling 67-66 to Northeastern at Jadwin Gymnasium. The Tigers led for the entire game until the final 2.5 seconds, as they were unable to stave off a late rally by the Huskies, who overcame an 18-point deficit in the second half.
With the Ivy League title already out of reach, the women’s volleyball team played the final two games of its 2012 season last weekend, losing in four sets apiece to Cornell and Columbia. The Tigers (12-12 overall, 9-5 Ivy League) and the Lions (14-9, 9-5) share second place behind Ivy League champion Yale.
The women’s basketball team opened the 2012-13 season with a return to its winning ways on Sunday, taking down St. Joseph’s 69-59 for its 18th straight regular-season victory. Though the Tigers lost three seniors and two starters from last year, the game saw three players reach double digits, including a new freshman, guard Michelle Miller.
With Friday night’s game knotted 5-5 heading deep into the third period, the women’s hockey team found itself in a hard-fought battle at Rensselaer. With the minutes waning in regulation, it was freshman forward Molly Contini who gave Princeton a 6-5 lead on a lunging effort with about 12 minutes to play.Once the Tigers took a 6-5 lead, they preserved it through the final minutes, picking up their first league win of the season. The following day, Princeton (3-3-2 overall, 1-3-2 ECAC Hockey) earned another point with a 1-1 tie at Union.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams dominated the Big Al Open last weekend, combining to win 30 of 36 events held at DeNunzio Pool in the first meet of the season. And three freshmen led the wrestling team to a strong showing at the Binghamton Open on Sunday.
After racing in the Mid-Atlantic Regional on Friday, the men’s cross country team is one step closer to its biggest meet of the season, the NCAA Championship. Stepping up in distance from eight kilometers to the 10-kilometer races of the postseason, the men had a tough grind over Penn State’s challenging course to finish a close third behind Georgetown and Villanova. While only the first two teams automatically qualified for NCAAs, Princeton still received one of 13 at-large bids later in the weekend.
From the opening tip of the men’s basketball team’s season opener at Buffalo on Saturday, it was clear that several Tigers would play new roles this season. Chief among them was junior forward Will Barrett, playing his first game since missing the final three-quarters of the 2011-12 season due to a foot injury. Barrett returned at a higher level than he had ever reached before, blowing away his previous career-best with 20 points and adding a game-high nine rebounds. With 10 seconds left and the shot clock winding down, the 6-foot, 10-inch junior hit a three-pointer to seal Princeton’s 57-53 victory.
Unlike some counterparts on other varsity teams, the five men’s hockey players who comprise Princeton’s freshman class have already evinced their keen knowledge of play beyond the high school setting. With plenty of experience at other levels of hockey, Princeton’s incoming class of forwards Mike Ambrosia, Jonathan Liau, Kyle Rankin and Michael Zajac and defender Kevin Liss have already played vital roles and integrated themselves into a successful team.
The No. 2 field hockey team continued its recent hot streak with a 5-0 blowout of No. 15 Drexel in the first round of the NCAA tournament to earn a matchup with No. 7 Virginia. In Sunday’s quarterfinal, Princeton (19-1 overall, 7-0 Ivy League) beat the Cavaliers 5-2, advancing to the national semifinals for the sixth time in program history.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — They lined up well before 8 a.m. for a three-hour bus ride. They made signs and covered themselves in orange and black. They chanted loud enough to make it sound like a home game, and when the Tigers took a knee to end their 29-7 victory over Yale, more than 450 Princetonians leapt from the bleachers and stormed the field.With the help of buses provided by the USG, Princeton brought a huge group of fans to New Haven on Saturday. The presence of so many visiting-team supporters changed the atmosphere of the bonfire-sealing victory.
After dominating Ivy League play with a 7-0 record, the women’s soccer team found itself in a more challenging position on Saturday against West Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Mountaineers staged attack after attack, but each time the Tigers’ defense held strong against the Big 12 powerhouse. Thanks to a fantastic performance from senior goalie Claire Pincario and efficient execution by its offense, Princeton pulled out a 2-1 win to keep its postseason alive.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Going into Saturday’s game against Yale, the football team had been riding a two-game losing streak that saw the Tigers' hopes for an Ivy League title go from very good to very unlikely. But Princeton was able to leave New Haven with a strong win by finding solutions to problems that had recently plagued them — turnovers and fourth-quarter play.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — For the first time in six years, the football team has brought a bonfire to Princeton. As per tradition, after the Tigers' 29-7 victory over Yale on Saturday — which followed a 39-34 win over Harvard last month — the school will celebrate with a bonfire, which will be held on Saturday at 7 p.m. on Cannon Green.
The football team has exceeded expectations so far this season, posting a winning record in Ivy League play and seriously improving from last year’s one-win season. Though the Tigers (4-4 overall, 3-2 Ivy League) lost their last two games to Cornell and Penn, they look to bounce back as they head to New Haven to face Yale (2-6, 1-4) this weekend in a highly anticipated and nationally televised matchup.
It would be tough to deny this year’s women’s soccer team is one of Princeton’s best in recent history. The team is 13-3-1 (7-0 Ivy League) heading into its first NCAA tournament game at West Virginia, which will start at 7 p.m. Saturday. The last time the Tigers had double-digit wins was in 2008, and the last team to win at least 13 games was the 2004 Tigers, who made it to the Final Four.
