Two close games marked by excellent defense ended differently for the field hockey team this weekend. The Tigers defeated Virginia 2-1 on Friday night but fell to Wake Forest 3-2 in overtime on Sunday.
On Saturday, after playing away for a month, the No. 13 men’s water polo team opened DeNunzio’s doors for a homecoming game against No. 19 Bucknell. The last time these two teams met was last season, during the Eastern Championships at Bucknell, where Princeton won by one goal. But this time, back in Tiger territory, the Bison took control of the game in the fourth quarter and won 10-6.
Leading Brown 2-1 with just eight minutes remaining in the game, the men’s soccer team appeared poised to take its first Ivy League win and continue to turn its season around. But with two late goals, the Bears stole the victory and disrupted the momentum the Tigers were hoping to maintain after a 7-3 victory over Seton Hall.
The women’s volleyball team split two matches on the road this weekend, suffering its first Ivy League loss to Columbia 3-0 before beating Cornell 3-1. The Tigers came out of their first conference road trip with a 4-1 record in Ivy League play, good for second place behind Yale.
Six yards. The football team was that close to tasting victory for the second straight week. The Tigers traveled to Hampton on Saturday, looking to replicate the success they had against Columbia last week. In the closing minutes of the game, it looked as though Princeton could pull off a remarkable comeback win on the road. But the Tigers fell six yards short of a touchdown in the final minutes, falling to the Pirates in a hard-fought 28-23 contest.
The football team makes its first road trip of the season this weekend, traveling to Virginia to challenge the Hampton Pirates. In the Tigers’ final non-league game of the 2011 season, they hope to build on last week’s strong performance, in which they notched their first win of the season, 24-21 over Ivy League foe Columbia. The Pirates, on the other hand, are trying to recover from two difficult road losses that were decided by a total of seven points.
After a double-overtime victory against Columbia last Saturday, the field hockey team — led by its two leading scorers, freshman midfielder Sydney Kirby and freshman forward Allison Evans — is poised to build winning momentum in two upcoming non-conference games.
The women’s soccer team trudges on to Providence, R.I., on Saturday on a quest for its first Ivy League victory, needing an abrupt change in fortunes to have any chance of winning the conference this year. The Tigers (0-2-0 Ivy League, 1-7-1 overall) will look to beat Brown (6-3-1, 1-1-0) on the back of a tough 1-0 loss at Dartmouth, which the Bears defeated in overtime earlier this season.
After snapping a four-game losing streak with a 7-3 thrashing of Seton Hall this past Tuesday, the men’s soccer team will look to continue its offensive turnaround this Saturday in Providence against Brown.
The women’s volleyball team heads to New York this weekend to continue Ivy League play against Columbia and Cornell. The Tigers (10-5 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) remain undefeated in league play after a pair of dramatic five-game victories last weekend at Dillon Gymnasium against Harvard and Dartmouth. Thus far, each of Princeton’s three league wins has gone the maximum distance.
The Red Sox collapse — where to begin? A week after what must rank as one of the worst regular season collapses in sports history, I am only beginning to comprehend what happened. For those who did follow the team’s final games, some statistics may be in order. According to coolstandings.com, cited approvingly by sports statistics guru Nate Silver, the Red Sox had a 99.6 percent chance of making the playoffs in early September.
The men’s soccer and men’s water polo teams are not the only Princeton squads to rely on rookies early in their fall seasons. Here’s a look at some other freshmen who have made an impact while adjusting to college life:
On just achievements and outstanding awards alone, copious pages could be written on the freshman class of the men’s water polo team. The number of goals, assists, steals and blocks, the nomination and attainment of captaincy, most valuable players and All-Americas, the recognition of National Merit Scholars, valedictorians and academic standouts ... And that’s far from it all. The contributions that Sam Butler, Drew Hoffenberg, Thomas Nelson, Kayj Shannon, Matt Weber and Kevin Zhang bring to the pool and to the classroom don’t just end there.
Last season, the men’s soccer team relied on a steady, consistent attack to score the goals it needed to secure the Ivy League championship. The Tigers created many opportunities off the run of play, but one of their core strengths was their ability to score off of restarts, corner kicks and junior defender Mark Linnville’s long throw-ins. It was a dependable and strategic — if not always pretty — way to win games. Enter freshman forward Cameron Porter.
The men’s soccer team maintained its early lead against Seton Hall and finished with a final margin of 7-3, reversing a four-game losing streak late Tuesday night. The Tigers, who entered the game with only one win, matched their goal total to this point in the season with a shocking offensive outburst.
Clare Gallagher, a sophomore on the women’s track and cross country teams, has represented Princeton at the Heptagonal Championships in both sports. Hailing from Colorado and planning to major in ecology and evolutionary biology, she has a personality so large it is almost impossible to capture in words. The ‘Prince’ recently interviewed Clare to get her stance on running, school, laser tag, the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic and pinata night with the men’s hockey team.
Here’s a hypothetical exercise: Three Ivy League students — a math major, a computer science major and a politics major — are bored on a Friday night. “Moneyball” is playing at the local theater. Although the three have little interest in sports, they decide to check it out — it’s free for students, after all, and they have nothing better to do.
The men’s club rugby team steamrolled over a weak Cornell squad Saturday afternoon as it continued its undefeated season with an impressive 60-12 victory over the Big Red. Princeton’s season-opening six-game winning streak is the strongest start the Tigers have had in many years.
The women’s volleyball team does not like living life on the edge. But that’s where it stands after beating both Harvard and Dartmouth over the weekend in tight 3-2 matches, their third straight five-game victory at Dillon Gymnasium.
“Such a relief, such a relief,” freshman midfielder Sydney Kirby said after the field hockey team’s 3-2 double-overtime win against Columbia on Saturday. The Tigers were tied with Columbia for 55 minutes before Kirby’s goal ended a long game and kept Princeton’s hopes of winning the Ivy League alive.
