Jason White remembers offensive players swarming like ants, burrowing through a defense that was left frantically trying to fill the holes.
In addition to the departure of men's basketball head coach Bill Carmody, there were several other coaching changes over the summer.
His freshman year, the unthinkable happened to Kevin Griffin, a newly recruited collegiate athlete ? he got injured.Before the men's soccer season even started, Griffin injured his ankle at practice ? tearing ligaments and sidelining himself for the majority of the season.
As the 1997-98 season drew to a close, and the men's basketball team put the finishing touches on a 27-2 season, nobody had any delusions around here.
In any kingdom, when the sitting monarch departs the throne, the question of succession arises. Will the king's favored son rise to power, or will an outsider grab the reins of the empire?
It began with a quarterback controversy and ended with a coaching controversy. It began with a surprising loss and ended with an even more stunning defeat.And in between, the football team's 1999 campaign mirrored its start and finish ? a season replete with disappointment, frustration and painful defeats.The Tigers (3-7 overall, 1-6 Ivy League) finished in a tie with Columbia for last place in the Ivy standings, suffering through their worst league season since 1973.
For a brief time this season, the field hockey team was living a charmed life. This was not supposed to be the Tigers' year ? the incredible talent of the Class of 1999 had departed.
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.
New millenium. Same old story. Princeton continued its crew success, garnering its second women's lightweight National Championship and finishing in second, third and sixth place in men's lightweight, men's heavyweight and women's open, respectively.The women's lightweight crew perhaps had the biggest shoes to fill, as it looked to defend its national title ? a title that came only two seasons after women's lightweight crew became a varsity sport at Princeton."We know that we are competitive with the other boats," head coach Heather Smith said.In fact, Princeton was one of the teams to beat and the season evolved into a two-team battle between the Tigers and Wisconsin for the top spot in the East. Cruisin'Princeton sailed past the Badgers early in the year, defeating them in the San Diego Crew Classic on April 2 after Wisconsin caught a crab in the contest.
Following a 1999 campaign in which it went 30-11-1, the women's water polo team (25-6 overall, 8-0 Collegiate Water Polo Association) continued to make its presence felt on the national scene, advancing to the National Collegiate Championship, winning its first-round game against Hawaii and finishing the season at No.
Behind a young and talented women's squad (15-2, 5-0 Ivy League) and a veteran men's team (12-3, 4-0 Ivy), Princeton fencing finished off a successful season as the No.
In most sports it takes one outstanding individual leading a strong supporting cast to win championships.
All the elements for success were there at the start of the 1999-2000 women's swimming and diving campaign.
Syracuse vs. Virginia.It was the matchup that every men's lacrosse fan had been waiting for ? a rematch of the 1999 national championship game and a clash between the top two seeds of the 2000 tournament.But a funny thing happened on the way to the Memorial Day showdown between the Orangemen and Cavaliers.
The women's hockey team struggled through its season, coming up short at crucial points and failing to reach its major goals ? an Ivy League championship and a berth in the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament.The top eight teams secure spots in the ECAC tournament.
It was the closing minute of regulation in the final game of the regular season for the men's soccer team.
In an exciting, up-and-down season, women's soccer pulled off some amazing feats: a win over defending Ivy champion Dartmouth, the first defeat of Brown in Providence since 1983 and an 11-game unbeaten streak.While late season losses to Harvard and Penn stymied Princeton's (12-5-1 overall, 4-2-1 Ivy League) pursuit of a league title and dropped the team to third place, the squad's earlier accomplishments and stellar out-of-league play garnered the Tigers an accolade they had barely dared to dream about at the start of the season ? an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.In Princeton's first appearance at the tourney in 16 years, it lost 2-1 to the University of Hartford, capping the craziness that was the women's soccer season."[The game] was a big step for our program," head coach Julie Shackford said.
After last year's disappointing second-place Ivy League finish, the men's basketball team and its corps of young talent began the season with high expectations of capturing the conference title ? and an NCAA tournament berth ? for the fourth time in five years.But a bumpy road, riddled with unforeseen injuries, consistently inconsistent shooting and a disappointing loss at Yale doomed Princeton (19-11 overall, 11-3 Ivy League) to finish as the runner-up to archrival Penn for the second-consecutive season.
After three years of frustration, the seniors of the baseball team propelled the Tigers past rival Dartmouth for the Ivy League Championship and into the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1996.In a year that started off with more questions than answers, Princeton (24-20 overall, 13-7 Ivy League) solved its early-season worries about hitting and run production to obtain a 24-win season for the third year in a row.The highlight of the season came at the Ivy League Championship on May 6 against Dartmouth.
Midfielder Hilary Maddox '00's face burned bright red, wet wisps of a blond ponytail clinging to her face as she spoke in a steady voice while water spilled out of her eyes."What was the greatest thing about our team ? no one really had . . ." The senior midfielder bent her head.
