The men’s squash team started the 2012 portion of its schedule with a critical victory over No. 4 Rochester on Sunday. The No. 3 Tigers had to play without senior All-America Kelly Shannon and key senior David Pena, who are both injured, but still managed to win soundly in their toughest match to date.
I was only in Dillon Gymnasium, but at the time, it sort of felt like I had gone to a faraway place. In my mind, it was a parallel universe, where baseball had different rules and artifacts had conspicuously British-sounding names. Of course, the sport I was learning was cricket, and instead of being played in a parallel universe, it’s just not played on this side of the globe.
In the statistics-driven world of modern athletics, skilled players who don’t rack up tons of points often go unnoticed in the shuffle of rosters, depth charts and stat sheets. Junior point guard Lauren Polansky of the women’s basketball team doesn’t score an average of 17.7 points per game, like junior forward Niveen Rasheed has done this year, but Polansky’s team-first attitude, defensive intensity and disciplined leadership on the court are beyond replacement.
Sophomore Chris Clement is a guard on the men’s basketball team hailing from Austin, Texas. He found great success in high school, winning all-state academic honors and a spot on a number of regional first-teams and currently backs up senior guard Doug Davis at Princeton. Chris recently sat down with the 'Prince' to discuss "Space Jam," "the crack" and why he prefers LeBron over Kobe.
Senior Clay Blackiston is a “senior team leader” on the men’s squash team with a long history of success — he has amassed a 37-6 regular season record during his time at Princeton. He hails from Greenwich, Conn., and attributes his interest in squash directly to this fact. Blackiston recently talked with the ‘Prince’ about his special leadership role on the team, the Princeton Varsity Club and the other meanings of the word “squash” in his patented sarcastic wit.
Senior tri-captain Colin Cordes of the men’s swimming team is a school record- holder and two-time Ivy League conference champion in the 200-meter backstroke. Cordes, an economics major, calls a spot 36 miles north of Chicago home. The ‘Prince’ recently sat down with Colin to learn more about the swimmer’s “Orange Team,” a hypothetical Cloister Inn gang battle and the fallout from the team’s hit video, “Get Better, Hasler.”
In the world of sports, the goalkeeper holds a unique role. The position varies subtly from sport to sport, but the basics are simple — goalies organize and oversee the team’s defense during the course of play and must be willing to sacrifice their bodies to prevent goals.
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.
The women’s soccer team had familiar troubles when it faced Lafayette at home on Wednesday. The Tigers, who have struggled to find the net early this season, attacked with a passion throughout the match, taking a season-high 29 shots. Although the Leopards took only three shots during the contest, two found the net, dealing the Tigers a disappointing 2-2 tie.
Last year’s season ended in disappointment for the women’s soccer team, when a scoreless tie with Penn allowed the Quakers to foil Princeton’s late bid for the Ivy League title and a spot in the NCAA Tournament. This season, the Tigers (1-3) will be without four graduated seniors, instead featuring eight new freshmen on the roster as they make another attempt at the conference crown.
