Sports: June 5, 1996
NATIONAL CHAMPS! RUGBY REPEAT MAKES HISTORY
Coachless "club" beats Penn State, 20-12; survives scare in semifinal against Radcliffe
Coachless, but with plenty of heart, the women's rugby club spent the first weekend in May collecting its second consecutive Collegiate National Championship trophy. A squad of 28 made the trek to the high plains of the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and in a tightly contested battle with Penn State, the Tigers showed the strength of their team-oriented play. They came through a bit scathed, but happy, winning 20-12.
In what is admittedly a young sport-the first women's championship was awarded in 1991-Princeton is the first side to win two titles. But women's rugby has been around since about 1979, longer than the national tourney has, and has leapt from being middle-of-the-road to being tops in the nation with lightning speed.
The Tigers credit this ascent to their former coach, Englishman Alex Curtis. "Alex is the number one reason we've done what we've done," said club president Sasha Van Dusen '97. But when Curtis received his Ph.D. in art history in September of 1995 and moved on to a teaching position in New Hampshire, the mantle of team leadership fell into the hands of senior cocaptains Ashley Kline and Erin Kennedy.
Kline and Kennedy led the Tigers to a 7-0 record last fall, complete with a 29-5 victory over Virginia Tech in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union (MARFU) tournament, the national qualifier. Up to that game, the Tigers had not given up a single point. A five-game spring schedule and trophy-taking performance in the Virginia Women's Invitation Tournament in Charlottesville helped them prepare for the trip to Colorado.
Princeton entered the eight-team national tournament as the number-one seed, but garnered little respect despite its record, because the team was playing without a coach. But on three more-than-breezy days (winds were clocked at up to 30 miles per hour), the Tigers proved that they were up to the task. The team whitewashed St. Benedict, 41-0, in its Friday opener, and won a spot in the title game with a hard-fought, 14-10 victory over Radcliffe College on Saturday.
In the final on Sunday, a fiercely determined Tiger squad faced Penn State in a replay of the 1995 final (which the Tigers won 20-0). All-American and tournament Most Valuable Back Susie Welgos '96 opened the scoring for Princeton with a penalty kick, making the score 3-0.
Penn State scored a try (which is similar to a touchdown in football and worth five points, plus a two-point kick attempt) midway through the second quarter, but Tiger wing Kristine Leporati '96 countered with one of her own three minutes later. Just before halftime another Princeton all-America, Laura Engler '98, scored to put the Tigers up by 10 points, 15-5, at the break.
A frustrated Nittany Lion team intensified its efforts in the second half, but could only watch when Caroline Gibson '98 scampered in for a score from about 30 meters. Though Penn State answered with a try of their own, it couldn't close the gap. When the final whistle blew, Princeton's reserves stormed the field to congratulate their exhausted comrades.
The play and coaching of Kline is due much credit for the Tigers' success. "When Alex left, I watched a lot of video tapes and spent a lot of time memorizing the law books," she said. "Unfortunately, the job has led me to ignore everything else this year." As a student at the Woodrow Wilson school and a manager of the Tiger Pizza agency, she had a fairly heavy load to ignore.
Van Dusen says the team can't expect such efforts in the future: "Every year we don't have a coach, it will be harder to keep on with what we're doing." (In an effort to bring back Curtis or hire another coach, the club has started to raise funds for a coaching endowment.)
But focusing on Princeton's coaching predicament sells this team short. It's apparent to any observer, rugby-wise or not, that the squad's tight bond makes this group the formidable bunch they are. "We don't focus on individuals," says Van Dusen, "which is one reason we play the way we do. What rugby means to us is our team, and we are all very, very tight."
The players say they were drawn to the game by its team focus and by the nature of the game itself. All feel that they have been strengthened by having played a sport that many deem unladylike, brutish, or simply insane. Princeton's women clearly take some satisfaction in the fact that they are none of these things.
"We love this sport because it removes many of the restrictions woman normally face," explains Kline. "It allows us to express ourselves in a physical, team-oriented way that, as woman, we are not often permitted to do." One suspects that, coach or no coach, the power of Princeton's approach to the game will help them to challenge for the national title for many years to come.
-Rob Williams '93
Rob Williams has written for Rugby Magazine and for New Zealand's Rugby News.
SOFTBALL SETS RECORD, RETURNS TO SERIES
Many coaches say the essence of a winning program is teamwork. But for Princeton's softball squad (47-6-1 overall, 11-1 Ivy), winning might have as much to do with team spirit. The players' will to win means they win games with resolve as well as runs, which (when combined with top-notch athletic skill) helps to explain why this team is one of the most successful ever to play for Princeton, in any sport.
In each of the Tigers' 49 regular-season games this year, the players have poured a din of encouragement onto the field as the pitcher winds up in the top of the first inning. And during each game, they have continued that din until the ball smacks into a glove for the last out of the ninth. Chants, songs, and cheers crafted for each Princeton at-bat and nearly any game situation have kept every player focused and ready to do what she must to win.
The results have been phenomenal. Last season the Tigers came within six games of Canisius's NCAA record 35 straight wins, got a second straight Ivy title, won the Eastern Regional tournament, and became the first Ivy League team to play in the College World Series (they finished seventh). This season the Tigers won an NCAA record 37 straight games, got a third straight Ivy title (and their 12th in 14 years), won the Eastern Regional tournament, and at press time were preparing for their second World Series appearance. They met the nation's top-ranked team, the University of Washington, in their first Series game, on May 23 in Columbus, Georgia.
But spirit alone didn't bring about Princeton's success. The key to the team's domination is outstanding pitching. As of May 20, righthander Maureen Davies '97 had thrown 28 wins and 13 shutouts, and the pitching staff as a whole had posted an ERA of 1.07. In 12 league games this season, Princeton notched seven shutouts, allowing just 14 total runs.
Meanwhile, the Tigers' bats-led by first baseman Mandy Pfeiffer '97, who has 35 RBI, and shortstop Tara Christie '97, who has a .413 batting average-have pounded out runs, scoring six times or more in 27 games (including a 16-0 drubbing of Dartmouth on April 20). They have been shut out only once this season (they lost to Oregon, 7-0, on March 1, just their second game of the year).
The combination of lethal pitching, consistent hitting, and vocal support from the bench keeps the pressure on Princeton's opponents, especially in tight games. For example, in the first game of the NCAA play-in against Canisius on May 9, a fiercely contested pitching duel, Princeton's prowess and perserverance made the difference.
Davies pitched an outstanding game, but the Golden Griffins' ace, Kristin Spak, matched her out for out. And in the top of the fifth inning, Canisius threatened to score, putting runners on second and third with only one out. If a batter made contact-even tapping a slow ground out or popping a fly ball out of the infield-the runner at third would probably score. But with the cheers of her teammates ringing in both ears and her trademark half-smile intact, Davies fanned the next two batters, keeping the game scoreless.
Spak stayed sharp, frustrating Princeton batters again and again. But she was tiring, and in the final half-inning, after right fielder Wendy Herm '99 got on with a single through the middle, the Tigers moved her to third. Then, to a chant of "We want a hit! We'll take a walk!", senior and center fielder Stacy Thurber hit a line drive to center field, scoring the winning run. With the 1-0 victory, Princeton was a game away from the Eastern regional tournament. Said coach Cindy Cohen, "To me, one to nothing games are beautiful things. . . . Our pitching is outstanding and it's clearly our strength. If we play focused and loose, we're tough to beat."
That day, the Tigers were impossible to beat. In the second game of the doubleheader, freshman righthander Lynn Miller threw a 8-0 shutout, qualifying Princeton for regionals, which were held in Amherst, Massachusetts, on May 17-19.
Once there, Princeton played what may have been its best defensive games of the season. The top-seeded Tigers made every routine play and were outstanding in key situations. They beat Boston University, 1-0, in their first game; got to the championship game with a 4-0 win over Massachusetts on May 18; and beat Boston again on May 19, 3-1, to make the World Series. Davies got seven strikeouts in the final.
Seeded eighth in the eight-team Series field, the Tigers met a powerful team from Washington in the first round. According to Cohen, Princeton knew what it would take to win. "The team," she said, "is a lot of what I talk to them about during the season. You're asking a lot of people to make sacrifices, and they do it. That's what makes them special. If we execute our game plan, we're athletic enough to play with anyone."
At the Series, Princeton would need great pitching and clutch hitting, along with all the cheers they could muster and a lot of team spirit.
And when the team returned to New Jersey, with or without a title, I imagine they might have spent one last afternoon together. In late May, 200 feet from the end of the P-rade route, they would have scattered across 1895 Field, gloves in hand, to play a pickup game. Then, with Tigers afield and at bat, Davies would have delivered the first pitch to Thurber with her half-smile, while cheers and chants rang out from both dugouts.
-Paul Hagar '91
CAPTAIN IKPEOWO KEEPS TEAM ON TRACK
Track coach Fred Samara calls him "goodwill ambassador," but Ugwanna Ikpeowo '96 is more than that. He is a sprinter, long-jumper, and high jumper who has won all-America honors both indoors and out. As important, Ikpeowo is a co-captain and a respected member of the men's track and field team, whose leadership by example played a big part in the team's recent win at Heptagonals.
"I'm really glad the team chose me as a captain," said Ikpeowo, who came to Princeton from TK. "It's been a great honor, and I've tried to lead by example. One of the things I've enjoyed most about being captain is working with the younger guys having them believe in themselves and believe that they have the ability to do well. I saw that come to fruition at outdoor Heps, when guys competed like veterans . . . you'd never know that they were freshmen. Just seeing people believe in me and then believe in themselves is one of the greatest rewards."
Ikpeowo's teammates admire his talent, yet his mature attitude and team focus also command respect. After he strained his left hamstring at the Penn Relays, held April 25-27 in Philadelphia, in his first long jump of the meet, he took a postitive view of the situation. Though he had fouled by an inch, his distance was over 26 feet. "That was encouraging," Ikpeowo said. "It just lets me know that all I need to do is stay healthy and try to repeat that performance." Said Samara: "He could've easily won the event, but he only took one jump. His long-term health was more important."
Samara and the coaching staff decided that winning Heptagonals, held May 4-5 in New Haven, Connecticut, was more important than the team's performance at Penn Relays. "Penn Relays is an important meet, but we made a decision as a coaching staff to downplay them," Samara said. "Everyone competed, and no one doubled (events). We wanted to keep everyone fresh for Heps. We could've done better at Penn Relays, but we would have sacrificed our performance at Heptagonals. It was a major team goal to win Heptagonals since Heps is against our conference. It's how we judge the success or failure of the season."
If Heptagonals is the guage which measures the season's success, the team scored off the charts. Princeton defeated the Naval Academy and the rest of the Ivy League and finished with 182 points. This point total set the record for the highest total ever earned at Heptagonals, annihilating the old record of 155 points. The Navy head coach called it "the best prepared, the most inspired performance at Heps I have ever seen." Samara claimed "mass hypnosis" resulted in the win. "We did what we had never done before."
Ikpeowo's health improved enough for him to compete at Heptagonals, and when he made his first long jump, "it meant the whole world to the team," Samaras said. Though the Tigers were relieved to know that he was competing, Ikpeowo's opponents were less than excited. He held on to first place until the sixth and final jump, when he was bested by two centimeters. Ikpeowo still had an attempt remaining, but Samara decided that he should scratch, to save his hamstring. "I had nothing to prove to anybody," said Ikpeowo, "and we had accomplished our goal of winning the team title . . . that was the most important."
Ikpeowo's meet wasn't devoid of personal victory. He won the triple jump, in a surprise move that Samara said dealt a "shattering blow" to Ikpeowo's opponents. Because of a previous injury to his right knee, he had not competed in the event all season, and everyone believed he would never again do the triple jump.
Ikpeowo maintains a team-oriented attitude and attributes his success to a belief in himself and in his teammates. "That attitude and that belief in our abilities I think is what has carried us this far," Ikpeowo said, " . . . our tenacity and the fact that we weren't intimidated by anybody."
He believes team unity also helped Princeton at IC4As, held May 16-19 in Fairfax, Virginia. This year, the Tigers boasted greater depth than any other team, qualifying 30 athletes for the competition, and the team placed third overall. Leading the charge at IC4As was senior discus thrower Alex Kolovyansky, who won the event with a throw of 190'06".
A pre-med molecular biology major, Ikpeowo hopes to compete on the Nigerian Olympic team this summer. Even with such high aspirations, he views track as a release from his academic pressures. "I'm the jokester on the team, and I've never let a track meet get me too uptight to the point where I couldn't have fun with my teammates," Ikpeowo said. "We joke around on the bus before a competition, and I think that's worked for me. I think that ability to loosen up and then once I am on the track to take care of business and then have fun. I think that is what has carried me this far. If you just focus, concentrate, and relax, everything will work out."
-Sarah Slonaker '96
Sarah Slonaker is a sports writer for The Daily Princetonian.
SCOREBOARD
Men's Lacrosse *
(11-1 overall; 6-0 Ivy)
Princeton 19, Penn 4
Princeton 15, Brown 5
Princeton 17, Harvard 10
Princeton 19, Cornell 6
Princeton 13,
Georgetown 2
Princeton 18, Dartmouth 6
Princeton 16, Hobart 6
Princeton 22, Towson St. 6
Women's Lacrosse *
(12-3 overall; 6-0 Ivy)
Princeton 15, Temple 10
Princeton 18, Brown 7
Princeton 15, Penn 6
Princeton 17, Yale 7
Princeton 17, Delaware 8
Princeton 9, Penn St. 8
Princeton 12, Cornell 6
Maryland 14, Princeton 7
Maryland 6, Princeton 5
Baseball *
(24-19 overall; 13-7 Ivy)
Columbia 11, Princeton 9
Princeton 9, Columbia 4
Princeton 10, Columbia 5
Columbia 11, Princeton 8
Princeton 17,
Long Island 8
Princeton 14, Penn 10
Princeton 2, Penn 1
Princeton 10, Penn 2
Princeton 10, Penn 0
Princeton 19, Lehigh 3
Princeton 6, Cornell 4
Cornell 5, Princeton 2
Princeton 3, Cornell 1
Cornell 8, Princeton 2
Seton Hall 5, Princeton 1
Princeton 5, Penn 4
Princeton 15, Harvard 6
Princeton 1, Harvard 0
Princeton 9, Rider 6
Princeton 7, Rider 6
Men's Golf
(1-1 overall; 1-1 Ivy)
Waterwood Invit.-9th
George Mason Invit.-2nd
Harvard / Yale-2nd
Navy Invit.-7th
Ivy Tourn.-2nd
Princeton Invit.-4th
Metropolitans-3rd
Easterns-14th
Heavyweight Crew
(8-2 overall; 4-2 Ivy)
Princeton 6:47.8
Rutgers 6:57.0
Princeton 5:34.1
Penn 5:34.5
Columbia 5:57.8
Harvard 5:38.1
Princeton 5:38.5
MIT 5:58.1
Princeton 5:53.7
Yale 5:55.9
Brown 5:55.2
Princeton 5:57.5
Lightweight Crew *
(6-0 overall; 4-0 Ivy)
Princeton 5:43.1
Cornell 5:50.7
Rutgers 6:03.7
Princeton 6:26.9
Penn 6:56.2
Princeton 5:56.0
Harvard 5:58.5
Yale 6:00.0
Women's Crew
(10-1 overall; 6-1 Ivy)
Princeton 6:37.9
Rutgers 6:52.9
Columbia 7:01.0
Princeton 6:34.3
Cornell 6:37.5
Radcliffe 6:59.7
Princeton 6:22.7
Yale 6:27.6
Georgetown 6:416.2
Navy 7:14.1
Princeton 6:28.2
Dartmouth 6:40.9
Penn 6:42.7
Princeton 6:41.7
New Hampshire 6:58.5
Women's Golf
(0-0 overall)
Pan American Invit.-10th
Boston College Invit.-1st
Hartford Invit.-1st
Northeast Champs.-3rd
Softball *
(44-6-1 overall; 11-1 Ivy)
Princeton 9, Drexel 1
Princeton 8, Drexel 0
Princeton 4, Rider 1
Princeton 8, Rider 0
Princeton 2, Connecticut 0
Princeton 5, Connecticut 4
Princeton 8, Penn 0
Princeton 8, Penn 0
Princeton 1, Hofstra 0
Princeton 4, Hofstra 3
Princeton 16, Dartmouth 0
Princeton 8, Dartmouth 0
Princeton 3, Harvard 0
Princeton 8, Harvard 0
Princeton 12, Seton Hall 4
Princeton 6, Seton Hall 2
Princeton 5, Rutgers 3
Princeton 3, Rutgers 0
Princeton 4, Yale 0
Princeton 4, Yale 2
Princeton 6, Brown 2
Brown 3, Princeton 1
Princeton 6, Cornell 4
Princeton 8, Cornell 3
Princeton 1, Massachusetts 0
Princeton 4, Massachusetts 2
Princeton 1, Canisius 0
Princeton 8, Canisius 0
Princeton 1, Boston Univ. 0
Princeton 4, Massachusetts 0
Princeton 3, Boston Univ. 1
Men's Tennis
(18-7 overall; 6-3 EITA)
Princeton 4, George Washington 3
Princeton 6, Yale 0
Princeton 6, Brown 0
Princeton 7, Rutgers 0
Princeton 5, Penn St. 2
Princeton 5, Navy 2
Princeton 7, Army 0
Harvard 6, Princeton 1
Dartmouth 4, Princeton 3
Princeton 7, Swarthmore 0
Princeton 7, Cornell 0
Women's Tennis
(4-12 overall; 2-5 Ivy)
Yale 6, Princeton 1
Brown 5, Princeton 2
Rutgers 7, Princeton 2
Boston Univ. 7, Princeton 0
Princeton 5, Boston College 2
Seton Hall 6, Princeton 1
Harvard 6, Princeton 1
Princeton 7, Dartmouth 0
Cornell 6, Princeton 1
* Won League Championship