• Women's Hockey Runs Cold and Hot
• Men's and Women's Squash Take Whack at Titles
• Sharp-Eyed Tigers Aim for Riflery Club
• Scoreboard

Women's Hockey Runs Cold and Hot
New coach Jeff Kampersal '92 turns Princeton around after a slow start

In a game at Brown on December 7, the women's hockey team (9-9 overall, 8-4 ECAC, 5-1 Ivy) suffered its own day of infamy in a 13-1 loss. But about a month later, the Tigers were unstoppable, sinking St. Lawrence, 11-1. From November 24 to December 8, Princeton lost six games in a row. Then it won six straight. What does head coach Jeff Kampersal '92 want most from his team? "Consistency," he says.
That's probably just about the only thing Kampersal hasn't seen from his squad thus far. At times, Princeton has proven it is capable of playing staunch defense and scoring goals, but such moments were fleeting early in the season.
Kampersal calls the team's losing streak "a tough stretch," and he isn't referring to the Tigers' awful play. In those two weeks, Princeton played several games against Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) powerhouses, losing to New Hampshire on November 24 and December 1, to Providence on November 29 and December 8, and to Concordia on November 30. The coach is satisfied for the most part with his team's effort, saying, "there were really only two disappointments, one of the UNH games and the Brown game. For the most part, we've been competitive. . . . We tried not to get too high or too low, but I wanted the losses to sting, to motivate us."
That motivation has worked. Princeton has staged a midseason comeback to reach the .500 mark overall. Its most recent wins came in tight one-goal games against Dartmouth, 4-3, and Boston College, 3-2, on January 11 and 12. As a result, the Tigers have a good chance to reach the playoffs, and they have made getting into the postseason their number-one goal. "We're still in the hunt in the Ivy League too," Kampersal adds.
A former captain and defenseman on the Princeton men's hockey team who played from 1988 to 1992, Kampersal is in his first year as head coach. He has tried to establish a family-type atmosphere with his team. The team has good morale-"We joke around all the time," says Kampersal-and the players have stayed focused. "I want them to work hard all the time, in practice or in a game," he says.
But the coach is learning, too, and he has altered his coaching strategy as the season has progressed. "Early in the season, I probably tried to teach systems too much," says Kampersal. "Now we're focusing on improving our skills." The coach also decided to change his lineup, putting senior tricaptains Mandy Pfeiffer and Karen Chernisky on the same offensive line.
Since January 4 against Cornell (a game the Tigers won, 5-1), the two have been playing together, and playing well. (Pfeiffer and forward Ali Coughlin '99 lead the team in points, with 24; Chernisky has 21.) The move also triggered Princeton's winning streak, and Kampersal admits "I'm kicking myself a little for not putting them together earlier."
The coach says the pair's leadership is as important as its goal-scoring: "Mandy leads by example. She plays with some finesse, but has a lunch-pailer attitude. Karen is the leader in the locker room, more vocal. She has more quickness, different stick skills, and a knack for scoring goals." Coughlin has become a sort of junior partner to the two and a dangerous scoring threat of late. She leads the team with 15 goals and was named Ivy League Player of the Week on January 6, after getting a hat trick and an assist against Cornell and two goals and an assist against St. Lawrence.
Despite its recent surge on offense, Princeton's true strength is its defense, which is anchored by tricaptain Vicki Urbas '97. "She's a star," Kampersal says, adding that he plays her for almost 45 minutes in every game. In net, Tammy Orlow '98, the team's only experienced goalie, has started every game for the Tigers, making 44 saves in a 4-3 win over Dartmouth and earning Ivy League Player of the Week honors on January 13.
Princeton hoped to continue its winning ways-and revenge a painful loss-when it hosted Brown on February 1, after a three-week break for first-semester exams.
-Shirley Wang '99

Men's and Women's Squash Take Whack at Titles
Within the pockmarked walls of intercollegiate squash courts, Harvard reigns. In recent years, the Crimson men have routinely conquered all-comers, and the team owns the last six national titles. The women have been similarly dominant, battering opponents on their way to national titles in five of the last seven years. But this year, Princeton's men and women may have a chance to topple Harvard's dynasty.
The women, led by cocaptain and number-one player Katherine Johnson '97 (3-0 overall, 2-0 Ivy), have shut out their first three opponents. Better yet, three members of the squad placed in the top eight in the Betty Constable Invitational (held at Princeton on January 3-5), which attracts elite collegiate competitors nationwide. Johnson came in second to Penn's Jessica Di Mauro, but beat Harvard's Ivy Pochoda, avenging her loss to the Crimson star in a national semifinal match last year.
Teammates Blair Irwin '00 and cocaptain Missy Wyant '97 placed sixth and seventh, respectively. "This is our strongest team in several years," said Johnson, a religion major from Marietta, Georgia. "It's a very realistic goal for us to win the national title. In the past the bottom half of our team has been consistently strong, but we weren't well balanced at the top. Having such elite players makes us a threat."
Johnson, Irwin, and Wyant, along with Alise O'Connell '99 (who wasn't able to play in the tournament), make up the top half of the Tiger squad. Johnson described O'Connell as "a hard-working competitor with a lot of skill."
The men (4-0 overall, 2-0 Ivy) also started strong, winning their first four matches 9-0. With a roster of talented but young players, they may have a more difficult time rising to the top of a cluster of strong teams that includes Harvard, Princeton, Amherst, and Trinity. Cocaptain Ben Fishman '98 said Harvard has been "fairly unbeatable" for the last two years. "But they have come back to the pack this year, and we're a little more talented. This year everyone's got a shot-it should be more fun," he added.
Since Princeton's two top players from last year graduated, the team has focused on working hard to compensate for its lack of experience. "Coach [Bob] Callahan ['77] has stayed on us about making the most of practices and getting better with each match," said Fishman. That will be especially important for number-one-player Peter Yik '00. Joining him at the top of the roster are Fishman and cocaptain Tom Haines '97.
Fishman, a political-theory major from Brooklyn, speculated that the coming month will be hectic for Princeton. It will play a string of six tough matches, which began last weekend, when the team hosted Dartmouth and Harvard. The Tigers then face Yale, Trinity, Penn, and Williams. Their season climaxes on February 21-23 in the Intercollegiate Squash Association (ISA) Team Tournament. "There's not a lot of time to work on your game," he said. "What you do improve is your focus and match toughness. You put your game in fifth gear."
The women's season is similar to the men's. Princeton started the month hosting Dartmouth and Harvard and will play Yale and a strong Penn team this weekend. On Valentine's Day weekend, there will be no hearts and flowers for the Princeton women, who will be playing for the Howe Cup in romantic New Haven. "Coach [Gail] Ramsay keeps telling us that all our hard work will pay off, and reminding us that winning the championship is a great goal," says Johnson. "The degree of dedication this team has is incredible, because we know that goal is tangible."
Hosting Harvard this past weekend provided both the men and the women with a chance to measure themselves against the defending champions. Before the match, the two captains seemed confident Princeton had the talent to win and said a loss could make it tougher for the Tigers to win later. Fishman said that losing to Harvard last year hurt the team. "Last year, we all played really well and still lost, although it was close [the Tigers fell 3-6]. After that, I think some people felt that no matter what we did, we'd lose," he said. Princeton ended up in third place, when it was upset by Amherst, 5-4, in the national tournament. Added Fishman, "A win against them would give us a lot of confidence."
Johnson said, "Harvard will pose the most threat to us for the national title, but we'll play all the teams, so we can't just focus on them. Either way it goes, we'll be taking what we can, and focusing on it for the next two weeks. . . . Our number-one priority if we lose will be to keep people's spirits high and realize that we can do it. . . . One match isn't going to decide the other."
If the men are able to win this year, the victory will be especially sweet since it will come in the Tigers' brand-new squash courts in Jadwin Gym, which are expected to be ready in time for Princeton to host the ISA Team Tournament. The team was unable to play on the courts until recently because they were being widened from 18!/2 feet to 21 feet, a change that complements the switch from a hard ball to a soft one in collegiate squash. (The softer ball is now in its second full season of use among the men, and its third among the women.) Both squads shared courts in Dillon Gym until the new ones were ready.
The larger court affects how the game is played, said Fishman: "It doesn't sound like much, but it's an incredible difference. You have to take a couple more steps to reach the ball, and you have more options. On a narrow court, it's only one step to every ball, so the strategy is to hit a lot of drops and a lot of lobs. On a wide court, you can get a cross-court shot past a guy. So the game is faster and more interesting to watch. There aren't as many lets."
Callahan, a standout for Princeton from 1974 to 1977 who led them to a national title his senior year, has helped the Tigers adjust. "He has a very disciplined game himself," said Fishman. "And the game has become a lot more disciplined with the switch to a soft ball. Our assistant coach, Neil Pomphrey, one of the top theoreticians at Plasma Physics, has also been incredibly helpful. . . . He always sees some little thing that we can improve."
-Paul Hagar '91

Sharp-Eyed Tigers Aim for Riflery Club
For a sport that has been a part of Princeton athletics since 1879, the rifle team has a low profile on campus. Nevertheless, truly faithful students-or perhaps they're just truly curious-gather in the Armory in the evenings to practice. It's not experience in shooting competition that brings these students together at the start of each season; the team has few seasoned marksmen. Most are new to the sport, and some have never before handled a gun. Requiring only concentration, good eyesight, and a steady hand, the sport is one of the few in which men don't have an advantage over women-Princeton boasts four female competitors.
This year's squad of 12 includes five freshmen. Captain Greg Engel '99 and coach Joe Sundra, who has led the team for a dozen years, call this season (which began in mid-October and runs through early March) "a rebuilding year," since only three veterans have returned. In 1996-97, Princeton's schedule features four "shoulder-to-shoulder" (or live) matches against other schools in the Mid-Atlantic Conference, as well as four "postal" matches. In a postal match, teams compete separately and compare results later.
Competitions consist of three rounds, in which shooters fire at a target from 50 feet away. In each round, they must fire 60 shots within a time limit and from a specified position. In the first round, shooters are given 20 minutes to fire from a prone position. The second, which lasts 40 minutes, requires them to fire from a standing, or "offhand" position. And in the 30-minute third round, marksmen fire from a kneeling position. The target's concentric circles have different point values, with the innermost and most valuable region measuring 0.1 millimeter in diameter-about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
Sundra says that riflery, which used to be a varsity sport, was relegated to club status shortly before he began coaching the team. Princeton has done well in the past, said Sundra, and Engel said it had some "challenging matches" against the military academies this season. In late fall, the Tigers faced the U.S. Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, Military, and Naval Academies, as well as V.M.I., in postal matches. Princeton lost its only home match to John Jay on November 23. The team lost narrowly to Drexel and Kutztown Universities, but Engel said the team was pleased with thin performance, with Naomi Bates '00 scoring 500 out of a possible 600 against Kutztown. The next match is at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, on February 15.
Before coming to Princeton, Engel, a Philadelphia native, was successful in rifle competitions at the local and national levels, setting 21 national records and winning an individual national championship. He brings expertise and enthusiasm to a diverse group of shooters with all levels of ability and experience. According to Engel, it's love of the sport, not bringing home a trophy, that motivates the squad: "Competition is very individual. You shoot against yourself, trying to beat your personal best."
-Nancy Smith '00
New Hampshire native Nancy Smith is PAW's student intern.

Scoreboard
Men's Basketball
(11-3 overall, 2-0 Ivy)
Princeton 71, Rutgers 66
Princeton 44, Brown 40
Princeton 58, Yale 45

Women's Basketball
(2-11 overall, 1-1 Ivy)
St. Peters 97, Princeton 64
Brown 72, Princeton 70
Princeton 53, Yale 52

Men's Ice Hockey
(12-4-2 overall, 7-3-1 ECAC)
Vermont 3, Princeton 2
Princeton 4, Dartmouth 2

Women's Ice Hockey
(9-9 overall, 5-1 Ivy,
8-4 ECAC)
Princeton 3, Yale 0
Princeton 4, Dartmouth 3
Princeton 3,
Boston College 2

Men's Swimming
(5-0 overall, 4-0 EISL)
Princeton 182, Army 111
Princeton 143, Cornell 76

Women's Swimming
(3-1 overall, 2-1 EWSL)
Princeton 136, Cornell 96

Wrestling
(5-2 overall, tk-tk EIWA)
NYU 22, Princeton 21
Princeton 19,
Montclair St. 19*
Princeton 36,
Swarthmore 12
Princeton 24,
Baptist Bible College 12
Princeton 22,
Coast Guard 22*
Gettysburg 32,
Princeton 15
Princeton 12, Haverford 6

* Princeton wins by tie-breaker