• Tierney's Tigers Win Fourth Championship (Men's Lacrosse)
  • Goalie Patrick Cairns '97 Shines at Final Four
  • Web exclusive: Team Dedicates Title to Injured Hun Student
• Crews Washed Out by Washington
• Sprinter Nicole Harrison '98 Sets 1997 Standard at IC4A Meet
• Tiger on the Tee -- Mary Moan '97
• Spring Wrapup
• Sports Shorts
  • New Baseball Coach
  • Men's golfer Ben McConahey '99
  • Wrestling
• Scoreboard

DUKE
Princeton was ready when it came onto the field, running up a 6-2 lead in the first quarter, but a four-goal deficit seemed to energize the Blue Devils. What had at first looked like a routine rout for the Tigers became a street brawl, a physical contest that "challenged" Princeton, according to Tierney. "Duke went face to face and man to man with us. They played us team to team-each one of our guys had someone looking right in their faces all game," he said. "Rarely have I seen a team that big and strong play that big and strong."
The Tigers responded shakily to the Devils' pushing, swatting, and swarming defense. A string of poor offensive possessions in the second and third quarters kept Princeton's goal total at seven (Hess scored 43 seconds after halftime), while Duke added seven scores to take a two-goal lead, 9-7.
The gap would have been at least four or five, except for the play of goalie Cairns, who made several outstanding saves, as Duke took shots in transition, tried jams from just outside the crease, and fired from long range. The rest of Princeton's defense, especially Cook and Kurt Lunkenheimer '99, played well, forcing a number of crucial turnovers, but Tiger mistakes at the other end kept allowing Duke to come back on the attack.
Halfway through the fourth quarter, Tierney and his team had their backs to the wall. Midfielder Jason Osier '97 ended the misery, scoring a goal that came with 6:28 on the clock. A minute later, midfielder Todd Eichelberger '97 tied the score at nine. And with 4:50 left, an unbelievably wide-open Massey got a pass from Hess eight yards out, ran to the goal, and scored to give Princeton a 10-9 lead.
Then began a clinic, as the Tigers demonstrated one reason that Tierney has his well-known "19-goal rule"-the coach doesn't allow his team to score 20 in any regular-season game. Because they can't shoot, Princeton players must pass and dodge, playing "keep away," for the remainder of a contest. They're good at it. A frustrated Duke team watched the Tigers hold the ball for nearly five minutes, until the game was over, and Princeton was on its way to meet Maryland (which beat Syracuse, 18-17, in the other semifinal) in the championship.
MARYLAND
In the final game, Princeton-facing a hostile crowd and an unseeded dark horse that had upset number-two Virginia and number-three Syracuse-began cautiously. For more than seven minutes, neither team scored. But after Hess scurried to the front of the net and got the first goal, the Tigers' offense was unstoppable. In the next six minutes, Princeton scored eight times, tying a championship-game record for goals in the first quarter.
The most spectacular of them was set up by defensive midfielder Ben Strutt '97, who stripped a Maryland player, raced nearly the length of the field at top speed, and then passed to Massey, who rammed the ball into the left corner of the goal. It was a quintessential moment that showed Princeton's strengths: aggressive defense, outstanding speed, and unselfish offense, qualities that had made its season perfect so far and which had, in a pinch, beaten Massachusetts and Duke.
At the end of the second quarter, the score was 10-3. By the end of the third, it was 16-5. And when the 19-goal rule finally silenced Hubbard, Hess, and Massey, they had tallied 10 goals and 8 assists, and Hess had set a new single-season assist record for the Tigers, 48. (The previous mark, 47, had been held by Kevin Lowe '94.)
At the press conference after the game, a reporter asked Hubbard how he felt when he heard people rank them among the best of all time. "We only have four years here," replied Hubbard. "We don't have time to think about the proportion of what we've done."
That four-year limit may make the team's road to the finals a little tougher next year, despite the return of the three attacks. Princeton loses 13 seniors: notable graduates are Cairns and defensemen Strutt and Becket Wolf (who were anchors of the team's unheralded defense) and midfielders Eichelberger, Craig Katz, Derek Katz, Dennis Kramer, James Mitchell, and Osier (who were among the best possession and transition players in the country).
Of course, Tierney and his patented defense are constants, as is the offensive system set up by assistant coach Dave Metzbower. Will players feel the pressure to "three-peat," knowing they'll be a marked team? Tierney doesn't think so. He turned aside attempts to portray his program's four titles in six years a dynasty, saying only it was "a thrill" to be considered among the best programs in the country. The coach wants Princeton's championship mantle to help the Tigers excel in the future, especially since they will need their younger players to take hold of some mighty big sticks next year. "We don't want fear of failure to motivate us," said Tierney. "But we will take some extra pride in continuing our legacy."
-Paul Hagar '91
Editor's note: The men's lacrosse team dedicated its win to Chris Heinel, a Hun School student who was paralyzed in a freak lacrosse accident. For more of this story, click here.

Goalie Cairns Shines at Final Four
Last year, coach Bill Tierney pulled Tiger goalie Patrick Cairns '97 out of the semifinal game against Syracuse at the start of the fourth quarter. At the time, Cairns admitted he'd started to doubt himself after letting in a few goals. But a year later, in the third quarter of the semifinal with Duke, he was one of the few cool heads on the field, despite a discouraging performance a week before, in Princeton's quarterfinal game.
With Duke up by two goals in the third quarter, Cairns, who came to Princeton from Long Green, Maryland, stopped a fast-break shot that kept the Blue Devils from pulling away. Midway into the fourth quarter, he made another save, which led to Princeton's first goal in over 20 minutes and began its comeback run. Cairns credits Tierney, who gave him a vote of confidence the night before the game: "He told me, 'This is your year,' and it made all the difference in the world."
The difference was obvious in the Final Four, in Cairns's play against both Duke (top) and Maryland (bottom): he made a total of 26 saves in the two games and gave up only two goals in the fourth quarter. He ends his career with a 37-3 record, a .593 save percentage, and three national titles.

Princeton Dedicates Win to Injured Hun Student
Like so many spinal injuries, this one came after a freak accident. Chris Heinel, a sophomore at the Hun School, was running to scoop up a ground ball during a lacrosse practice on April 10. Just after Heinel, a goalie on the team, had lowered his head to trap the ball with his stick, he collided with a teammate. The top of his head hit the other player's thigh and snapped backward, doing severe damage to his spinal cord. Heinel is now paralyzed below the neck, partway through a regimen of physical therapy that's likely to occupy the next several months of his life.
Within hours, his teammates and fellow students, along with their parents and Hun administrators, had mobilized to help Heinel and his family. His father, Jeffrey Heinel, called the community's response "phenomenal . . . It is the single most powerful, concerted effort I have ever seen a group of people make," he said.
Among the many students and parents who have visited the stricken Heinel since the accident are Trevor Tierney, then the senior starting goalie at Hun School, and his father, Princeton men's lacrosse coach Bill Tierney. The younger Tierney, who will enter Princeton in September as a member of the Class of 2001, was a frequent visitor. "Trevor came every night that he could," said Jeanette Heinel, Chris's mother. "Often [Trevor] was the only person that Chris wanted to see. It was like listening to two brothers talking."
Coach Tierney also visited, and his team dedicated its Ivy Championship and its NCAA Championship to Heinel. After clinching the Ivy title, Tierney and the team captains visited Heinel in the hospital and gave him the game ball. Tierney would later give him the game ball from the Tigers' national-championship win as well, and Heinel's nine-year-old brother, Joshua, was on the sidelines during Princeton's Final Four weekend.
"This affects me more as a father than as a coach," said Tierney, "But I think I have a greater appreciation of the relationship between Chris and Trevor from coaching lacrosse. You can recognize a bond between goalies -- especially where the older one is bringing along the younger. They're more than just teammates."
After winning the championship, Coach Tierney told PAW that recognizing Heinel's struggle gave his team the right perspective on its title. "The gift Chris gave us is incredible," he said. "It showed our kids that we couldn't take things for granted."
A fund has been set up to benefit Chris Heinel. Donations may be mailed to The Chris Heinel Fund, P.O. Box 564, Yardley, PA 19067.
--Rob Garver
This article was adapted from one that appeared in the Town Topics May 28, 1997. Click HERE for the original text of the article.

Crews Washed Out by Washington
Peaking too early wasn't expected to be a problem for the Princeton crews as they entered their respective national championship events. Consistency, after all, had been the most amazing trait displayed by these teams all season. The heavyweight crew (9-0 overall, 6-0 Ivy) had gone undefeated in head-to-head competition for the first time since 1881, while the women's crew (12-1 overall, 7-0 Ivy) had lost only once (to Virginia on April 26), had dominated at Eastern Sprints, and had won all its other races in relatively undramatic fashion.
There wasn't much drama for either team at the national championships. The heavyweights finished fifth due to a whole host of factors, not the least of which was a powerful Washington crew that won the 95th National Intercollegiate Rowing Championship, held May 31 on the Cooper River in Camden, New Jersey. The next day, the women tilted with Washington at the inaugural NCAA Women's Rowing Championships in Rancho Cordova, California, but they weren't able to defeat the Huskies, who won the varsity race and the team title.
The shock of the heavyweights' fifth-place finish, as described by coxswain Geoff Adamson '99, was based not only on their undefeated head-to-head season, but on Princeton's performance at Eastern Sprints three weeks earlier, when the Tigers swept the first and second varsity races and won the overall points crown for the third straight year. Those three weeks, however, may have been just what the Tigers didn't need. "We were just flying after Easterns," said heavyweight coach Curtis Jordan. "We had great workouts. That changed during exams, but that's no excuse. We won in 1996 after exams. Something in our training cycle got off and we weren't where we wanted to be."
Where the Tigers didn't want or expect to be at the end of their first race was in a repechage (a "second chance" heat), but that's where they ended up on Thursday afternoon, as Jordan's first-varsity boat finished third, behind fellow favorites Washington and Wisconsin. Instead of having the rest of the day off to prepare for Friday's semifinals, the heavies had to race again in order to qualify.
Princeton managed to make it into the Varsity Challenge Cup final, but was never in contention. Thursday's nemeses, Washington and Wisconsin, finished ahead of the Tigers, as did Brown (a boat Princeton had defeated twice in the past month). At Eastern Sprints, it had been Princeton's day, but at the national championships, it was Washington's. "At Sprints, our stars seemed to be aligned," Jordan said. "Maybe we overperformed there, but we definitely underperformed here. What happened . . . doesn't detract from all we achieved this season. Our heads are high."
In other races, the Tigers favored second varsity boat won its heat easily, but finished fourth in the grand final on Saturday-behind Washington, Wisconsin, and Brown. The freshman boat, racing for the final time under new U.S. national team coach Mike Teti, finished third in the grand final, while Joe Murtaugh's lightweights (6-1 overall, 3-1 Ivy) placed third behind Harvard and Yale (the lightweights' results weren't included in the overall standings). Princeton's 314.88 team points were third behind Wisconsin and Brown.

WOMEN'S CREW
For the women, the first-ever NCAA championship would be determined by a somewhat controversial point system combining results from a varsity eight, a second-varsity eight, and a varsity four. But coach Lori Dauphiny said early on that she thought "the national champion should be about who has the best eight in the country."
Either way, Princeton had a chance to win, after its second-varsity boat (which had dominated its competition all year, losing only to Yale) romped in the grand final on Lake Natoma, a 2,000-meter course on the American River near Sacramento. The win left Princeton only five points behind Washington before the varsity final. If the Tigers could finish ahead of the Huskies, they would win the title.
The day before, Princeton had the best time of the day (6:41.4) in winning its semifinal heat, separate from Washington and Brown, and the Tigers qualified for lane three in the six-team final. As the Tigers left the boat some 20 minutes after the semifinal, however, Dauphiny worried that she saw signs of fatigue. "We really left it all out there, which concerns me a little in this heat," Dauphiny said.
Looking at a drained Betsy Spigel '99 (who rows stroke) and coxswain Eli Sroka '99, she added, "I hope we have enough left to compete tomorrow with Washington. I don't think anyone will pull away in the final, but if anyone does, it will be Washington. They're a powerful crew."
The former Husky rower, a 1985 graduate of Washington, turned out to be prophetic. The next day, Washington's women rowed to their first-ever NCAA title in any sport. Princeton catapulted off the start at an amazing pace of 42 strokes per minute to take an early lead, but Washington and Massachusetts passed the Tigers by the 500-meter mark, leaving the Tigers in third place, eight seconds back, by race's end. Washington's 201 overall points were 17 better than second-place Princeton, which outdistanced third-place Brown by 14 points.
Despite the loss, Dauphiny said she was proud of her crews. "They performed well," she said. "We were up against the fiercest competition in the country, and Washington was simply a lot better than everyone else."
-David Rosenfeld
David Rosenfeld works in Princeton's Office of Athletic Communications.

Sprinter Nicole Harrison '98 Sets 1997 Standard at IC4A Meet
The outdoor track season was a mixed bag for the men's and women's track and field teams, but for Nicole Harrison '98, 1997 was her time to shine. Harrison posted a time of 13.08 for the 100-meter hurdles-the fastest time this year for a collegiate woman-while running in a preliminary heat of the event during the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Track and Field Championship (held May 22-25 at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia). Her performance also shattered the Princeton record and set field and meet records,
Harrison's school record in the hurdles is the fourth university mark she has set this year. She now holds the best times for the 100-meter dash (11.69) and the 200-meter dash (23.70), as well as the longest jump (19' 0.75"). In the indoor season, Harrison won all-America honors in the 55-meter hurdles.
At the Heptagonal Championship (held at Franklin Field, in Philadelphia, on May 10 and 11), Harrison earned the Outstanding Female Athlete Award, winning the long jump and besting the field in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes.
She, Tanya Baker '97, and Katie Talarico '97 all qualified for the NCAA Championships, which were held at Indiana University in Bloomington, June 4-7, and Harrison once again starred for Princeton. She ran the 100-meter hurdles in 13.23, a time that advanced her to the semifinals, but posted a 13.36 in the semis and placed sixth.
Baker ran in the 1,500-meter race and placed 10th in her semifinal heat with a time of 4:30.20, a time that wasn't good enough to qualify her for the finals. Talarico ran the 3,000 in 9:40.59, finished eighth in her heat, and earned all-America honors.
Princeton's team results, unfortunately, were less successful. The men (0-1 overall, 0-1 Ivy) lost to Penn in their only dual meet; the women (1-1 overall, 1-1 Ivy) also lost to Penn, but added a defeat of Yale. Neither team achieved its goal of earning a Heps championship this year. The women had hoped for an outdoor title after its Heps win in February, during the indoor season, but the Tigers were edged out by Cornell, 127-126.5. Penn won the men's title, putting its home-field advantage to good use and earning 172.50 points (the second-highest total ever), to finish 63 points ahead of Princeton, which placed a distant second. At the ECAC meet, the men took eighth place and the women 10th; the host school, George Mason, won both team trophies.

Tiger on the Tee -- Mary Moan '97
In a college career full of high-pressure shots and big wins, links standout Mary Moan '97 couldn't remember a more nerve-wracking moment than the start of the East-West all-star match before this year's NCAA Championships. "That was probably the most nervous I have been in a long time," she remembers. "I think it came to me on the first tee that these are the best players in the country and that this is something I have always dreamed about. Being a part of it was overwhelming." Had Moan known the position she would find herself in later that day, on the Scarlet Course at Ohio State University in Columbus, her nerves would have been even more stretched.
As she and her partner prepared to tee off at the 18th hole of the best-ball match, she was approached by Tiger coach Eric Stein, who was helping to coach the East team. The East had won the first two matches, he said, and the West had won the other two. Her foursome's last hole would be decisive. Stein told them, "One of you guys has to birdie for us to go into sudden death."
The pressure was on, and as Moan has done throughout her Princeton career, she came through. Her tee shot was long and right down the middle of the
fairway. The day before, she had to hit a three-iron to the green after her first shot. This time, she was in perfect position and could use a wedge. Knowing that the greens on the course were hard, she tried to drop the ball in front of the pin. "I hit an abbreviated swing," she said, "a little punch shot. It hit the front of the green and rolled up about 15 feet to the right of the pin."
It would all came down to Moan's 15-foot putt. If she missed, the West would win. But if she made it, the East would tie and force a playoff. She lined it up, and in the most tension-filled moment of her career, coolly rolled the ball into the cup. In the ensuing playoff, the East would go on to win. Moan remembers it as "a fun moment" despite the pressure. "It was awesome," she says.
The seeds for that moment and for many other clutch performances were planted long ago, at the beginning of the history major's lifetime of golf. Before she was old enough to swing a club, Moan would ride in a golf cart with her parents, both of whom are avid players. She began taking lessons at age 10 and played in her first major event, the Philadelphia Junior Girls Tournament, at age 14. She qualified for the First Flight-one step below Championship level-and went on to win it. Two years later, at 16, Moan returned to win the Championship Flight.
She continued her success in high school, leading the Pingry School team (on which she was the only girl) to a New Jersey Prep School Championship in her senior year. When Moan arrived at Princeton in 1993, there was no perceptible break in her stride. She set the university record for a low round, 69, and as a freshman won the Dartmouth Invitational Tournament, a title she would win again in both her sophomore and senior seasons.
This year, Moan's win at Dartmouth helped Princeton to first place at the tournament. She led the Tigers to second place at the Ivy Championships (behind Yale) and third at the Northeast Championships (behind Yale and Hartford). In the eight team events Princeton entered this season, Moan won five, took second in two, and got third in one.
In early May, Moan traveled to the Prairie Vista Golf Course in Bloomington, Illinois, for the NCAA Eastern Regional. Her three-day score put her in fifth place overall and made her the first individual player to qualify for the National Championships. "That was a big thrill for me . . . to play well when it really counted," she said of her Regional performance.
The East-West all-star game was a prelude to the NCAA Championship, but it would be the highlight of Moan's trip. Once the NCAA started, she shot well in the opening round, ending the day in a tie for 14th place, but an 83 on the second day left her struggling to finish in the top half of the field. She rebounded to shoot 75 and 71 in the final two rounds, finishing tied for 40th.
Moan plans to compete in amateur events this summer, while trying to decide if she'll attend the Ladies Professional Golf Association qualifying school and then try her luck on the LPGA tour. The decision won't be an easy one. "I feel like I can do almost anything, coming out of Princeton," she says. "I just don't know if that lifestyle is something I would be comfortable with. . . . But if I am going to do it any time, the time is now."
-Rob Garver

Spring Wrapup
Tom O'Connell's storied career at Princeton ended on a downturn, as his baseball team (20-25 overall, 10-10 Ivy) lost the Ivy League title series to Harvard, two games to one. On May 10, the Tigers grabbed the first game of the series, 2-1, getting strong pitching from Brian Volpp '97 and a clutch, eighth-inning double from first baseman Matt Evans '99 that plated Princeton's two runs. Harvard then won the second game of the day, 4-2, to even the series. In the deciding game on May 11, the Crimson shellacked Tiger lefty Tim Killgoar '99, who lasted less than two innings and gave up five walks and six runs. Once it had the lead, Harvard never looked back, embarrassing Princeton, 22-4, to capture the league championship. Killgoar's weak performance was a surprise; he had posted a 5-0 record and had a 1.89 ERA against Ivy foes to that point in the season. O'Connell's final win-loss record in his 16 years at Princeton is 323-314-6.
The volleyball team (24-2 overall, 6-1 EIVA) also fell short in its shot at a league championship, losing 3-1 to Penn State on April 19. Boasting one of its strongest teams in years, Coach Glenn Nelson's Tigers (who were ranked 16th nationally) had hoped to upset the Nittany Lions (who were ranked 2nd nationally) and get a bid to the Final Four. Though it lost the match, Princeton's strong performance bumped it up to number 14 in the final national poll.
Coach Cindy Cohen's perennially strong softball team (29-20 overall, 8-4 Ivy) also failed to capture a title this season. Princeton had defined the standard for the Ivies by winning 12 titles since the league's inception in 1980. A doubleheader against Brown on April 26 marked the Tigers' demise, as Bruin pitcher Katie King hurled two complete games and held Princeton's offense to a total of two runs. Brown won both games, 5-0 and 4-2, to clinch the championship. The rare league losses did not seem to hamper Princeton's four-year pitching ace, Maureen Davies '97, who threw a no-hitter in the Tigers' next game, against Yale on April 27; Princeton won, 8-0.

Sports Shorts
Baseball: On May 28, Princeton announced that Scott Bradley had been named the new head coach of the Tiger baseball team. Bradley is the brother of former Princeton men's soccer coach Bob Bradley '80. He grew up in New Jersey and graduated from the University of North Carolina. He signed professionally with the New York Yankees and played catcher in the majors from 1984 to 1992 for the Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, and other teams. He began his coaching career in the minor leagues in 1994, became a TV announcer for the Trenton Thunder, and in 1996 served as an assistant coach at Rutgers.

Men's golf: On April 29, Ben McConahey '99 won the individual title at the Metropolitan Championships at Staten Island, New York. His two-round score of 147 bested his nearest competitor by four strokes and helped Princeton (1-1 overall, 1-1 Ivy) to first place. The Metro win was the fourth in McConahey's short college career. He won the Rutgers Invitational earlier this year, the Navy Fall Classic in 1996, and the ECAC Championship in 1995.

Wrestling: The average GPA of Princeton's varsity grapplers-3.25-ranked first in the nation on a list compiled by the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA). The rankings were determined by averaging the GPAs of each team's 10 starting wrestlers and two of its backups. The Tigers came in just ahead of Stanford, whose average was 3.24. James Madison, with an average GPA of 3.14, ranked third. Penn was the only other Ivy team represented among the 25 teams honored; the Quakers' 3.00 average ranked seventh.

Scoreboard
Baseball
(20-25 overall, 10-10 Ivy)
Seton Hall 5, Princeton 1
Princeton 11, Penn 3
Princeton 2, Harvard 1
Harvard 4, Princeton 2
Harvard 22, Princeton 4

Heavyweight Crew*
(9-0 overall, 6-0 Ivy)
EARC Sprints-1st
IRA Regatta-3rd

Lightweight Crew
(6-1 overall, 3-1 Ivy)
EARC Sprints-3rd
IRA Regatta-3rd

Women's Crew*
(12-1 overall, 7-0 Ivy)
EAWRC Sprints-1st
NCAA Champs-3rd

Men's Lacrosse*Ý
(15-0 overall, 6-0 Ivy)
Princeton 11, Massachusetts 9
Princeton 10, Duke 9
Princeton 19, Maryland 7

Men's Track
(0-1 overall, 0-1 Ivy)
ECAC-8th

Women's Track
(1-1 overall, 1-1 Ivy)
ECAC-10th