Field hockey falls in finals
In 1996, Princeton met Old Dominion University at the Final Four in
Boston in the national semifinal game. The young, 17th-ranked Tigers
were facing an opponent whose seven collegiate titles made it one of the
game's most storied programs. But that night two sophomore starters from the
Class of 1999, Kirsty Hale and Molly O'Malley, sparked Princeton to a 4-3 victory
in overtime. The win -- probably the biggest in team history -- seemed a
Cinderella story at the time, even after the Tigers lost to North Carolina in the
title game.
Two years later, Princeton looks a lot less like Cinderella. This year
in Philadelphia, the Tigers (17-3 overall, 7-0 Ivy) made their third
straight appearance at the Final Four, joining Virginia, Connecticut, and the
Lady Monarchs of Old Dominion. This time Princeton met Old Dominion as
an equal, having trounced Connecticut, 4-1, in the semifinal on November
20. Though the Tigers lost to the Lady Monarchs, falling 3-2 on
November 22, it seems fitting that Hale and O'Malley -- two parts of the
team's octet of outstanding senior players -- would once again play pivotal roles
for Princeton.
After suffering through an early onslaught by Old Dominion that
put the Tigers in a two-goal deficit, the team mustered its will and
experience and went on the offensive. With little more than a minute
remaining in the half, Hale started a penalty corner that led to an apparent
goal by Melanie Meerschwam '01. Although a controversial call by the officials
disallowed the score, Princeton continued its attack.
About 15 minutes into the second half, the team's persistence paid off
as the skillful Hale, who set the Tigers' all-time scoring mark this year,
sliced through Old Dominion's defense and slammed in Princeton's first goal
of the day. From that moment, the team had an edge -- using its skill,
heart, and speed to keep Old Dominion fighting to hold its lead. The Lady
Monarchs briefly regained a two-score margin on a penalty corner that Argentine
star Marina DiGiacomo turned into a goal with 13:15 left, but the Tigers
returned fire at 10:41. They made the score 3-2 with a
sensational penalty corner shot by Alison Morris '99, who looped the
ball over the outstretched glove of the hapless
Old Dominion goalie and just under the crossbar.
O'Malley epito-mized the emotion of Princeton's
determined push. Two weeks after tearing her right
anterior-cruciate ligament in a game against Duke on November 2,
the speedy attack had retaken the field wearing a brace to play
some crucial minutes in the semifinal game. She started in the
championship and despite limited range, time and again scrambled into
position to maintain the Tigers' attack. If God had really gone
to Princeton, O'Malley would have scored the tying goal. But
instead, with 5:34 left in the game, she turned
while making a cut and her knee buckled, sending her to the ground.
In a strange irony, the Tigers' hopes for the title also failed at that
moment, because for most of the game that remained, Old Dominion held
the ball and killed the clock. Despite desperate efforts from Princeton
defenders, the Lady Monarchs employed DiGiacomo's stick skill and
quickness to keep the Tigers from mounting another attack.
THE SEMIFINAL
In Princeton's semifinal, held on a cold, murky night within the
rain-soaked, echoing confines of Franklin Field,
the team avenged a bitter, 2-1 loss to Connecticut earlier in the year.
Hale and Hillary Matson '01 each scored twice in the 4-1 victory, while
Prince-ton's defense clamped down on the Huskies. Matson's goal with just over
12 minutes left in the first half stood out, as the attack, who ranks among
the fleetest players in the country, stole the ball from Connecticut star
Katherine Boyle, then sprinted up the right side of the field. Crossing to the goal,
she pushed in a backhand shot to tie the game at a goal apiece.
That first score beautifully illustrates the killer speed and skill that have
made Princeton a dangerous team, and which will keep it in the top ranks of
the collegiate game. Even coach Beth Bozman would probably admit,
however, that the team's chances for making the Final Four in the future will
depend on whether it can replace the skill and heart displayed by Hale,
O'Malley, and their six classmates.
"They managed to hold us off," Hale said. "We didn't play badly -- they
just played very well." The Tigers did a little better than "not play badly"
-- at the very least, this season saw their fifth consecutive Ivy title. More
than that, however, this team set a high-water mark for athletic and
personal achievement that, according to Bozman, not even a national title would be
likely to surpass. "I cannot imagine having a class like this one again," she
said after the title game. "I don't mean just in terms of talent -- I mean in
terms of what they gave to the program as people."
-- Paul Hagar '91
On November 21, Wile E. Coyote caught the Road Runner, Charlie Brown
kicked the ball away from Lucy, Ohio State beat Michigan, and Princeton
manhandled Dartmouth. During the second half of the Tiger's
35-13 victory -- only the second Tiger victory over the Big
Green in a decade -- more than one wary eye was cast to the
sky to confirm that it was not, in fact, falling.
Until the third quarter, however, Princeton seemed
to be setting the stage for another heartbreaker. After
an auspicious first drive that climaxed in a 39-yard
touchdown pass from John Burnham '99 to Danny Brien
'99, most of the remainder of the first half was a
worrying recap of the season: the offense turning the ball over
at inopportune times, the defense and special teams
giving up a few big plays. In the wake of his
six-interception performance against Yale, Burnham looked gun-shy,
throwing several ill-advised passes and two interceptions. While
the Tigers led 14-13 at the half, it was hard to feel
confident given the team's misfortunes this season.
But the tone of the game changed on Princeton's
first play from scrimmage in the third quarter. Junior
Derek Theisen got the call on a counter play, found a small seam between the
left guard and center, and 70 yards later he'd given the Tigers an
eight-point lead. "At that point," head coach
Steve Tosches said after the game, "we figured the only way we could lose
was if we put our defense in a short-field situation." Therefore, the rest of
the half featured old-school, NFC East, field-position football. Burnham
threw only two more passes the rest of the game, and the Tigers finished with
53 rushes for 285 yards. Punter Matt Evans '99 kept the
Big Green pinned deep -- Dartmouth started four of its
six second-half drives inside its 20 -- and its offense was
unable to consistently move the ball. Late in the game
Princeton scored two touchdowns, and Tosches was able to put in the seniors
for the last few plays.
At 5-5, the Tigers played exactly to preseason predictions
-- they were picked to take fourth in the Ivies, and that's where they
finished. "If three or four plays had gone differently this season,"
Theisen said after the game, "we could have been 8-2 or 9-1." He may be
right, but this team was too inconsistent on offense to deserve eight
wins. Burnham had an up-and-down year, the kind of year he could build
upon if he weren't graduating in the spring. A few other Tigers shone
during their last campaign, including special-teams aces Evans and place-kicker Alex Sierk '99,
who are among the best to play their respective positions
at Princeton. As for captain and defensive end Dan
Swingos '99, in the words of Tosches, "he will go down as one
of the finest captains I've ever had."
Any review of the season would be incomplete without mentioning
the success of Princeton Stadium. The opening-day sellout against Cornell
was perhaps to be expected, but the fact that 19,000 fans came to see
4-5 Princeton play 2-7 Dartmouth on a blustery, 45-degree day is
impressive. Still, like the team, the crowd needs improvement. The almost eerie
silence during games in the final years at Palmer Stadium could be blamed on the
cavernous atmosphere and acres of depressingly empty
seats. But the crowd noise in the new stadium still hovered
around conversational. During the Dartmouth game fewer
than 100 people stood to applaud Theisen's electrifying run. Perhaps the fans
were frozen into their seats ... or perhaps they just felt that vociferous
cheering would be too distastefully plebeian.
Pete Carril used to complain about the same phenomenon at
Princeton basketball games, but last year a huge and vocal student section recharged
the atmosphere in Jadwin Gym. This fall, the athletics department tried to
lure students to football games with free food, yet student support had all but
melted away by the Dartmouth game. Maybe student interest just faded with the
team's title hopes, and maybe a loud and excited crowd next season will give
Princeton something the Ivy League hasn't seen in years -- a real home-field
advantage. But that's not the way to bet.
The epilogue for a senior class that arrived in time for Princeton's
first outright Ivy League championship in 31 years and departed with a new
stadium ought to be left to the team's captain and vocal leader. "If you want to
remember my class for anything," Swingos said, "remember our heart."
-- Wes Tooke '98
First team
DE Dan Swingos '99
Second Team
LB Jim Salters '99
At the onset of this season, every other women's
volleyball team in the Ivy League should have
given a hearty "sis-boom-bah!" to the
Princeton Class of '98. With the 1997 champion Tigers
supposedly decimated by the graduation of three
starters, the league's also-rans could envision a race
for the title that, for once, would not follow a path
through Princeton.
Indeed, the Tigers (19-13 overall) failed to
win their 11th title, but youth did not prevent them
from wreaking serious havoc at the most competitive
league tournament in recent memory, held November
13-15 and won by host Brown.
"I wasn't expecting anything this season," said
senior outside Rose Kuhn.
But Tigers stayed "positive,"
according to Kuhn, and despite a slow start, their season peaked over the course of
five tournament matches, in which third-seeded Princeton blindsided
hopefuls like Yale and Dartmouth to reach its familiar berth in the finals.
Princeton battled its strongest Ivy competition
ever through 22 games, including a five-game loss to top-seeded Brown in the
winners' bracket finals, which set up a losers' bracket final against Yale the
morning of the third day of the tourney.
Princeton almost polished off Yale in three games as the Tigers
regained their groove of a varied offense and
stellar defense, but the Elis hung on and forced the Tigers to come back from an
8-5 fifth-game deficit. "The Yale match was all I ever could have asked for," said
Kuhn. "We played hard and well."
Princeton tried to maintain its momentum against Brown, but a
first-game win and a strong fourth-game, in which the fatigued Tigers
starting six "pulled out all the stops,"
according to head coach Glenn Nelson, were not enough to extend the
tournament to a double-final match as Brown prevailed, 9-15, 15-12, 15-8,
10-15, 15-9. "Any of five teams could have won it," said Nelson. "I feel good
about making the finals."
While Kuhn asserted her offensive prowess throughout the season as
expected, it was outside Sabrina King '01 whose transition into the
starting lineup helped the Tigers keep their edge, just as Kuhn, a fellow grad
of Laguna Beach (California) High School, had done three years -- and three
all-Ivy selections -- ago.
In fact, while sharing the bulk of the passing burden, Kuhn and
King finished the tournament with nearly identical kill totals, thanks in part
to fine setting from Melissa Ford '00. And the healthy competition helped
both outsides garner all-tournament honors. Still, as the team's only senior,
Kuhn bore a different burden. "It was lonely at times," she admitted, "not
having anyone to share the feelings -- or the responsibility."
Yet with almost, but not quite, three Ivy titles to her credit, Kuhn said,
"I have no regrets."
-- Josh Stephens '97
Men's basketball opens season 1-1
It took three days and five minutes for men's basketball coach
Bill Carmody to stop worrying about the implications of a
season-opening loss to Lafayette. Three days was how long he had to
wait for the next game; the five minutes was how long the Tigers
took to restore his confidence once that game began.
Carmody's worries began on November 18 when, while starting
two freshmen and a sophomore, Princeton was alarmingly listless against a
hot-shooting Lafayette squad, falling 63-47 to the preseason Patriot
League favorite in Easton, Pennsylvania. The game was ugly for Tiger fans:
Princeton shot 29.4 percent from the floor, committed 18 turnovers, and trailed
by a double-digit margin for the entire second half of the game.
With the knot in his tie dangling somewhere around his
solar plexus, Carmody sat in the post-game interview room and gave
a withering assessment of the team's performance. They had not
played well, he told reporters, and what was worse, they had not played
hard. The sole Tiger spared Carmody's criticism was referred to by
number only. "Number 10 was the only guy out there who played as
hard as he could."
Number 10, also known as senior guard Brian Earl, sat next
to Carmody at the conference looking, if possible, more annoyed
than his coach. Earl, who scored a game-high 22 points, hadn't gotten
the chance to become accustomed to losing during his three previous
years at Princeton. He appears to take it badly. "It's hard to tell what
you're going to get," Earl said, referring to the game-readiness of the
freshmen in the lineup. "In the preseason you have a freshman going against
a freshman."
The inexperience of two of those freshmen, prize recruits Chris
Young, of Texas, and Chris Krug, of Philadelphia, was painfully evident
against Lafayette. Faced with the near-impossible task of replacing
graduated center Steve Goodrich '98, they showed how far they have to
go, combining for eight points, four turnovers, and one assist in 45
total minutes.
The Tigers -- and Carmody in particular -- had the
aforementioned three days to think about the
Lafayette game before they traveled south to face the UNC-Wilmington
Seahawks. Coach Jerry Wainwright's team had given a more experienced Tiger
team a scare in Jadwin last year and promised to be even tougher on their
home court.
"Five minutes into the game," Carmody says, "I was thinking, 'I
don't know if we're going to win this thing tonight, but I know we're going
to be OK." He meant "OK" in a sense that went beyond the one
night's performance. "I was thinking that we might actually be able to
win some games this year," he said.
The team played with the kind of intensity Carmody had
missed in the opener, cutting the number of turnovers to a less-painful 13
and shooting an improved 39.6 percent. Princeton trailed by four at the
break but made up the difference in the second half. With the score tied
47-47 and 20 seconds remaining, forward Mason Rocca '00 had the
chance to put Princeton ahead but missed two free throws. The Seahawks
scored at the other end to lead 49-47, but junior Nate Walton inbounded
the ball under his own basket with five seconds remaining, hustled down
the length of the floor and tipped in Gabe Lewullis '99's missed
three- pointer at the buzzer. Princeton pulled away in overtime as Lewullis,
who led all scorers with 30, also had seven of Princeton's 12 overtime
points to seal the 61-54 win.
With a schedule that has the Tigers at home only twice
(December 9 against Bucknell and December 22 against Rutgers) until
January, Carmody's task is to break in his freshmen on faraway courts in
Alabama, Iowa, Maryland, and Hawaii. For Carmody, the prospect isn't
too worrying. "We've always played well with our black uniforms on," he
says. "You play better, sometimes, where nobody likes you."
-- Rob Garver
A superb season ends with a 3-2 loss to Old Dominion
DE David Ferrara '00
OL Hamin Abdullah '00
OL Dennis Norman '01
P Matt Evans '99
PK Alex Sierk '99
WR Ryan Crowley '99
OL Justin Bennett '99