P R I N C E T O N
VARSITY CLUB news A ‘Brand’ New Vision Shown At Princeton
Featuring ... Brand New Vision Water Polo Marches Four-Ward Women’s Soccer Has Dream Season Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way Football Looks Ahead Winter Preview Boxes Men’s, Women’s Basketball Previews Men’s, Women’s Hockey Previews Volleyball’s Amazing Journey Letter to the Athletic Director PVC Advisory Board
Think big. Ivy title? No, bigger. A win in the NCAA tournament? How about two, or three, or four? Think as big as you can. Be greedy. This is the time for it. This is the team for it. When it’s over, when it finally ends, let it be at a day when you took it as far as you could have ever thought. Then make it happen. Take advantage of the chance. That’s basically how it was for the 2004 Princeton women’s soccer team. Their season began with promise and potential and ended on a sun-soaked field in North Carolina on a Friday afternoon in December on the biggest stage collegiate women’s soccer offers. Along the way, the 2004 Tigers … … took an 11-day preseason trip to Germany, playing four games against local teams and touring the country … defeated then-fifth-ranked Texas A&M in their first game of the season, using a goal 4:43 into the season to spark a 2-1 victory
In his nearly two years as president of the NCAA, Myles Brand has seen member institutions make progress on a range of issues, from gender equity to recruiting practices. But the continued success of college sports, he says, requires a more significant shift of priorities. “Against the background of higher education, intercollegiate athletics is off center,” Brand told an audience of Princeton students, coaches, faculty and friends at McCosh Hall Nov. 1. “It is askew. It is behaving in ways that show it drifting away from the world of the university and toward the world of sports entertainment.” Brand, whose visit was part of the Princeton Varsity Club’s new speaker series, sponsored by Glenmede, has an intimate understanding of bigtime college athletics. Before taking on his post with the NCAA, he was the president of the University of Oregon for five years and the president of Indiana University for eight years. His dismissal of basketball coach Bob Knight at Indiana drew national attention, and he also made headlines with his outspoken support for reform in athletics, calling for schools to put academics first. “We are not sports franchises,” Brand said in a 2001 National Press Club speech. “I do not want to turn off the game. I just want to lower the volume.” Since joining the NCAA, Brand has confronted a series of challenges with what he calls “misbehaving coaches and programs,” sparking the creation of a task force that examined recruiting earlier this year. But Brand’s outlook remains untarnished. “We’re making progress,” he said. “It’s a very com-
plex set of circumstances. It took us a century to get here, and we’re not going to solve it in a year.” True to his message of restoring the priorities of academics and athletics, Brand’s lecture at Princeton addressed two instrumental areas in what he calls the “re-centering” of college sports: academic reform and fiscal responsibility. The NCAA is in the process of revising its standards for academic achievement and graduation rates, with plans to implement a series of sanctions for underperforming institutions. Increased accountability, Brand said, will help to ensure that athletics enrich the college experience. “We are changing the relationship of athletics to the academic mission of the university,” he said. “There will be those that want to roll back the standards, but we can’t let that happen.” In fiscal matters, Brand acknowledged that college athletics, specifically football and basketball, are “the original reality TV,” a cultural phenomenon with compelling and entertaining elements. But the benefits of television revenue reach far beyond football and basketball. “We distribute our funds from the television contracts directly to the schools – 95 percent of the money goes directly to the schools,” Brand explained in an interview before the lecture. “Universities like Princeton use that to support non-revenue sports, women’s sports, and in some cases football and men’s basketball. Without that distribution of funds, you’d probably have one or two sports at each school and the rest would be club sports.”
Dr. Myles Brand spoke at Princeton Nov. 1. Too many universities, however, see sports as a revenue stream, Brand said. Their athletics departments are becoming ancillary, self-sufficient units, attached to but not part of the university. That model, he said, is neither sustainable nor desirable. It pulls athletics away from the university’s mission. When sports programs are pressured to generate their own revenue, it increases the pressure to win, and the pressure to spend money on high-priced coaches and facilities, even when they do not fit into the budget. Despite good intentions, the athletcontinued on page 3
Two Teams Step To The (Final) Four-front In Fall of ’04 … had head coach Julie Shackford win her 100th game at Princeton with a 1-0 win over Villanova in the second game; Shackford became the fifth coach in league history – and first woman – to 100 wins, and she was Emily Behncke (22) and Esmeralda the second-fastest Negron celebrate a goal in Princeton’s wild NCAA tournament run. coach to get there … tied Harvard with 41 seconds remaining in regulation and then scored in the second overtime for a 2-1 victory over the Crimson, ending years of frustration at home that had seen Princeton not defeat Harvard in Princeton since 1992 … clinched the outright Ivy title with a 7-0 thumping of Cornell; Princeton outscored its league foes 24-3, making the 2004 Tigers the highest scoring team in league history … earned a national ranking in the Top 10 and a seventh seed in the NCAA tournament … defeated Central Connecticut, Villanova, Boston College and Washington continued on page 7
Women’s Soccer
Men’s Water Polo The 2004 Princeton men’s water polo season Following the ECAC tournament, Princeton will go down in the Princeton record books as its headed to California and went 2-3 against some most successful. The Tigers set a program record of the West’s best competition. Princeton fell to with 25 wins, won the Southern and Eastern Stanford, UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State, Championships and advanced to the NCAA Cham- but defeated Air Force and UC San Diego. The Tigers pionships for the first time since 1992 and only the returned from California 12-4 overall and reeled off second time in program history. 13 straight wins back East to earn the right to head The season began with high hopes as Princeton back west for the NCAA Championship. returned third-team All-America goalkeeper Peter To get there, Princeton first needed to secure Sabbatini, honorable mention All-America drive a top-four finish at the Southern Championship, John Stover and Southern Division Rookie of the which the Tigers hosted at DeNunzio Pool. An unYear Reid Joseph. That trio, coupled with concontinued on page 7 tributors such as Jamal Motlagh, co-captain Mike Murray, Dean Riskas, Nick Seaver, and freshman Zach Beckmann, gave Princeton one of the best teams the Tigers have ever had on paper. The season began with a bang for the Tigers as Princeton opened with 10 straight wins. In that span, the Tigers swept through UC Santa Cruz, Fordham, Brown and St. Francis to claim the title at the Princeton Invitational. Princeton also picked up league wins in that stretch and wins in the early rounds of the ECAC Championship before fall- The 2004 Eastern champion Princeton water polo team poses with the trophy after its thrilling overtime win against St. Francis, which sent the Tigers to the Final Four. ing to St. Francis in the title game.
• Princeton Varsity Club News • D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 4
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Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way
What is the Princeton Varsity Club? The Princeton Varsity Club supports the dual mission of: i) Enhancing the experience of current Princeton student- athletes and ii) Building collegiality among current and former Princetonians and other supporters of Princeton Athletics As part of this mission, the PVC organizes traditional events and initiatives such as The Princeton Varsity Club Senior Student-Athlete Awards Banquet and presentation of PVC sweaters to senior letterwinners. Starting in 2004-2005, the PVC plans to expand its events calendar to include: • A Fall orientation barbecue for student-athletes • A Career Night to assist student-athletes with career planning and placement • A Speaker Series presented by Glenmede Trust that will bring prominent figures in the sports world to campus to address student-athletes and the Princeton Community The Princeton Varsity Club will also continue to fund the following areas: • Publishing the quarterly PVC News • Hosting coaches’ receptions during which coaches and student-athletes reflect on their Princeton experiences and provide an insider’s perspective on their teams • Assisting and strengthening the efforts of Princeton Athletics Friends Groups • Implementing community outreach programs which include participation by Princeton student-athletes, coaches, and administrators • Enhancing recruiting efforts
Just in case 21,000 Syracuse fans didn’t think their Orange was in for much of a game against Princeton in the Coaches vs. Cancer regional championship at the Carrier Dome, Nov. 12, Tiger senior guard Will Venable made them think differently in a hurry. Start with a driving layup that put Princeton on the board early. Add a backdoor cut that gave the Tigers a 7-3 lead. Chalk up another powerful finish that put the Tigers ahead 9-5. Pencil in a three-pointer from the corner near the end of the shot clock that put Princeton ahead by five. The moral of the story? Nine points in 12 minutes on the way to a perfect night from the field (5 for 5) and the line (6 for 6). “He’s the guy that makes this team go,” says first-year Princeton head coach Joe Scott. “How he plays really dictates what we can expect from this team. When Will attacks for 40 minutes every time out, goes full-bore for each possession, he is better than a lot of players across the country, and I mean good players.” How important is Venable to his team’s success? The San Rafael, Calif., native was forced out of the Syracuse game for the final eight minutes of the first half after picking up his second foul, and the Orange outscored the Tigers 16-5 in those eight minutes of an eventual 56-45 Syracuse victory. On a team that featured a freshman and a sophomore starting in the early season, not to mention two freshmen and a sophomore as key bench players, Venable means much more to the Tigers than simply his stat line. “I think it’s important for me to be a leader this year, to make sure that people are in the right places at the right times,” Venable says. “If we do everything this year as hard as we can and pay attention to detail, it’s going to pay off with results on the court.” Venable, a co-captain for the Tigers along with Judson Wallace this year, was the Tigers’ co-MVP along with Wallace last year after a breakout junior season. He averaged 10.3 points and 4.9 rebounds, both second on the team, but was just as important on the defensive end of the court, holding a litany of top scorers from opposing teams to single digits. He was particularly good during the Ivy League season, shooting better than
60% from the field in those 14 games, and against Texas in the NCAA tournament, when he led the Tigers with 16 points and eight rebounds. As great of a season as that was, Venable was really just beginning his athletic contributions for the year in a Princeton uniform. Nine days after being named Princeton’s Chevrolet Player of the Game by Jim Nantz and Billy Packer, he grounded into a double play in his first at-bat of his Princeton baseball season. That inauspicious beginning at Stony Brook, however, was certainly not a harbinger of things to come for Venable, the son of former major leaguer Max Venable. The 6-3, 200-lb., designated hitter and outfielder hit .344 for the season in 96 at-bats, despite not practicing with or joining the team until late March, and finished second on the team with 14 stolen bases. The Tigers finished 28-20, won the Ivy League championship and defeated Virginia in a first-round NCAA tournament game. “Will’s ability is outstanding, but what we’ve been more amazed with are his baseball instincts,” says Princeton baseball coach Scott Bradley, a former major leaguer himself. “I’m talking about things like baserunning and hitting off-speed pitches. He didn’t play much high school baseball, and he didn’t play college baseball until his sophomore year, but by the end of his junior year he was our best offensive player.” Scouts who came to watch Princeton stars B.J. Szymanski and Ross Ohlendorf also began to pay attention to Venable thanks to that offensive surge, and that attention turned into reality when Venable was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 15th round this past June. And though Venable had made it known he wasn’t giving up his final year of basketball, his breakout baseball season certainly gives him new avenues heading into his senior year. “I have a chance to really make a progression this year in baseball, but obviously that’s something that I’ll think about when basketball season is over,” he says. “I know now that there is potential for that to be there again after being drafted this summer.” So Venable isn’t thinking much about baseball right now, not with a basketball season filled with expectation in front of him. Princeton is favored to repeat as Ivy League champions and is considered a potential Top 25 team by many experts, a prediction that can’t be dismissed after the Tigers’ near-miss against the nationally ranked Orange. “It’s been exciting to be involved with a new approach and a new way of doing things with Coach Scott,” says Venable. “He expects you to play with a lot of intensity all the time, and I like that.” There’s a lot to like about Will Venable, whether you’re a basketball coach looking for a leader, a baseball coach looking for a gamer or a professional scout looking for the next big thing. Princeton fans will get to see all of those things, over the next five months, on basketball courts and baseball fields all over the country. by David Rosenfeld
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Brand New Vision
continued from page one
ics department expands at a faster rate than other areas of the university. In some cases, sports begin to overshadow academics. “We’re not in a crisis,” Brand said, “but we can’t wait for one to start.” Each school is unique, Brand acknowledged, and no magic algorithm can pave the road to fiscal responsibility. But he suggested a series of guidelines to help individual institutions make good decisions. The first necessity is presidential leadership. By understanding athletics in context, university presidents can earn the support of trustees, faculty, boosters and fans. Step two is to treat athletics more like an academic unit, a practice he said has succeeded for Princeton and its peers. The majority of college athletics departments are subsidized, and in the Ivy Group, Brand said, “subsidy is not a dirty word.” After finishing his address, Brand fielded questions from the audience and explained some of the challenges of his job. He addressed hot-button issues, including the disproportionately high salaries of a few top football and basketball coaches and the NCAA’s ruling on the eligibility of Jeremy Bloom, the University of Colorado student who lost his chance to play college football when he accepted endorsements to support his professional skiing career. At the end of the night, Princeton Athletic Director Gary Walters presented Brand with a sweater from the Princeton Varsity Club and told the audience that the NCAA is in good hands with Brand as its leader. By putting academics first, Walters said, institutions “ensure that the hyphen between student and athlete has meaning.” by Brett Tomlinson
Football Improves Three-Fold, Looks To Continue Upswing In Common sense says a 4-5 team doesn’t play a must-win game, but those close to the Princeton football team learned a long time ago to throw common sense out the window. Recent history has suggested that, if the football isn’t going to bounce Princeton’s way, it simply won’t bounce at all. The ultimate in snakebitten teams, the Tigers entered the 2004 season finale with twice as many wins as they recorded in all of 2003. And yet, this was a must-win game. Princeton won four of its first five, sometimes in dominant fashion and sometimes with late heroics. The Tigers then lost their next four, including three in a row that turned completely on special teams plays. When Cornell needed a blocked extra point to win, it happened. When Penn needed two attempts at the game-winning field goal, the Quakers got them. All of a sudden, the vast improvements were getting lost amongst the couldas, the wouldas, and, as any member of this team will agree, the shouldas. While it is under the direction of head coach Roger Hughes, no Princeton football team will ever enter a season lacking in optimism. That being true, the efforts of the 2005 Tigers would have been significantly buoyed if they could take away some positive feelings from the 2004 season, and the only way that would have happened was to end with both a win and a 5-5 record. Not only did Princeton get that win, but the ball actually bounced Princeton’s way. Of course, it bounced in the way of the punter, but hey, it worked out. Junior Greg Fields ended his season among the national With 5:32 remaining in the fourth quarter of a 10-10 game, kicker Derek Javarone attempted a leaders in all-purpose yardage, 42-yard field goal that would have given Princeton a 13-10 lead. Dartmouth defensive back Clayton Smith soared from the middle of the line and blocked the kick, sending the ball back to holder Colin McDonough. McDonough, the two-time All-Ivy punter, never panicked and ran for the first-down marker. He was jumped by a pair of defenders close to the marker, but continued to fight for the extra yardage. Teammate, classmate and fellow Iowan James Williams helped in the fight by trying to push the scrum into first-down territory. Then he took matters into his own hands. More accurately, he took the football in his hands. Completely unnoticed by the eleven Dartmouth players who went to McDonough, Williams came out of the pile and sprinted 24 yards for the touchdown. Since he was ruled to be behind McDonough when the transfer, or theft, happened, it was deemed a legal lateral and a touchdown. Fate clearly smiled on Princeton on that play, although not necessarily the way most people originally thought. It took clear thinking for McDonough to go for the first down, just as it did for Williams to get the football and go for the end zone. The fact that the ball went directly to McDonough off the block, and the fact that no Dartmouth defender was on Williams’ side of the scrum, well, that was the law of averages finally working in Princeton’s favor. The ensuing locker room celebration was well-deserved by the Class of 2005, which had fought hard to bring Princeton football back from the depths of last season and put it back on the right track. The other three classes, led by a talented rising senior class, will move into next season with some dearly needed momentum. Defensively, Princeton will return seven starters. Likely to use a 3-4 front again, the Tigers will have Williams returning to start on one end and a trio of underclassmen that saw significant time in the final six games of the season. First-team All-Ivy linebacker Zak Keasey is the biggest loss, but he is the only one of the four talented starting linebackers that won’t return next year. Co-captain and All-Ivy selection Justin Stull will continue to be the main run stopper, while All-Ivy teammate Abi Fadeyi, a player as versatile as any on the defense, could be primed for a breakout final season. Alan Borelli can cover, tackle and blitz, and any of four second-team linebackers from this season will need to step up as a starter. The defensive backfield will be led by Jay McCareins, a first-team All-Ivy cornerback who finished second in the league with 12 passes defensed. J.J. Artis, a premier open-field tackler who improved Junior linebacker and co-captain Justin Stull will be the his coverage abilities as the season progressed, is the likely starter opposite of McCareins, although leader of the Tiger defense in 2005. Charles Bahlert has started games in each of the last two seasons and will push Artis. Tim Strickland will return as a strong safety after leading Princeton with four interceptions, and David Ochotorena is the early favorite to replace the graduating Brandon Mueller at free safety. The offense will be led by the five men in the trenches, an athletic and vastly improved offensive line that should return five starters next season. The only member of the 2004 team that graduates is center Jeremy Moore, but former All-Ivy selection Paul Lyons should to return in 2005 after taking this past season off. Lyons’ return will bolster a line that helped the Princeton rushing attack rank third in the league while keeping quarterback Matt Verbit healthy for all 10 starts (and the 14 before this season). The corps of wide receivers, which was thrust into the fire this year because of injury and the signing of B.J. Szymanski to a professional baseball contract, will draw from significant experience this past season. Six returners have scored at least one touchdown, including Greg Fields, whose explosiveness and speed forces defenses to gameplan against him. Fields also gives Princeton a consistent threat in the return game. That leaves the offensive backfield, which loses its quarterback (Verbit), its platoon of starting tailbacks (Branden Benson and Jon Veach) and its fullback (Joel Mancl). There are underclassmen who will battle it out at each critical spot, which will make this spring’s 12 practices as interesting and important to the program as any in recent history. The Tigers don’t necessarily need to know who will be the starters at those skill positions before the team breaks for the summer, but they do need to know that the top competitors will come to fall camp with the mental and physical abilities to lead the progression of Princeton football if they win the starting role. And that would be another bit of good fortune that this program deserves.
• Princeton Varsity Club News • D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 4
The Princeton Varsity Club thanks the PVC Board of Directors and Advisory Committee members for their time and support. PVC Board of Directors
Larry Lucchino ’67
Hewes Agnew ’58
Tom Ludwig ’98
Gog Boonswang ’96
Podie Lynch ’71
Tara Christie ’97
John Mack ’00
Ralph DeNunzio ’53
Aila Winkler Main ’92
Margie Gengler Smith ’73
Lauren Mandell ’91
Ed Glassmeyer ’63
Jack McCarthy, Jr. ’43
Emily Goodfellow ’76
John McGillicuddy ’52
Richard Kazmaier ’52
Kristin Green Morse ’93
Mike McCaffery ’75
Jason Mraz ’89
Richard Prentke ’67
Michael Novogratz ’87
John Rogers ’80
Dan Okimoto ’65
Jay Sherrerd ’52
Andre Parris ’97
Gary Walters ’67
Sue Perles ’75
(Athletic Director)
Geoff Petrie ’70 Tom Pirelli ’69
Advisory Committee
Bill Powers ’79
Hamin Abdullah ’00
Scott Rodgers ’71
Chris Ahrens ’98
John Scully ’66
Alan Andreini ’68
Mark Shapiro ’89
Bob Baldwin ’42
Rod Shepard ’80
Carl Behnke ’67
Tina Smith ’95
Priya Bhupathi ’02
Trevor Smith ’03
Bill Bradley ’65
Frank Sowinski ’78
Pete Carril h44, h52,
Charlie Stillitano ’81
h75, h84, h90
Chris Thomforde ’69
Sara Chang Guthrie ’84
Kiersten Todt Coon ’94
Y.S. Chi ’69
Bob Varrin ’56
John Claster ’67
Aditi Viswanathan ’89
Janet Clarke ’75
Frank Vuono ’78
Ahmed El Nokali ’02
Nathan Walton ’01
John Emery ’52
Bill Walton ’74
Bess Frank ’99
Marc Washington ’97
Debbie Garwood ’79
Margot Wheeler ’87
Ward Glassmeyer ’89
Becket Wolf ’97
Wyc Grousbeck ’83
Rick Wright ’64
Wendy Herm ’99
Larry Zadra ’83
Jay Higgins ’67 Mike Higgins ’01
Ex-Official
Chuck Huggins ’83
Board Members
John Hummer ’70
Royce Flippin ’56
Ugwunna Ikpeowo ’96
Bob Myslik ’61
John Ingram ’83 Marty Johnson ’81
Undergraduate
Hayden Jones ’98
Advisory Committee
Devon Keefe ’01
Chanel Lattimer ’05
Bert Kerstetter ’66
Weston Powell ’06
Bill Kingston ’65
Neil Stevenson-Moore ’05
Richard Korhammer ’89 Hilary Pushkin Kusel ’94
10 Ways To Heat Up Men’s Fencing
Women’s Fencing
Head Coach: Michel Sebastiani 2003-04 NCAA Finish: 7th 2003-04 Postseason Honors: Four fencers competed in the NCAA
Head Coach: Michel Sebastiani 2003-04 NCAA Finish: 7th 2003-04 Postseason Honors: Four fencers in the NCAA champion-
championships (Eric Stodola, Alexjandro Bras, Benjamin Solomon, Fenil Ghodadra)
ships (Jacqueline Leahy, Sara Jew-Lim, Erin McGarry and Mina
2004-05 Tigers To Watch: Solomon, Ghodadra and Bras all return
2004-05 Tigers To Watch: Leahy, Jew-Lim, McGarry and Morova all
from their NCAA championship runs, while Soren Thompson will return to the lineup after his quarterfinal finish at the Athens Olympics. Key Dates: On Jan. 29, Princeton will play host to Ivy League foe Columbia, Rutgers and St. John’s. Columbia finished one spot ahead of the Tigers at the IFAs last year. Feb. 12 will feature the H-Y-P meet at Cambridge, Mass. This annual meeting will give a preview of what is in store for the IFA championships the following weekend in Providence, R.I. Keys To Success: Princeton has started the season off strongly with Thompson and Solomon finishing first and second, respectively, in the 32 Penn State Garrett Open men’s epee. The Tigers also won a 19-8 dual meet at UNC and a 15-13 bout with Penn State. Since the squad is equipped with five NCAA championship competitors from the last two seasons, expect the team to send more this year. A fencer to add to the watch list is freshman Tommi Hurme, who finished in the top-15 at the Penn State Garrett Open.
2004 NCAA competitor Ben Solomon ’05
Men’s Swimming and Diving Head Coach: Rob Orr 2003-04 Record: 10-1, 9-0 EISL 2003-04 Postseason Honors: EISL champions, two swimmers in the NCAA championship meet (Meir Hasbani, Will Reinhardt) 2004-05 Tigers To Watch: Hasbani and Reinhardt both return from tremendous campaigns, while seniors Justin Chiles and Evan Delaney will be among the league favorites in their respective events. Key Dates: Jan. 29 and 30 will feature the H-Y-P meet at New Haven, Conn. Either Princeton or Harvard has won the EISL title every year since 1972, and this annual meeting will give a preview of the 2005 championships. The actual EISL championship meet will take place at Harvard March 3-5. Keys To Success: Princeton has already gotten off to a strong start this season, going 4-0 and routing the field at the Princeton Invitational. The Tigers have won two of the last three EISL titles, so they will have plenty of championship experience to utilize during the EISLs. The combination of Reinhardt and Chiles is a strong 1-2 punch in the free events, both individually and on the relay squads. Sophomore David Ashley made his EISL debut a memorable one last year by winning the 1650 free, and he is an early favorite to repeat again. The Tigers have titleworthy swimmers in each of their other events, including Evan Delaney (breast), Mike Zee and Ryan Becker (back) and Hasbani, Becker and Ryan Rimmele (fly). Keep your eyes on a pair of freshman divers as well, as both Stuart Malcolm and Miles Miller both had a pair of Top-10 finishes at the Princeton Invitational.
Freestyle specialist Justin Chiles ’05
Morova) return from their NCAA championship run from a season ago, and Kira Hohense will also be on hand to battle in the epee. Key Dates: Jan. 29 will feature Ivy League foe Columbia, who finished one spot ahead of the Tigers at the IFAs last season. On Feb. 12, the Tigers travel to Cambridge, Mass. for the H-Y-P meet to prepare for what is to come in the IFA showdown on Feb. 26 in Providence, R.I. Keys To Success: Princeton had a good start on the season after Leahy, Morova, Hohense and McGarry finished with top-10 performances in the Penn State Garrett Open. Over 57 fencers competed in the meet and the Tigers claimed two top-five finishes with Leahy second in the foil and Hohense third in the epee. Princeton won 20-7 against Penn State and defeated North Carolina 21-6 this season. The squad is equipped with four NCAA championship competitors from the last two seasons, and expectations are high for the upcoming season due to the return of those fencers.
Foil specialist and All-Ivy selection Jacqueline Leahy ’05
Men’s Indoor Track & Field Head Coach: Fred Samara 2003-04 Heptagonal Finish: first 2003-04 Postseason Honors: After
leading his team to a Heps championship, Samara was named the regional Indoor Coach of the Year following the season.
2004-05 Tigers To Watch:
Senior co-captain Dwaine Banton and senior Mike Kopp in the sprint events, classmate and co-captain Alexis Tingan in the middle-distance events, Austin Smith in the distance events and Mike Weishuhn in the high jump. Key Dates: Feb. 26 and 27, when the Tigers will look to win their sixth Indoor Heptagonal championship in the last eight years. This year’s Indoor Heps meet is at Harvard. Keys To Success: Samara has plenty of solid returners on the track, but the Tigers’ performance in the field events could determine whether or not Princeton continues its domination at Indoor Heps. Eight-time Heptagonal weight-throw champion Josh McCaughey and NCAA javelin qualifier Tim Releford have graduated, so the Tigers will need to fill those holes with younger athletes like Josh Probst (javelin) and Drew Geant (discus). Princeton does have a potential Heps champion in senior co-captain Weishuhn in the high jump. Princeton may be strongest this season in the middle distance and sprint e v e n t s , wh e r e Tingan is one of the top threats in the East in the 800 meters and Kopp is an outstanding 400-meter runner. Banton has a chance to be a Heps champion in both the 60 and 100 meters.
Sprinter and co-captain Dwaine Banton ’05
Women’s Swimming and Diving Head Coach: Susan Teeter 2003-04 Record: 10-1, 7-0 Ivy League 2003-04 Postseason Honors: Ivy League
champions, two swimmers in the NCAA championship meet (Sarah Fraumann and Stephanie Hsiao) 2004-05 Tigers To Watch: Hsiao is the leader on a deep and talented team that includes 400 IM Ivy champion Kelly Hannigan, potential Ivy favorite Sarah Schaffer and newcomer Lisa Hamming. Key Dates: Princeton will host Pitt, the team that ended the schoolrecord 47-meet win streak last year, on Jan. 4. That will be one of Princeton’s stiffest tests before the Tigers welcome their Ivy League rivals to DeNunzio for the 2005 Ivy League championships Feb. 26-28. Keys To Success: You don’t win five straight Ivy League titles without serious depth, and this team should have plenty of it, including a major superstar in Hsiao. During the Princeton Invitational, she was part of record-setting performances in the 200 free and 400 free relay, but even more impressively, she broke a 22-year record in the 100 free by going 50.04. While she has done what is expected of a senior captain, the freshman standout (Hamming) raises her own expectations every time she competes. At the same invitational, she recorded NCAA B-cut qualifying times in both the 200 and 400 IMs, and she has won at least one event in every Princeton meet so far. Classmate Brett Shifflet has also looked strong, and Schaffer (back, breast), Sobenna George (free) and Michelle DeMond (diving) should also be steady performers.
DDe ce ce me mb be re r 2 2004 0 0 4• •Princeton PrincetonVarsity VarsityClub ClubNews News• •
Men’s Volleyball Head Coach: Glenn Nelson 2004 Record: 13-10, 5-7 EIVA Tait 2004 Postseason Honors: EIVA quarterfinalists (lost 3-1 to George Mason)
2005 Tigers To Watch: Outside hitter Blake Robinson broke his ankle late last season and was unavailable for the postseason, but he will likely be the team’s top hitter this season. Middle blocker Brian Hamming had a breakout season in 2004 and will need to be one of the top middles in the league this season. Key Dates: March 1 and 6 will be major home dates for Princeton, as Rutgers-Newark and George Mason will be coming to Dillon Gym. The Tigers won a 3-2 thriller at home against Newark last season and split with Mason before falling to the Patriots in the league quarterfinals. Matches against those two teams will go a long way in deciding playoff positioning in 2005. Keys To Success: The good news is that Princeton returns both outside hitters, both middle blockers, the rightside hitter and the libero from a team that reached the league quarterfinals last season. The bad news is that setter Jason Liljestrom, the team leader who paced the offense, has graduated. The play of Princeton’s setter, which will likely be junior Jack Pichard, will be the biggest factor in how successful the Tigers will be. Robinson and Hamming will be among the favorite targets; Robinson has led Princeton in kills in each of the last two s e a s o n s , wh i l e Hamming hit a team-best .476. Sean Vitousek (middle) came on strong at the end of last season and could pair with Hamming to be one of the top middle duos in the EIVA.
Outside hitter Blake Robinson ’05
p The Winter Months Women’s Indoor Track & Field
Men’s Squash
Women’s Squash
Head Coach: Peter Farrell 2003-04 Heptagonal Finish: second 2003-04 Postseason Honors: Cack Ferrell was an All-America in the
Head Coach: Bob Callahan 2003-04 Record: 9-5, 4-2 Ivy League 2003-04 Postseason Honors: Yasser El Halaby ’06 won his second
Head Coach: Gail Ramsay 2003-04 Record: 10-3, 5-1 Ivy League 2003-04 Postseason: team placed third at the Howe Cup champion-
straight national title; team placed fourth at the Potter Cup championships (team nationals)
2004-05 Tigers To Watch: Sophomore Claire Rein-Weston returns
3,000 meters at last year’s NCAA meet.
2004-05 Tigers To Watch: School recordholder Chanel Lattimer in the 60-meter hurdles, Cack Ferrell and Meredith Lambert in the distance events and Jen Byrd in the long jump and heptathlon/pentathlon. Key Dates: The Heptagonal meet Feb. 26-27 at Harvard offers Princeton a terrific opportunity to move up from second place a year ago. The Tigers also face Penn, Harvard and Yale separately before Heps. Keys To Success: Princeton’s cross country team has qualified for the NCAA championships two consecutive years, and the indoor track team will certainly count on those distance runners to carry the load in 2004-05. Start with Cack Ferrell, certainly the most feared all-around distance runner in the league and an All-America in the 3,000 last year. Add Meredith Lambert, a 10,000-meter NCAA qualifier, and Princeton has maybe the best distance group in the league. In the sprints, Chanel Lattimer is a senior and is the school recordholder in the 60 meters indoors. Senior co-captain Jen Byrd could have a breakout year in both the long jump and in the heptathlon. In the middle distance, senior Carrie Strickland, a cross country captain, will offer versatility as both an 800-meter runner and a top 3,000-meter steeplechase competitor.
Distance specialist Carrie Strickland ’05
2004-05 Tigers To Watch: Yasser El Halaby is the national player to watch, as he is halfway to becoming the first male to win four straight collegiate individual titles. Freshman Robert Hong and sophomores Michael Gilman and Michael Yu will also be key figures in the lineup. Key Dates: Princeton welcomes Harvard on Feb. 6 in a match that features both the annual rivalry between the two squash powers and a potential national final showdown between El Halaby and Harvard’s Ilan Oren or Siddharth Suchde. Keys To Success: Princeton took it on the chin in the offseason, losing nine of its top 11 returners prior to the season opener, including its top incoming freshman, who decided to withdraw from school and return to Germany. Fortunately, one of those nine players wasn’t El Halaby, the two-time defending national champion and team leader. Hong has looked strong early in the season and could be pressed into the difficult No. 2 slot, where he will face top competition later in the season. A talented sophomore class, led by Gilman, Yu, Parker Sutton and Tim Callahan, will need to come of age quickly, as the Tigers will face major competition in January and February before the national team championships at Harvard Feb. 24-26.
Two-time national champion Yasser El Halaby ’06 (right)
ships (team nationals) following 5-4 win over Harvard. for her second season as the No. 1 player in the lineup. A pair of her classmates, Marilla Hiltz and Genevieve Lessard, should combine to own the top three spots. Key Dates: Princeton will travel to 2004 Ivy League champion Yale Jan. 29 with hopes of unseating the Bulldogs. If it can pull that off, it will get a rematch with Harvard Feb. 6 at the Jadwin Squash Courts; Princeton defeated Harvard in a pair of 5-4 thrillers last season. The Howe Cup championships will take place at Princeton from Feb. 18-20. Keys To Success: Princeton started the season 5-0 and will only get better considering the youth that permeates through the lineup. For instance, in Princeton’s 8-1 win over Brown during the first weekend of December, each of the first eight players in the lineup were either freshmen or sophomores. If the top three players, Rein-Weston, Hiltz and Lessard, can give Princeton a boost at the top of the lineup while the Princeton freshmen (Lena Neufeld, Christina Fast, Margaret Kent and Carly Grabowski) adjust to the pressure of collegiate squash, this team could be extremely successful. Depth was huge for Princeton in its wins over Harvard last season, as the Tigers swept spots 5-9 to clinch each match. The sooner the top three start earning wins, the closer this team is to reclaiming the Ivy League title.
No. 1 player Claire Rein-Weston ’07
Wrestling Head Coach: Michael New 2003-04 Record: 2-13, 0-5 EIWA 2003-04 Postseason Honors: Milo
Adams, Jake Butler and Brian Kirschbaum each earned all-league recognition. 2004-05 Tigers To Watch: Butler (197) is the anchor of Princeton’s strongest part of the lineup, which also includes two tricaptains, Charlie Wiggins (165) and Jack Fleming (184). Key Dates: Princeton will celebrate the 100th year of its wrestling program on Feb. 12 when it takes on a solid Franklin & Marshall squad at Dillon Gym. The Tigers will look to make some noise at the EIWA championships, which begin March 4 in Annapolis, Md. Keys To Success: As New looks to build a new tradition of excellence at Princeton, he will look to his middle to upperweights to try to earn key wins. The stretch of Wiggins, Matt DeNicholo, Fleming and Butler is clearly Princeton’s strongest in the lineup, and they will be expected to contribute points if Princeton is going to challenge some of the powers in a very strong EIWA this season. Butler, who has fought injuries throughout his career, grew significantly during last season’s EIWA championships, where he wrestled his way back to all-league honors after an early loss. His talent and technique will only get better as he gets more matches under his belt, and both Wiggins and Fleming are battle-tested in this lineup. One name to keep an eye on is freshman Alex Enriquez, who will start at 157. If the two-time Florida state champion can get his career off to a quick start, it would be a solid springboard to the strength of the lineup.
Junior All-EIWA performer Jake Butler
••PPrinceton rincetonVVarsity arsityCClub lubNNews ews•• DDe ec ce emmbbe err 22004 004
Men’s Basketball For all the talk about the now-famous Princeton offense, it’s been the Tigers’ matchup zone defense that has shone brightly in the first few weeks of head coach Joe Scott’s first season at the helm at his alma mater. The Tigers held Lafayette to 38 points in a Nov. 27 win over the Leopards, the fewest points allowed by a Princeton team in a non-conference game against a Division I team in six seasons. Four days later, the Tigers held Holy Cross under 40 points until a late Crusader run in the final three minutes. Maybe the most impressive performance of all came Dec. 8, when Rutgers came into Jadwin Gym and left with a 53-40 defeat, scoring just 17 second-half points and shooting just 33% for the game. “We feel with our defense that we should be able to hold teams to around 20 points per half,” center Judson Wallace Noah Savage said after the Rutgers game. “We’ve done it a few times early, and there’s no reason we can’t continue to do that throughout the season.” That defense, and some timely three-point shooting, left Princeton with an outstanding 4-2 start to the season heading into its game at rival Monmouth Dec. 12. The Tigers’ lone losses in the season’s opening month had come at sixth-ranked Syracuse, which had moved up to No. 3 in the rankings by early December, and on the road at Wyoming, a 64-59 double-overtime affair that certainly could have gone either way. The 4-2 start to the 2004-05 season, which included five games away from Jadwin Gym before that first home game against Rutgers, was even more solid considering Princeton’s injury woes. Starting forward and senior Andre Logan had a third knee surgery Nov. 5 and missed the early season, while sophomore forward Luke Owings, who started the first four games, also had to leave the lineup due to a stress fracture in his left foot. While those injuries may have hurt Princeton’s depth, they also afforded opportunities to two members of the Tigers’ terrific freshman class. Noah Savage may not have begun the year as a starter if Logan was healthy, but Savage used the opportunity to showcase some excellent three-point shooting and solid all-around play, scoring in double figures three times in Princeton’s first six games. Classmate Matt Sargeant entered the starting lineup after Owings’ injury and helped Princeton to wins at Holy Cross and against Rutgers, and freshman Kyle Koncz has also seen time in the early season. Still, on the offensive end, the Tigers have depended on experience, most notably from 2003-04 first-team All-Ivy selections Wallace and Will Venable. Both players were averaging in double figures in scoring as of Dec. 9, and Wallace notched his fourth career “double-double” in the win over Rutgers with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Junior guard Scott Greenman has also been a key contributor, leading the team in three-point shots and dishing out twice as many assists as he has turnovers. The rest of Princeton’s pre-conference schedule features a nationally-televised game at Duke Jan. 5, a game that will commemorate the first game ever played at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, also between the Blue Devils and the Tigers. That game took place on Jan. 6, 1940, nearly 65 years to the day of this year’s game.
Men’s Hockey
The women’s basketball team started the 2004-05 season with a 2-4 record. The Tigers returned all five of their starters to this season’s roster and added four players (Meagan Cowher, Kristin Lynch, Ali Prichard and Ariel Rogers) who have vied for playing time. The season opened for the Tigers with a thrilling 57-52 overtime win over Monmouth at Jadwin Gym. With her first field goal of the game, junior Katy O’Brien connected on a three-pointer at the buzzer and sent the opener into overtime. Cowher, the daughter of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week accolades following her double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) output in the game. The Tigers then packed their bags and headed to Lehigh on Nov. 23. Although three players finished in double figures (Cowher, 12; Becky Brown, 14; Katy Digovich, 15), the Mountain Hawks won 64-51. O’Brien had six assists in the game, but it was the team’s 17 turnovers that proved costly. During the Thanksgiving break, Princeton traveled to ACC country for a pair of games at Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. Against the Demon Deacons, Princeton only saw the charity stripe four times, whereas Wake Forest earned 15 trips. The Demon Deacons won 76-43. Digovich led the Tigers with 16. Princeton converted on eight three-pointers and led against Georgia Tech until the 13:38 mark in the second half. In an exciting matchup that featured two lead changes and five ties, the Tigers fell 60-50 to the Yellow Jackets. With a little under two minutes left in the game, Princeton was down one but was in foul trouble and sent Georgia Tech to the foul line. Princeton, in need of a win, dominated Wagner on Dec. 1. The Tigers made 11 treys in the contest and got 34 points from the bench. O’Brien converted on 6 of 9 threes and finished with a season-high 18 points. Junior Ali Smith finished with 13 points and Cowher earned her second Ivy Rookie of the Week selection following a 15-point game. Following a brief break, the Tigers headed back on the road to meet a team with one loss, a national poll ranking of 20 and a coach seeking her 700th career win, Rutgers. Princeton fell behind early in the game and couldn’t chip away enough at the lead. Although both teams shot 46% from the field, the Tigers dropped a 68-46 decision to the Scarlet Knights. Sophomore Elyse Umeda scored all of her 10 points in the second half. With a tough road schedule behind them and a few home games in store, the Tigers are looking to get both wins and confidence under their belts before they open Ivy League play Jan. 28 at Brown.
2004-05 Basketball and Hockey Previews
Optimism was abounding as the Princeton men’s hockey team opened the 2004-05 season in late October. Princeton opened the season with a new coaching staff and an aggressive style of play as the Tigers looked to reassert themselves as a team to be feared in the ECAC Hockey League. Under the reins of first-year Tiger coach Guy Gadowsky, the Tigers have played aggressive and offensive hockey and are at or near the top in several of the league’s offensive categories. After opening the season 0-2-1, the Tigers and Gadowsky earned their first win of the season on Nov. 6, at Dartmouth, blanking the league’s preseason favorite, 3-0. Since then, Princeton has wins over Brown, Rensselaer and Yale, and has dropped nail-biters against Harvard, Union and Colgate. With almost a third of the season completed and 10 of its 22 ECAC games played, Princeton will look to build on its early-season success and learn from its mistakes once the league season resumes in January as the Tigers battle for home ice in the ECAC playoffs. “We have put together some good games,” says Gadowsky. “But we have also made costly mistakes. We are an intelligent team and we need to learn from the mistakes and limit them in order to improve in the second half of the season.” Several Tigers have stepped up to help lead the charge. Three of Princeton’s top four scorers have already established career highs, and the fourth is just three points shy. Junior Dustin Sproat, who has 10 goals and eight assists, leads the group. He has scored in eight of his last nine games and set a Tiger record with a goal in six consecutive games early in the season. Sophomore Grant Goeckner-Zoeller, who led the Tigers in scoring as a freshman, has 17 points on the year, three fewer than his mark of 20 last season. Senior defenseman Luc Paquin, who had 10 career points entering the season, already has 16 this season and leads the nation in scoring by a defenseman, while junior co-captain Patrick Neundorfer has 15 points on six goals and nine assists. “Although our results haven’t necessarily shown it, we have been making strides each weekend,” says Sproat. “Unfortunately small mistakes like bad penalties and sloppy play in the defensive zone have kept us from putting together a lot of momentum. We need to work on consistently sticking with our team identity in order to avoid similar mistakes ..........in the future. Our schedule for January is filled with home games, so hopefully we can use this to build momentum going into the stretch run.” The Tigers resume league play on Jan. 7 when they host Clarkson. From that point forward, Princeton plays eight of its final 12 league games of the season at Baker Rink. The Tigers were 4-6 in league games in the first part of the year and 2-1 in ECAC home games.
Luc Paquin
Women’s Basketball
Katy Digovich
Women’s Hockey
When the Princeton women’s hockey Class of 2004 graduated, the coaching staff knew it would have some holes to fill, namely first-team All-ECAC forward Gretchen Anderson, and firstteam All-Ivy goaltender Megan Van Beusekom. For four years, the two anchored their respective ends of the ice, with Anderson scoring the goals and Van Beusekom stopping them. Fast forward 13 games into the 2004-05 season and Princeton has filled one of those holes and will work on the second when the second half of the year begins on New Year’s Day at New Hampshire. The story of the Tiger season thus far has been team defense and keeping opponents off the scoreboard. The team is 7-4-2 overall and 3-3-1 in the ECAC Hockey League and has only allowed four goals in a game once this season. Three of Princeton’s wins, and one of the ties, have been shutouts, and the Tigers have allowed Roxanne Gaudiel two or fewer goals in seven of their 11 games. Those numbers are bolstered by the strong play of junior goaltender Roxanne Gaudiel. As Van Beusekom’s understudy the past two seasons, she had a 7-1 record with a 1.38 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage in limited action. This season she is 7-4-2 with a 1.53 GAA, a .937 save percentage and four shutouts, playing every minute in the Princeton net. She is also on pace to unseat Van Beusekom as the Princeton record holder in several categories. “Roxy’s been great,” says head coach Jeff Kampersal. “Thank God we have her. Otherwise we’d be in a lot of trouble right now. She has stepped up and done the job that was expected of her. She is no slouch in there. It’s just up to us to make the most of our opportunities. She’s giving us a chance to stay in these games but we’re not taking advantage of it.” The question in goal has been answered, but at the other end of the ice, the Tigers have struggled. Princeton has only scored four goals in a game three times this season and has only reached three goals twice in the last nine games played. In order to light the spark and get the offense going, Kampersal and his staff have tried everything and are starting to see results. “We’re trying to create as many scoring lines as possible,” says Kampersal. “In our wins against Providence, Connecticut and Cornell, [Laura] Watt, [Liz] Keady and [Kim] Pearce all played together. It’s becoming a no-brainer. Socially it’s a good fit for them, and athletically they get around the rink pretty good. They’re skilled players, and the scoring should come around.” Last season seven Tigers had 15 or more points. That group includes Keady, Watt, Pearce and junior Heather Jackson. That group will help lead the Princeton offense in the second half of the
D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 4 • Princeton Varsity Club News •
Catch-22 (and 13 and 500)
Glenn Nelson’s 22nd season was highlighted by a magical three-week November stretch.
John Stover helped lead the men’s water polo team to the NCAA final four, where Princeton nearly topped eventual champion UCLA.
Water Polo
continued from page 1
defeated Southern regular season gave Princeton the top seed, and the Tigers rolled to the championship game by beating Mercyhurst, Grove City and Bucknell. In the championship game, Princeton faced second-seeded Navy and got the better of its rival, 10-9. Navy led for almost the entire game but could never get more than a goal ahead of the Tigers. A late Princeton rally resulted in Victor Wakefield tying the game with 2:46 remaining and Motlagh posting the game-winner with just 1:47 left on the clock. The goal clinched Princeton’s second straight Southern Championship and the Tigers fourth in five years. The Southern Championship resulted in another top seed for the Tigers two weeks later at the Eastern Championships at Bucknell. Once again, Princeton cruised in its first two matches before an epic title game against St. Francis. The Tigers and Terriers had split their previous two matchups during the season, and the rubber game lived up to the hype as it went four overtimes until Seaver scored to lift Princeton to a 3-2 win. Joseph and Stover also scored for Princeton, but Sabbatini was the story of the day as he kept Princeton in contention throughout the game. He was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. The Eastern’s title was Princeton’s second overall and first since 1992 and eased the memory of an 8-6 loss to Navy in the Eastern championship a season ago. The win also clinched the Collegiate Water Polo Association’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Princeton joined the field of four, which featured the nation’s top two teams, UCLA and Stanford, along with Loyola Marymount. The Tigers were seeded third and faced UCLA in the semifinals. After Princeton fell 15-4 to Stanford on Oct. 1, it was possible that the Bruins overlooked the Tigers heading into the game. That almost came back to haunt the eventual national champion, as the Bruins needed overtime to knock off a pesky Tiger team. The game was close throughout and was either tied or a onegoal game throughout regulation. UCLA went ahead with 5:45 left, but Stover forced overtime with 45 seconds left as he knotted the game up at 5-5. In overtime, UCLA scored twice to pull out the 7-5 win, but the Princeton water polo team represented its league and school extremely well. The following day, the Tigers dropped another close game, falling to Loyola Marymount in the third-place game. “We’re obviously disappointed,” head coach Luis Nicolao said after leading Princeton to its second trip to the water polo Final Four. “It was one of those bittersweet games. We couldn’t have asked more of our guys. We’re proud of our guys. We played great. We’re always battling for respect. We feel strongly that we have some good water polo back East. We’re always looking to make a name for ourselves. We do a good job of playing defense and letting our goalie know where the ball is coming from.” Several Tigers earned postseason honors. Stover, Sabbatini and Joseph were named first-team All-Southern. Sabbatini and Stover were named first-team All-Eastern. Sabbatini, Stover and Motlagh were named second-team All-Tournament at the NCAA championships. “The weekend meant a lot for Princeton,” says Sabbatini. “And to the guys on the team this meant a lot. It meant a lot to have all the fans (in the stands). Our parents, fans, friends and players who could not travel today with the team all supported us from the beginning to the end of the season. Our alumni are amazing. It means a lot to us.” In all, it was an extremely successful year for Princeton water polo. The Tigers set a new mark for wins in a season, won three tournaments, including Easterns for the first time in 12 seasons, and played with the best teams the nation has to offer at the NCAA championships. by Yariv Amir
It was September of 1982, and William Paterson made the trip south for a women’s volleyball match. Cindy Cohen was still a year away from taking the softball job at Princeton, Alex Brown hadn’t been born yet and Glenn Nelson was 0-0 as a head coach. Twenty-two years, two months and the technological progression from Beta to TiVO later, Cohen was now an associate director of athletics at William Paterson, Brown was all grown up and just dominating Ivy League competition and Nelson was still a head coach. But instead of having zero wins, he entered a match with Columbia with 499 victories. He left that match as the third coach in Princeton history with 500 wins, and his team left that match in the middle of a wild journey to the program’s 13th Ivy League championship. The win over Columbia put Nelson in the company of Cohen (564) and men’s basketball coach Pete Carril (514) at Princeton. Not happy that he was even the focus of the game program cover that day, Nelson was more focused on the Ivy League race at the end of the day. It didn’t mean that everybody else was, though. “It means a lot to us to be part of it,” said Brown, the team cocaptain, after hitting .389 in the 3-0 win over Columbia. “I shouldn’t say this, but he’s been coach here longer than we’ve all been alive. I haven’t even played in 500 matches in my life. We really wanted to win this for him.” “The thing I remember most about Glenn was his passion for the sport and his team,” Cohen said. “He told me when I retired that he was glad I did so he could catch up to me.” Nelson, who admitted to being “a bit of a wild man at the
matches” during his early days as a coach, now spends the majority of his time teaching in practice and observing during games. He can stay quiet for significant stretches of time during a match, but that passion and competitive fire certainly jumps out when mental mistakes force them. This team, like all others before them, was not immune to mistakes, but it also showed the type of work ethic that has made so many teams before it successful. Once the excitement of winning No. 500 for Nelson calmed down, the team looked for the biggest goal of all, an Ivy League championship – something that no member of the team had ever experienced. Glenn Nelson Princeton had lost to Cornell that weekend, which put the Tigers into a hole with three matches remaining. The team needed to sweep its final three matches and get some help to clinch a share of the title. The run started at first-place Harvard, where the Tigers were fairly dominant in a 3-1 win. Then came Dartmouth, where the Big Green played inspired volleyball on Senior Night and basically shut down every member of the team not named Alex Brown. That would not be enough, as Brown carried the team to a 3-2 win with 27 kills, six blocks, five digs and a .568 attack percentage. Those wins, combined with a 3-0 win by Yale over Cornell set Princeton up for a shot at the title against three-time defending champion Penn at Dillon Gym, where Nelson has won so many of his now 504 career victories. This wouldn’t even be one of Princeton’s most dramatic matches, as seniors Brown, Lauren Loban and Ashley Weber capped their careers with an Ivy League title by topping Penn 30. While Brown and Weber have had spectacular careers as longtime starters, it was Loban whose star shined brightest that night. “I knew it was my last match here, and Penn has been our biggest rival,” Loban said after killing 16 balls and hitting a team-high .282 to lead Princeton to its 19th win of the season. “Mentally I just came into the match and wanted to play my best.” Although Princeton would have to share the league title and would fall just short of the NCAA tournament during a playoff for the league’s automatic berth, those three weeks in November proved to be ones that would never be forgotten. Senior co-captains Ashley Weber (left) and Alex Brown accept the Ivy League trophy after leading Princeton through By Craig Sachson a wild season that included Glenn Nelson’s 500th win and the program’s 13th Ivy League championship.
Women’s Soccer
continued from page 1
to become the first Ivy League school ever to reach the women’s soccer College Cup; the win over Washington came in front of 2,504 fans, the largest crowd ever to see the Tigers play soccer in Princeton … finished the year ranked fourth nationally, one spot ahead of North Carolina … outscored its opponents 58-11, ranking first nationally in scoring defense and scoring more goals than any team in school history … had two Academic All-Americas, two Academic All-Ivy League selections and won the NSCAA team academic award By any definition, it was a season for the ages, one of the greatest seasons any Princeton team has ever put together. Princeton’s women’s soccer team became the first Ivy League team in any sport to reach the semifinals of a The women’s soccer team celebrates one of its four NCAA tournament wins. 64-team NCAA tournament. Indeed, no Ivy team had ever won more than one game in a 64-team event before. Princeton advanced to the College Cup with four wondrous NCAA tournament wins, all played at Lourie-Love Field. The run began with a 5-0 win over Central Connecticut on a night when the temperature was near freezing and pouring rain fell from start to finish. Princeton then made it two straight with a 1-0 win over Villanova on Maura Gallagher’s goal off a corner kick in the second overtime. The Tigers then hosted Boston College in the Sweet 16, and Emily Behncke scored a pair of goals less than two minutes apart after the teams had played 80 scoreless minutes. The 2-0 win advanced Princeton to the Elite Eight against Washington, a team that had spent four weeks ranked third in the country. Playing in front of an overflow crowd at Lourie-Love, Princeton defeated the Huskies 3-1, snapping a 1-1 halftime tie on goals by Esmeralda Negron and Kristina Fontanez. As a result, Princeton advanced to the College Cup in Cary, N.C., for a Dec. 3 semifinal date against UCLA, coached by Shackford’s best friend, Jillian Ellis. Unfortunately for the Tigers, UCLA ended Princeton’s run, scoring two second-half goals in a 2-0 victory played in front of 8.325. Negron, an easy choice for her second straight Ivy League Player of the Year award and candidate for first-team All-America honors, ended her career as the holder of almost every Princeton record, and her 47 career goals and 111 career points are more than any other male or female player in Princeton history. Diana Matheson, the Ivy Rookie of the Year, joined Negron on the All-Mid-Atlantic Region team. Those two, plus Romy Trigg-Smith and Behncke, were first-team All-Ivy League selections. Shackford was the Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year and is one of six finalists for national Coach of the Year honors. Still, this wasn’t about the accomplishments of the individuals. This was a team, in the truest sense of the word, in the very best sense collegiate athletics can offer, that rarest of teams that demanded the attention of those who saw it and took them along for the entire glorious ride. This was their time, and they took full advantage of it.
• Princeton Varsity Club News • D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 4
Letter To The Director of Athletics ... Over the years, an ongoing debate has taken place regarding the role and relative importance of athletics at Princeton. While Princeton has enjoyed great success over the decades in collegiate competition, it has never fully become comfortable with its athletic prowess. This dichotomy of views was brought to the forefront in a PAW article written by Doug Lederman regarding Bill Bowen’s view on Princeton athletes, questioning their relevancy as part of the university community. While much correspondence and debate has taken place, I truly believe that the experiences and lessons learned in competition are fundamental components of the Princeton experience. I know many share
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that view and believe that it’s important to ensure that the University remains true to striving for excellence not solely in the classroom, but in all facets of campus life. For many, the experiences outside the academic world have had as profound an effect on who they are as individuals as any lessons learned in the classroom. Athletes at Princeton have a truly unique opportunity and set of challenges. The University offers world-class academic opportunities while maintaining excellent facilities for non-academic pursuits. As an athlete, you enter the University knowing full well that there is little or no chance you will play your sport professionally. You know you will face a tremendous challenge balancing the demands of your academic workload, your sport and whatever other extracurricular activities you chose. You will be challenged in the classroom by teachers and classmates who are among the best in the world. You will also be challenged on playing fields, competing against the highest caliber of collegiate competition. Of course, at the same time you will also have the challenge of defining who you will be as a person, who your friends will be and what values you will use to guide yourself and lead others. In many cases you will take on these challenges while you and your parents assume the financial burden of paying for your education when in some cases, you could have received a scholarship elsewhere. Inevitably, a fact of life for the Princeton athlete is that you will be challenged by those who question the legitimacy of what you’re trying to achieve at the University. Many in the classroom couldn’t care less about the challenges of being an athlete. Similarly, your athletic competition will question your legitimacy as athletes and, if anything, find inspiration in having the opportunity to defeat an Ivy League opponent. You will question why you take on these challenges when there are significantly easier paths to pursue. The reason, of course, is that you are motivated to achieve all that you can using all your skills and talents. You find inspiration and great satisfaction in
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striving to achieve excellence in the classroom and on the field. You will find no class on leadership in any course guide; however, you will learn that there is no better forum to understand adversity, teamwork and leadership than in high-level collegiate competition. It will provide you an environment that will offer all the challenges and adversity you can handle. You may very well fall short of your goal. You may not be capable of achieving all that you hoped when you first entered the University. You may be criticized when you fail, but you will be better off because of it. Twenty-five years ago I had the opportunity to play basketball and receive an engineering degree from Princeton. Despite the team having won the NIT and participating in two NCAA tournaments in the mid-1970s, Jadwin was rarely more than one-third full. The Daily Princetonian complained that $11 in meal money for a weekend road trip exceeded what was given in other sports. Moreover, the two pairs of sneakers given to a player rarely lasted the season, so several players wore taped shoes while playing in post-season tournaments. For many athletes at Princeton, there were many benefits from athletic competition. First, you were better able to deal with adversity than the vast majority of your peers. Second, you learned to focus on the task and challenge at hand even while being criticized both on and off the field or court. Third, you learned who you can trust and depend on when the going gets tough. (These bonds often form some of the strongest friendships you will have in life.) Finally, you found that while you should never discount the value of raw intelligence, an understanding of teamwork, the desire to win in the face of great odds and the perseverance to never quit will more often than not determine success and failure. I vaguely remember Bill Bowen writing me a note when he was president of Princeton congratulating me on being Ivy League Player of the Year and achieving All-East honors. I also remember many other athletes like me who did not graduate with
honors, but who persevered and endeavored to be the best they could at Princeton. After our 25th reunion, I can happily report that those “athletes” have done quite well. Many went on to graduate school. Most have done very well in the fields of medicine, politics and business. Several became teachers. A healthy percentage coach or run community athletic programs so kids can learn the values and lessons experienced in sports. It was also striking how many of the leading donors in the class, and class officers, were athletes despite the fact there has been an ongoing debate as to their relevance on campus. A great number of gifts were directed to athletic programs. Why? Those gifts are to support the athletes on campus in their endeavor to be the best they can be in both worlds. While inevitably, some athletes on campus may fall short of the ideals of what a student athlete should be, there are thousands of others who are much better for the experience. The University, whether it wishes to admit it or not, is better off as well. As athletic alumni, it’s important to reflect on our experiences at the University and help ensure that the Princeton experience of the future continues to support excellence both within and outside the classroom. While many have continued their support of athletics through teamspecific Friends programs, it’s also important to support and enhance the experience of current and future Princeton student athletes. By becoming a member of the Princeton Varsity Club, you will be making a contribution to maintaining the spirit, tradition and excellence of athletics at Princeton. If nothing else, it acknowledges that in some way, Princeton athletics made a difference in your life both on campus and after graduation. It’s a small way of ensuring that opportunity continues in the future. Frank Sowinski ’78 Sowinski was the 1977 Ivy League Player of the Year in men’s basketball and ranks 12th on
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Club News
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Princeton Varsity Club
(609) 258-5666 Gary Walters Director of Athletics Jamie Zaninovich Associate Director of Athletics for Athletic Relations/Marketing Jerry Price Associate Director of Athletics / Director of Athletic Communications Craig Sachson PVC News Editor/Assistant Director of Athletic Communications David Rosenfeld Assistant Director of Athletic Communications Brie Galicinao Assistant Director of Athletic Relations/Marketing Yariv Amir Athletic Communications Assistant Nick Konawalick Athletic Relations/Marketing Assistant Director Beverly Schaefer Staff Photographer All photos © Beverly Schaefer unless noted Tennant Printing, DeLand, Fla.
Sports: the sweatiest of the liberal arts
– Drew Hyland ’61
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