March 27, 2002: Sports

Men’s basketball sputters
And other news from Tiger sports

Scrum central
Rugby clubs battle to national prominence

Sports Web Exclusives! The Varsity Typewriter column

Men’s basketball sputters
And other news from Tiger sports

The Palestra was the end of the road for Prince-ton men’s basketball on March 7. It wasn’t Penn who killed the Tigers’ NCAA tournament hopes, though, but Yale, who drubbed Princeton 76—60 in a playoff game forced by the Ivy League’s first-ever three-way tie for the conference title. Yale played Penn on March 9 to decide who was to get the league’s automatic NCAA tournament bid, while the Tigers were hoping for an NIT bid.

Princeton could have won the league title outright on March 5, but lost to Penn, 64—48, in the regular season’s final game.

Senior Men’s hockey goalie Dave Stathos’s first career shutout was a big one. Not only did his 36 saves against Harvard on March 2 propel the resurgent Tigers (11—16—2, 10—10—2 ECAC) to a 3-0 win and into the ECAC playoffs, it was Princeton’s first shutout of the Crimson in 50 years.

Lacrosse season got off to a bad start during the first weekend of March as the defending NCAA men’s lacrosse champions lost to Johns Hopkins, 8—5, on the road and the women dropped an overtime heartbreaker to Georgetown at home, 15—13.

Juniors Jesse Gage and Garth Fealey put on a show at the Men’s swimming and diving EISL Championships (March 2—3) to help Princeton rally past host Harvard on the final day of competition. Fealey broke Richard Korhammer ’89’s 13-year-old record in the 100-yard breaststroke, while Gage eclipsed his own mark in the 100-yard butterfly. Gage also swam with the 400-yard freestyle relay team that edged Harvard to seel the victory for the Tigers.

For the first time in three years, the national intercollegiate men’s squash individual champion will not be wearing Orange and Black. Trinity’s Bernardo Samper defeated Princeton’s Will Evans ’03 (6—9, 9—5, 9—0, 9—1) on March 3 at Jadwin Gym to take the national title.

Princeton Director of Athletics Gary Walters ’67 was named to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee and men’s basketball coach John Thompson III ’88 was selected to the Division I men’s basketball rules committee.

By A.D.

Scrum central
Rugby clubs battle to national prominence

Natalie Johnson ’05 works on a passing drill at rugby practice. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Many years have passed since a pair of British graduate students launched the Princeton Rugby Club in 1931. And although the game has not changed much — still 15 players per side, no pads, no blocking, no forward passes – the men’s and women’s rugby teams have taken the Orange and Black to new levels in recent years. Both clubs – run almost entirely by the students – swept the Eastern Penn Rugby Union titles last fall.
The women’s team, nearly 50 players strong, was already a national power, with two NCAA titles (1996 and 1997) and appearances in the last three college rugby Final Fours. The team has placed dozens of players on the all-America squad in recent years, including five in 2001. And they do all of this while raising about 90 percent of the team’s budget, which covers travel, referees’ fees, and other costs, on their own. “We work our butts off,” said junior wing Candace Hamilton, one of the team’s captains.

This month, both clubs will have home field advantage on the path to what has become their annual march to national championship contention. On March 30, Princeton will be the center of the collegiate rugby world as 24 men’s and women’s teams from the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union scrum, ruck, and maul their way across Princeton’s rugby pitches. The winners and top finishers will get slots in the national playoffs.

The men’s team is working on a return to the club’s glory days of the 1950s and 1960s. Not only did the Tiger A-side (think varsity) win the EPRU championship last semester, the B-side (jayvee) did, too. A-side scrum half and team captain Guneet Banga ’02 said the team’s recent recruiting efforts have paid off. “We’ve gotten to a certain level and we want to keep building,” he said.

While Princeton’s men’s and women’s teams are usually physically smaller than their opponents, they make up for it by focusing on strategy and quickness, which means going over tapes and becoming students of a game that was foreign to most players before they arrived on campus.

“Rugby is a serious sport at Princeton,” said Richard Lopacki, a coach for the men’s club, who has played or coached in Europe and the U.S. for more than 20 years. “It’s now more than just rugby, it’s a true club. It belongs to the students and you see the leadership that comes from the students.”

By A.D.