 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption: |
Before the players on the Princeton University women's basketball team hit the court for preseason practice last October, their coaches had them do some film study.
"At the beginning of the season, the coaches brought out a highlight tape of last year's NCAA Final Four and the tournament," said senior center Becky Brown. "We watched that and it pumped us up. That's where we want to go, that's the goal."
Last Friday, Brown added to her highlight reel, scoring 20 points and pulling down 13 rebounds to help Princeton rout Brown 72-55 in a critical Ivy League showdown.
After cruising to a 3-0 win over Colgate last Friday in the opening game of a best-of-three ECAC Hockey League playoff series, the Princeton University women's hockey team found itself under the gun a day later.
Blowing a 4-1 second period lead, the second-seeded Tigers were reeling in the third period as seventh-seeded Colgate knotted the game at 4-4.
But Princeton senior defender Chrissie Norwich and her classmates weren't about to let the win slip away.
Heading down to Baltimore last Saturday to face Johns Hopkins, the Princeton University men's lacrosse team was destined to be part of history one way or the other.
The baseball caps flew onto the ice at the Ice Land rink and the air was filled with the rhythmic chant of J-R, J-R, J-R.
For Princeton High junior forward John Ryan, the vocal fan support was the icing on the cake in the wake of his hat trick which powered PHS to a 6-2 win over Middletown South last Monday in the second round of the state Public hockey tournament.
Even though the Princeton High girls' basketball team struggled out of the gate, PHS head coach Nikki Inzano was not discouraged.
"We lost to Nottingham by seven and to Hopewell Valley by nine," recalled Inzano. "The girls saw that they could compete with good teams and that gave them confidence."
That confidence proved to be justified as the Little Tigers caught fire in January. "We turned it around, we won nine of 11," said Inzano, who pointed to her team's win over WW/P-S as a turning point. "The girls finished every game strong. There are so many good quarters that are in my head."