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Vol. LXIII, No. 46
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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Vol. LXIII, No. 46
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction)
SHARK ATTACK: Princeton University field hockey star Kathleen Sharkey controls the ball in recent action. Last Sunday, sophomore star Sharkey scored four goals to help No. 4 Princeton top No. 8 Syracuse 7-3 in the NCAA quarterfinals. Princeton, now 16-2, will face No. 1 and undefeated Maryland (22-0) in the NCAA semis on November 20 in Winston-Salem, N.C. with the winner facing the victor of the Maryland-Virginia clash in the national championship game on November 22. |
Kathleen Sharkey and her teammates on the Princeton University field hockey team had reason to be concerned as they headed into the dressing room last Sunday at halftime of their NCAA quarterfinal clash with visiting Syracuse.
The fourth-ranked Tigers trailed No. 8 Syracuse 3-2 at intermission, an ominous score considering that was the final last fall when the Orange beat the Tigers in the NCAA quarters.
Despite the deficit, Sharkey was confident that Princeton could ultimately prevail.
In the fall of 2006, Thatcher Foster enjoyed watching the Princeton High boys’ soccer team beat Monroe to win the Central Jersey Group III sectional crown.
As Foster, then a freshman player on the PHS JV soccer team, sat in the stands that day at Harris Field, a seed was planted in the minds of him and his classmates.
“We watched that team win the sectional and we thought, ‘could we ever be as good as them?’” recalled Foster.
Last Friday, Foster helped answer that question in the affirmative, heading in a second-half insurance goal as top-seeded and undefeated PHS topped No. 2 Freehold Boro 2-0 in this year’s sectional final.
There were plenty of reasons for the Princeton High football players to hang their heads after their Central Jersey Group III state playoff game last Friday at Monroe High.
Playing in miserable conditions with a pelting downpour and gusting winds, seventh-seeded PHS absorbed a beating at the hands of the No. 2 Falcons.
The Princeton High girls’ cross country team ran into some trouble in early October.
“We hit a slump in the middle of the season; we were not running very well at all,” recalled PHS head coach Jim Smirk.
“We got through the Shore Coaches meet and then we had an awful day against HoVal; they really beat us up. A lot of teams struggle like that and just fall away.”
Instead, the Little Tigers rebounded from that rough patch to produce some of their most inspired performances of the season.
It wasn’t a victory but it was a harbinger of good things to come for the Princeton Day School boys’ cross country team.
Opening its season by competing in the prestigious Newark Invitational in mid-September, the Panthers placed fourth and, in the process, impressed longtime head coach Eamon Downey.
“Looking at the way we were working out and the way we did in the Newark meet, we showed signs early of being good,” said Downey, who has been coaching the PDS program since 1970s.