Princeton’s Parade of Champs Continues in Women’s Basketball, Squash

Few Princeton coaching runs can compare to Carla Berube’s time leading the women’s basketball team. Her Tigers won five Ivy League regular-season titles and four league tournaments in six seasons. They also won first-round NCAA Tournament games twice, in 2022 and 2023, had an overall record of 147-29, and spent most of the 2025-26 season ranked in the AP top 25.

As fans know, sustained success often inspires suitors, and on March 25, Berube was hired by Northwestern, the same Big Ten school that plucked Tigers men’s coach Bill Carmody in 2000. Two weeks after Berube’s announcement, top assistant Lauren Gosselin was named Princeton’s new head coach.

Before Berube’s departure, the Princeton women were unshakeable in Ivy Madness wins over Brown and Harvard. Center Fadima Tall ’27 was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after scoring 20 points, along with seven rebounds, four steals, and three assists, in the championship game.

Returning to the NCAA Tournament, Princeton opened against Oklahoma State and lost 82-68, exiting for the third year in a row against an opponent from the Big 12 Conference. “I am proud of them, the way they are connected,” Berube said of her team afterward. “I told them in the locker room, I loved coaching this season. I mean I loved all my seasons, but the way they were connected and just loved each other and loved playing together, it was such a joy to coach them.”

Zeina Zein ’27 has won back-to-back national titles in women’s squash

Courtesy of Princeton Athletics

In the winter season, Princeton won six Ivy League team championships, bringing the total to 11 for this academic year, as well as an ECAC championship in women’s hockey. Women’s squash star Zeina Zein ’27 captured a second straight national individual title, and a host of athletes made their mark in NCAA postseason meets.

Zein kicked off the championship run by defending her CSA crown Jan. 27 at Grand Central Terminal in New York, where the final match was played in the glass court also used by the pro squash event contested there. The women’s squash team also swept its Ivy matches and the Ivy tournament before losing a 5-4 final to Penn in the national team championship.

Men’s and women’s swimming and diving each won Ivy team titles this year, led by Mitchell Schott ’26 and Eleanor Sun ’27, the top points winners in their respective championship meets. At the NCAA Championships, Schott placed seventh in the 200-yard butterfly and eighth in the 200-yard freestyle, the highest finishes by a Princeton swimmer since 2012.

In women’s hockey, Ivy League Player of the Year Issy Wunder ’26 scored a game-winning goal against Brown Feb. 14 that lifted Princeton to its first ECAC regular-season championship. The Tigers lost in the ECAC tournament semifinals but received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they fell to Connecticut 4-1 in the opening round. Men’s hockey had its best regular season in nearly a decade and reached the ECAC tournament final, losing a heartbreaker to Dartmouth in overtime March 21.

Princeton men’s and women’s indoor track and field continued their league dominance. Women’s track won its second straight Ivy Heps indoor crown. At the NCAA Championships, Alexandra Kelly ’26 earned her first national medal, placing third in the long jump, and Georgina Scoot ’26 finished sixth in the triple jump. The men won their 11th consecutive Ivy Heps indoor title and sent four individuals and a relay team to the NCAA Championships. Greg Foster ’26 (fourth place, long jump) and Joe Licata ’26 (sixth place, shot put) were the Tigers’ top athletes at the national meet.

The wrestling team had its brightest moments in the postseason, thanks largely to Marc-Anthony McGowan ’28, the Ivy individual champion at 125 pounds. In the NCAA meet, McGowan’s upset win in the quarterfinals sparked a run to the finals, where he lost to Penn State’s Luke Lilledahl and settled for silver.

The women’s fencing team also wrapped up the season with NCAA podium finishes. Olympian Hadley Husisian ’27 was runner-up in the epee, and Alexandra Lee ’27 tied for third in the saber. Princeton finished third in the women’s team standings.