Season of Champions

Unbeaten football, Final Four field hockey headline a fantastic fall finish

John Lovett ’19

Beverly Schaefer

By Brett Tomlinson and Sophia Cai ’21

Published Jan. 9, 2019

2 min read

On the field at Princeton Stadium, shortly after his team had completed its first undefeated season since 1964 with a 42–14 win over Penn, football coach Bob Surace ’90 tried to summarize what he’d seen over the past 10 weeks.

“It’s hard to digest. It’s awesome,” Surace said. “We’ve worked so hard to accomplish this. You wish you could keep playing because you wish you could continue to stay out there with the guys.”

His words could apply to the entire fall for Princeton athletics: Of the eight Tiger teams in season, seven either won league championships or advanced to the NCAA playoffs — or both. And the eighth, women’s volleyball, came tantalizingly close, winning its last five matches but finishing second, one match behind Yale.

Football provided fireworks (and a bonfire), led by an offense that scored 470 points — a modern Princeton record. When the Ivy League selected its two Bushnell Cup finalists for offensive player of the year, both spots went to Tigers: quarterback John Lovett ’19, who threw for 18 touchdowns and ran for 13 more; and receiver Jesper Horsted ’19, who was on the opposite end of 13 touchdown passes and finished his career with a school-record 196 receptions.

Lovett won the award for a second time, and in his acceptance speech at a hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan, he made a gesture that surely warmed the heart of his head coach, a former Tiger center: He pointed to his offensive linemen, standing at the back of the room, and thanked each one by name.

Players from two other fall champs claimed top Ivy honors: Mimi Asom ’19 was the women’s soccer offensive player of the year, and Kevin O’Toole ’21 was the men’s soccer offensive player of the year.

Mimi Asom ’19

Beverly Schaefer

Field hockey had two honorees — offensive co-player of the year Clara Roth ’21 and defensive player of the year Elise Wong ’19 — but did not win the Ivy title, finishing 6–1 in league play after losing to Harvard. The Tigers would find redemption in the NCAA quarterfinals, defeating the Crimson to advance to the Final Four. In the national semifinals, Princeton outshot No. 2 Maryland but couldn’t find the back of the goal, losing 1–0 in overtime.

Elise Wong ’19

Beverly Schaefer

Men’s soccer had a similarly heart-wrenching finish to its season. After winning its first outright Ivy title since 2010, Princeton scored first and held Michigan to one goal in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The game went to overtime and — after two scoreless extra periods — a penalty shootout that was deadlocked until the 14th round, when the Wolverines finally prevailed.

Asom, who tied her career best with 12 goals this year, led women’s soccer to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years. But in the NCAA opener, Texas Tech’s defense kept her in check and pushed past the Tigers for a 3–0 win.

Men’s and women’s cross country each earned NCAA bids at the Mid-Atlantic Regional meet, finishing first and second in their respective races. The Ivy-champion men placed 22nd at the national meet — six spots better than their finish in 2017 — while the women placed 21st, led by Allie Klimkiewicz ’19 (74th in the individual standings).

Men’s water polo avenged a pair of one-goal regular-season losses to Harvard, beating the Crimson 12–10 in the NWPC Tournament championship game and earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers would lose to George Washington, 14–13, in the play-in round — the last game in a memorable autumn.

Published in Jan. 9, 2019, Issue

3 Responses

James W. Seymore ’65

5 Years Ago

I am deeply disappointed by the paucity of coverage PAW has given to this year’s phenomenal football team. The Ivy League championship! The first undefeated team in 54 years! New marks in rushing and passing! And, if I’m not mistaken, the all-time — that’s ALL-TIME — Ivy League scoring record! Yet such accomplishments warranted no cover at PAW, not even a multipage article. I am old enough to remember the attention and admiration justly showered on the great, undefeated football team of 1964, which, by comparison, makes the short, grudging coverage of 2018’s season seem truly shoddy, particularly in this 150th anniversary year of Princeton football.

I know that in the age of #MeToo and regnant feminism the “manly virtues” that underlay the football team’s success are out of favor, even — to some — embarrassing. Which is an even greater shame at Princeton than PAW’s failure to celebrate adequately the remarkable young men of its 2018 football team.

Kent Young ’50

5 Years Ago

Luck allows me, at age 92, to continue driving more than 80 miles to watch Princeton football home games. My grandson and I attended each one in the 2018 season. What we saw was a team of disciplined, dedicated, well-coached, and skilled young athletes who sustain the element of sportsmanship in the game of football. Princeton is fortunate to have Bob Surace ’90 and his staff in charge of that part of its athletic program.

At the games it is discouraging to see so many empty seats. The team and the coaches deserve more support for their efforts. The free “Athletic News” handed out at games contains information about players past and present, but the readership is tiny (and already captive) compared to the wide audience PAW reaches and might influence through one or two feature articles covering the undefeated 2018 season.

The Ivy League made a conscious (and I think wise) decision to put limits on its football program. It makes those who planned the conversion of Palmer Stadium to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium look shortsighted, however, to see the space so underutilized.

The Princeton football program looks, to me, extremely promising. It is not too late for PAW to devote a few pages to boost this cause.

Thomas G. Hess ’77

5 Years Ago

I noted with interest James W. Seymore ’65’s letter (Inbox, Feb. 6) criticizing PAW’s coverage of the football team’s notable achievements this past fall. Reasonable alumni may differ on the amount of space PAW should devote to an extracurricular activity pursued by a small minority of the student body. However, when Mr. Seymore attributes the purported paucity of coverage not, for instance, to football’s contribution to brain injury, but to “#MeToo and regnant feminism,” it simply shows the absurd lengths to which some men will go to blame absolutely everything on women.

Nevertheless, She Roars.