Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Fifth-Ranked Women's Lights Head To San Diego, Ready To Continue Growth
March 31, 2016 | Women's Rowing - Lightweight
The fifth-ranked Princeton lightweight women understood that they would be pushed mightily through the opening weeks of their season, but they also believed that the payoff could come in a highly improved, potentially overlooked boat come May and June.
The Tigers are spending their opening weeks facing the elite crews in the sport, and they accept the bumps that will come along the way. No. 2 Radcliffe reclaimed the Class of 1999 Cup last weekend on Lake Carnegie, and now the Tigers will head to the San Diego Crew Classic, where they will face No. 1 Stanford.
“It's always exciting to start our season against our top rivals, and this year is no different,” said senior Phoebe Huang. “We're looking forward to facing some of our toughest competition in San Diego and continuing to go head to head with them in the weeks leading up to Sprints and IRAs, which will give us a great opportunity to measure our growth and speed throughout the season.”
With departures due to graduation or injury hampering a boat that felt like it could be a strong challenger this season, the Tigers have embraced the position of an early rebuild this season.
“Every race is a learning experience as well as an opportunity to get tougher, faster, and stronger,” Huang said. “We've faced a bit of adversity coming into this season, but it hasn't dampened our spirits or ambition. If anything, it has only made us closer as a unit, and I'm confident that we'll continue to build on these experiences and use them to motivate our training.”
The opening test came last Saturday on Lake Carnegie, where Radcliffe was impressive in reclaiming the Class of 1999 Cup.
“We've seen that the standard in the league is very high,” head coach Paul Rassam said. “I don't anticipate BU or Stanford being any slower than what we saw from Radcliffe today. We will continue to work towards closing the gap. Our athletes are giving everything they've got towards that goal.”
In the rebuilding mode, though, results are merely a piece of the overall journey. While she would have loved a second straight win over Princeton's top rival, Huang felt that there was progress made over those 2,000 meters.
“Although it wasn't the result we had hoped for, we left the water feeling confident in each other and our collective racing mentality as a team, which we will definitely build upon as the season progresses,” she said. “Opening against a formidable crew like Radcliffe gave us a lot of insight into not only what we need to work on going forward, but also into our ability to keep fighting till the last stroke of a race. Our season has only just started, and each week will bring us more and more opportunities to close the gap between us and our rivals.”
The next opportunity will come Sunday at 12:08 PST when they race for the A.W. Coggeshall Cup in the women's lightweight final against, among others, reigning IRA national champion Stanford.