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Princeton, winner of eight straight Gehrig division titles and four of the last five Ivy League titles, looks poised to make another run for the NCAA Regionals, while Penn and Cornell will have to far exceed expectations to challenge the Tigers for the top spot in the Gehrig division. In the Red Rolfe division, Brown and Dartmouth will duke it out to see who will be the main contender to a hard-hitting Harvard team, which took the division crown last season. Gerhrig Division Princeton 2003: 27-23, 15-5 The Tigers 27 victories last season was their second highest in school history, and the squad picked up right where it left off last season, with a 6-1 record thus far. The Tigers will replace their highest draft pick in school history, pitcher William Pauly, with junior Ross Ohlendorf, who was heralded as the Ivy League Preseason Player of the Year by Baseball America. Ohlendorf made nine starts last season, posting a 1-2 record with a 3.57 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 45 1/3 innings of work. Senior Tim Lahey and junior B.J. Szymanski joined Ohlendorf on Baseball America’s preseason all-conference team and will be the power on offense. Szymanski is batting .424 so far this season, and leads the Tigers with two homers, 11 runs batted in, and an .818 slugging percentage. Lahey is batting .308 on the young season with eight RBI. Leading the Tigers in batting average is senior speedster Steve Young, who has a .500 average, and has three triples in just seven games. Cornell 2003: 16-20-1, 9-11 See page 15 for an in-depth look at this year’s squad who is currently 3-3. Penn 2003: 22-17, 12-8 The Quakers 22 wins ranked fourth in team history, and their 12 wins in conference play was the most since the 1996 season. Yet the Quakers come into this season after losing last year’s Ivy Player of the Year, their all-time hits leader, and two other All-Ivy selections. The Quakers, who are 4-7 on the young season, are being led by another All-Ivy pick from last season, junior Nate Moffie. Moffie leads the squad in most offensive categories, as he has a .429 batting average with four homers, 14 runs batted in, two triples, and an .833 slugging percentage in 11 games played. Opponents are batting .313 against the Quakers staff, which could be the achilles heal for the Red and Blue, while the crew has posted a 6.47 ERA. Columbia 2003: 20-27, 9-11 The Lions look to be in for a long season as they are currently winless in eight games so far this season, being outscored by their opponents 64-15. In addition, only three All-Ivy selections out of seven remain from last season, and even they have struggled. Senior pitcher Jessen Grant has an 0-2 record with a 9.26 ERA, junior Ryan Schmidt has a .100 batting average with just five total bases in six games, and senior Brian Doveala has played in just one contest thus far this season. The lone bright spot for the Lions has been junior outfielder Fernando Perez who has a .423 batting average and 17 total bases. Red Rolfe Division Harvard 2003: 20-23, 11-9 The Crimson, who lost two out of three games to Princeton last season in the Ivy championships, have come out swinging this season. In its Texas trip, the offense scored 56 runs, including a 25 run outburst in its first game of the season to help the squad to a 2-2 record. Leading the high-powered offense is senior Trey Hendricks. The All-Ivy selection last season is batting .524 with six runs batted in and a .762 slugging percentage in four games. Pitching might be a problem for Harvard though as its staff gave up 57 runs on the trip, including 20 to Air Force and 30 in a loss to Texas Tech. The staff has a combined ERA of 15.09 with opponents batting .410 against them. Brown 2003: 18-28-1, 8-12 The Bears suffered a huge setback before the season as two-time First team all-Ivy selection, Matt Kutler, went down with a season-ending wrist injury. Brown began the season with three losses to nationally ranked Florida. Despite all this the Bears should compete with Harvard for the Rolfe division with the help of co-captains Bobby Deeb and James Lowe. Both players, in addition to pitcher James Crumphin were all-Ivy selections last season. Dartmouth 2003: 17-19, 10-10 The Green comes into this season with first-team All-Ivy selection Scott Shirrell and pitcher Joshua Faiola, the squad rookie of the year. Shirrell led the Green in nine offensive categories, including a .367 batting average, 41 runs batted in, 12 doubles, and a .607 slugging percentage. Faiola led the Green with a 3.93 ERA and in strikeouts, with 48 on the season. Dartmouth is currently 2-1 on the season after a series with Hofstra. Yale 2003: 16-24, 6-14 The Bulldogs have already played nine games, posting a 3-6 record. Swinging the bats has been a problem for Yale as the team has posted just a .263 average thus far, while scoring just five runs per game. The bright spot in the lineup has been junior C.J. Orrico who currently leads the Bulldogs with a .375 average and a .423 on base percentage. The pitching staff has posted a 3.72 ERA and is led by sophomore Jon Hollis who has a 1-1 record with a 2.35 ERA in five appearances. Archived article by Chris Mascaro
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Andrew Collins doesn’t take his role as team leader lightly. The senior attackman is one of four captains on this year’s men’s lacrosse squad, and hopes to parlay that role into success for the Red. “When you look at our offensive end, we’ve got a lot of talent back there. I think that what we’ve needed is just a backbone of just emotion and constant vocal leadership to get everybody excited to play,” he said. “I thought I’ve really brought a lot last year coming to this year now as a captain, just my vocal and emotional intensity day in and day out has really helped our offense be really intense and really compete.” Competing day in and day out has become Collins’ modus operandi over his past few years with the Cornell lacrosse program. “In the past year and a half, he’s taken himself out of his own role and he’s decided to help this team be as successful as it could be,” said head coach Jeff Tambroni. “Where he’s changed is he’s taken this entire team and this program into account.” The attitude has reaped immediate dividends on the field for Collins and the Red. Last season, Collins emerged as a top scoring threat — not just for Cornell, but throughout the country. He scored 59 points, seeing action in all 13 of Cornell’s games in 2003. The 4.54 average was tops in the nation. Combined with junior Sean Greenhalgh, Collins is an important half of one of the most dominating scoring combinations in the country. “He’s probably a guy who over the last year and a half has been extremely underrated in the county,” Tambroni said. “To lead the country in points per game and not be considered an All-American, to me it was a disappointment, because I know how hard he worked last year and what he meant to this team.” But to understand Collins’ work ethic is to know how far he has come to this point. “Andrew and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye,” Tambroni said. “I’ve always felt that he’s extremely talented, and that’s where I’ve had a problem with Andrew. I feel like he was always one of the most talented lacrosse players we’ve had but I felt like he’s never driven himself to a point where he could tap that potential.” “I think I’ve just matured as a player a lot from freshman year when I just wasn’t playing much to sophomore year when I didn’t think that I was reaching my potential, to last year where I thought I was just starting to reach my potential,” Collins agreed. “I think I’ve got a ways to go but I think I’ve really developed and matured in my three years exponentially.” Accordingly, as Collins goes, so goes the team. In three games so far this year, the Red has been highly dependant upon Collins’ production. In the team’s two wins, Collins recorded at least three assists. When the laxers lost to Georgetown on March 6, Collins was held to just two points. “If he’s not getting it done, then we’re probably not getting it done,” Tambroni noted. But the seemingly natural connection between Andrew Collins and a lacrosse field has not always existed. Always a very strong athlete, Collins’ introduction to the game came in a most unanticipated way — via the baseball diamond. “I was actually a big time baseball player in high school,” he recalled. “I went to the baseball tryouts, and all my friends were playing lacrosse. Our lacrosse team had just won a couple of state titles and our baseball team wasn’t that good. I went there with baseball clothing on and I wound up just putting down my glove and getting a lacrosse stick.” Tambroni couldn’t be happier Collins made that decision. “I think he’s given himself a stabilized voice in the locker room and on the field that people do listen to,” he said. “Right now, his experience, his dedication, his change in focus to our team has allowed him to be the leader that he is, our team respects him for it.” Archived article by Owen Bochner