TAGD Is Today

 

TAGD Website 

The first football game in Princeton history — and the sport's history for that matter, was played against Rutgers on Nov. 6, 1869.

The first baseball game in Princeton history — and first intercollegiate sporting event the school ever had — was played against Williams on Nov. 22, 1864. 

The final scores of those two events were somewhat laughable by modern standards. In football, it was 6-4 Rutgers. In baseball, it was 27-16 Princeton. 

It's pretty obvious how the football game was scheduled. The baseball game? How in the world did that come to be?

Did someone from one of the schools write a letter to the other saying something along the lines of "hey, it's November and all and Sherman is destroying Atlanta in the Civil War. Fancy a baseball game?"

What must those first games have actually looked like? And what would the athletes who competed then think of the modern-day Princeton Tigers?

They would have been surprised to see all of the women's varsity teams, that's for sure. They would be amazed by the size of the athletes today. They would be jealous of the facilities, the gear, the training, the coaching, television, internet and everything else about how Princeton operates in 2025.  

More than anything else, they'd probably be proud of what they started. Hopefully they'd understand the impact that what they started 161 years ago has had on the thousands who have followed them.  

That impact has been life-changing for so many. They've learned so much about themselves and what it means to be a teammate, and they've taken those lessons with them as they've gone out in the world.  

Today is the 12th edition of TAGD — Tiger Athletics Give Day. The first one, in 2014, was an offshoot of the 150th anniversary of that first baseball game. 

Since then, TAGD has grown into something way beyond anyone's wildest expectations. The number of people who generously donate and the dollars that have been raised shows so many different components of what makes Princeton Athletics so special. 

It's about loyalty. It's about paying forward the experience those who've worn these uniforms before have had. It's about fun, with some competition mixed in. 

Mostly, it's about the investment in the future of the athletes who benefit from this generosity.  

 

To have a life-changing experience like that is an immeasurable asset. Forget the championships. It's that experience that is the biggest part of what Princeton Athletics is all about.

And that experience is what an investment in TAGD is all about. 

Giving financial support is always about what you are investing in and believing in the positives that your investment will bring. In this case, you can be 100 percent certain that your investment is having a big impact. 

You can pick any team you want. Pick any player at random you want.

They all benefit from what happens today. And that benefit is then paid off in a big way by their lifetime contributions to society. 

Princeton Athletics has produced doctors, lawyers, educators, coaches, business professionals, military leaders, engineers, writers, actors and every other walk of life you care to name. They all draw every day on what they learned as Princeton athletes. 

As always, TAGD's rules are the same this year. Only gifts that are given from now through midnight tonight will count towards the challenges of total donors and total dollars. 

Today is a day of fun for all of those involved. There will be social media posts and friendly competition between the various Friends' Groups. There will be phone banks and outreach directly from the athletes. There will be celebrations of Princeton teams, past and present. 

Underneath it all, though, will be the real benefit of TAGD. 

Pick the team. Pick the athlete. Go back and look to those athletes from 2014, when TAGD first started, and see what they're doing today. Look ahead to what they'll be doing 10 more years from now, 20 more years from now. 

TigerBlog just finished spending the better part of three months with the field hockey team, who made it all the way to the NCAA final. Not every player on the team was a starter or superstar. Some were hurt and couldn't play. Others were backups. 

As he watched it all unfold, he saw them all go through their ups and downs. He saw them as they learned what college athletics at Princeton teaches. He has no doubt that every one of them will look back on this year as a major learning experience in her life. That experience would not have been possible without the generosity that TAGD brings out. 

Now multiply that across 38 teams.  

That's what your gift is supporting.

 

Game Day

OFFICIAL TAGD WEBSITE  

Welcome to December. 

Tomorrow, Dec. 2, will be Game Day for all 38 Princeton teams.  How is that possible? 

It'll be the 12th annual Tiger Athletics Give Day, the 24-hour fundraising competition that has brought out the Tiger in so many through the years. This year's theme is "Game Day," which, if you've been following, you've seen on each team's social media. 

Remember — only gifts made during the 24 hours of TAGD will count towards each team's total. TigerBlog has included the link to get you ready.

TB will have much more on TAGD tomorrow. For today, he offers a preliminary "thank you" to everyone who will be generously supporting Tiger Athletics. 

Meanwhile, how was your Thanksgiving? Did you miss TigerBlog? This weekend marks the only time all year that TB takes a four-day break. How'd you get along? 

TB watched a lot of football this past weekend. Here are two observations: 1) does everyone who makes a first down have to pose and point and 2) does every member of every defense need to run however far it is from the end zone after a turnover? 

Where's the originality? 

This weekend had the first snow games that TB has seen this season, at least. There's always some more fun about games in the snow, especially when you're home on your couch and not sitting out there. 

To that end, he chose to watch Northwestern-Illinois in the snow rather than Alabama-Auburn, which was presumably a much better game. Hey, snow is snow. 

The best game of the day, of course, had to be Yale's 43-42 comeback win over Youngstown State in the first round of the FCS playoffs. This was the first first round for the Ivy League, as you know. 

Yale trailed 35-7 at the half and 42-14 late in the third. And then in a blink, the Bulldogs were on their way to Montana for the second round. 

Comebacks like that require two things: 1) a complete reversal of momentum for the team that's coming back and 2) enough "what's going on here" from the team that was ahead. The game Saturday had both. 

It reminded TB of something former men's basketball coach Bill Carmody used to say: Play hard, and good things will happen.  

Keep in mind, just two weeks earlier, Yale defeated Princeton by three — final score of 13-10.  The Yale win was a victory for the entire Ivy League, who for a long while Saturday seemed to be heading to double blowouts (Harvard lost 52-7 to Villanova).

Moving indoors, yesterday was Game Day for the two Princeton basketball teams. The men played in the Jersey Jam at the arena in Trenton, falling to St. Joe's 60-58.

Princeton is a work in progress, but there is time for that work to be done. The Ivy League season doesn't begin until after the New Year, and there are still five December games to be played, including Wednesday at 8 at Monmouth. 

Jackson Hicke, by the way, now has three straight 20-point games after having no 20-point nights in his first 53 career games. 

The Princeton women took down DePaul 71-41 in Jadwin Gym. Ashley Chea had 22 points in the win, while Skye Belker had 15 of her own. 

The Tiger defense held DePaul to 23.1 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent from three. Princeton scored six seconds into the game, and there was never a tie or lead change after that. 

Princeton also had 13 blocked shots in the game. That's one off the program single-game record, set against Yale in 2011. 

Next up will be another Game Day tomorrow night against Seton Hall in Jadwin Gym. 

And, remember, it's also going to be Game Day for every Princeton team. 

TAGD is 24 hours away.  

Have A Great Thanksgiving

The Princeton men's water polo team won its fifth straight conference championship this past weekend, and in doing so the Tigers accomplished two things.

First, they advanced to the NCAA tournament, where they will play second-seeded UCLA on Dec. 5 in the quarterfinals. The entire event, by the way, is being held at Stanford.

Second, they put Joanna Dwyer into a somewhat strange situation. Dwyer, as you might remember, is leaving Princeton's Office of Athletic Communications to go to the University of Southern California. In fact, TB isn't sure which of those two actually employs her right now. 

Joanna has been the men's water polo contact here, and she will also be the contact there as well. USC enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed. 

How cool would it be for her if the two make the final? 

Also, following up on what TigerBlog wrote yesterday about how the easiest Player of the Week decision ever was the one that honored Tiger men's hockey player Kai Daniels, the news that Josh Robinson was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year was also hardly a shocking development. 

Robinson was a five-time Ivy Rookie of the Week in a season in which he set program records for receptions (46) and receiving yards (569) for freshmen. 

As for today, remember that you can watch the Princeton women's basketball team at Rhode Island this afternoon at 1 on ESPN+. Rhode Island enters the game 6-1, with only a loss to Rutgers and most recently a win over No. 16 North Carolina State. Both of those games ended up with scores of 68-63, which TB probably finds more interesting than you do. 

Princeton is 5-1 on the year, with only a loss to unbeaten and sixth-ranked Maryland. If you're wondering (and you're probably not), the last time Princeton played a game that ended up 68-63 was last year in the NCAA tournament, when the Tigers fell to Iowa State by that score. There have been five games in Princeton women's basketball history that have ended up 68-63, and the Tigers are 1-4 in those games — with a 2009 win over Columbia. 

That's enough of that, no? 

And of course, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. If you see these guys, give them sanctuary. 

 Lastly, TigerBlog has included these thoughts on the holiday almost every year, and he offers them again:

As holidays go, you can't do much better than Thanksgiving. It's got it all, really: a huge meal (with turkey, no less), football, family, history (dates back to 1621), start of a four-day weekend for most people, leftovers. It's even a secular holiday, so every American can dive right in, regardless of religion.
 
The Lions and the Cowboys, obviously, always play at home on Thanksgiving, and the NFL has now added a third game (maybe a little too much). Beyond watching football, how many out there have played their own Thanksgiving football games, all of which, by the way, are named "the Turkey Bowl?"

The holiday may lag behind Christmas in terms of great Hollywood movies, and "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" is no match for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Still, there are some great moments in movies and TV shows around Thanksgiving.

Rocky and Adrian had their first date on Thanksgiving – "To you it's Thanksgiving; to me it's Thursday," Rocky said romantically – as did Meadow and Jackie Jr. on "The Sopranos" (it didn't quite work out as well as it did for Rocky and Adrian). "Everybody Loves Raymond" had two pretty good Thanksgiving episodes, the one where Marie makes a low-fat dinner and the one where Debra makes fish instead of turkey. As an aside, TigerBlog's Aunt Regina once made Cornish game hens instead of turkey, so he knows how they all felt. And of course, there was the Thanksgiving episode of "Cheers," which has the big food fight at the end.

The Woody Allen movie "Hannah and Her Sisters" starts and ends on two different Thanksgivings. "Miracle on 34th Street" is a Christmas movie, but it does start with the Thanksgiving parade in New York City.

And of course, there is the best of all Thanksgiving movies: "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." It'll make you laugh a lot and cry a little, and it ends on Thanksgiving.

TB wishes everyone a great holiday and hopes that maybe you take a few minutes to think about what you really are thankful for these days.

 

Players Of The Week

TigerBlog had his surgery yesterday for his melanoma. 

Everything went well — except for the fact that he now has to use a walker for a week. If that doesn't make you feel old, there was this from the physical therapy person: "We find that OLDER patients prefer the walker to the crutches."

Even worse than that? She's right. The walker is so much easier. 

TB can joke about all this because the skin cancer was caught early from a regular bi-annual checkup with Minnie The Dermatologist. He will repeat this: If you don't have your own Minnie, go find one and make an appointment. Getting in to see the dermatologist is not easy. Call TODAY. 

Remember last week's tribute to TB's late friend Chuck Sullivan? He died of melanoma at 54.  

Also, if you're a woman under 30 who spends time in the sun — say, possibly a college athlete — you're in a very high risk group. TB told every member of the field hockey team multiple times to make sure she goes. He's telling you too. 

As he wrote when this first happened, he would never have guessed that the small freckle on his foot was problematic, let alone life threatening. Let your Minnie figure that part out.  

Okay, hopefully you got the message.

And with that, there was yesterday's news that Kai Daniels was the ECAC Forward of the Week. At least, TB assumes he was. He didn't bother to check. 

Who else could it be? Ah, yes. It was Daniels.

Uhhhhh Ya Think?

6️⃣ goals in a weekend, including 5️⃣ in one game, will get you @ecachockey Forward of the Week presented by @bluebirdhotels!

Congrats, KD! pic.twitter.com/DawOIULyCc

— Princeton Men's Ice Hockey (@princetonhockey) November 24, 2025

You read that right. Daniels had six goals this past weekend, including five against St. Lawrence Friday night to be the first NCAA player with that many in a game since 2011. 

He then followed that up with the game-winner Saturday night against Clarkson. Player of the Week? Very much so. 

Who is Kai Daniels? He is a junior from Whistler, British Columbia whose cousin Kieran Lubin played football at Princeton and whose uncle Joe Lubin played squash at Princeton. He also had 11 goals in 52 career games prior to this weekend, when he had six in two. 

His six goals came on just nine shots. TigerBlog doesn't know a ton about hockey, but that seems pretty good. Daniels was 2 for 17 on the season before he went off this weekend. 

It's way too early to look at the ECAC standings, so TB instead will look at the upcoming schedule, which has the Tigers at Bowling Green Friday and Saturday, a trip that presumably includes a team Thanksgiving event. 

Meanwhile, speaking of Princeton athletes who won Player of the Week, there was also Skye Belker of the women's basketball team. This one also was pretty much obvious.  

From the release on goprincetontigers.com: You can read the entire story HERE.

Belker averaged 19.3 points per game in the Tigers' 3-0 week, shooting 19-of-33 overall (.576) while going 9-of-14 from deep (.643). She also sank all 11 free throws and averaged 4.3 assists per contest.

TigerBlog knows a lot about basketball stats. Those are really good ones.

Belker put up 27 of her points in a 100-93 win over Penn State in a game played in the Bahamas. Talk about heating up.

Wait, 100-93 for a Carla Berube team? That's a rarity.

It was the third time in Princeton women's basketball history that the team reached 100 points. The other two came in a 107-44 win over Wagner in 2016 and a 104-33 win over Portland State in the 31-1 season of 2014-15.

This time, the Tigers needed pretty much every single one of those 100 points.  

By the way, do you know what the halftime score was in that game? How about 38-34 Tigers. That means that Princeton put up 66 in the second half alone, shooting 8 for 10 from three in the last two quarters. 

Next up for Princeton is a trip to Rhode Island for a game with a 1 pm tip tomorrow. If you're unable to put weight on your foot and don't really want to use your walker, then that's perfectly timed. 

One more time — call your dermatologist.  

Through The Tears, Many Reasons To Smile

 

There were tears flowing freely from Olivia Caponiti's eyes, and on this day, there would only be two options. 

Tears, or euphoria. There would be no middle ground, not with these stakes, not with this margin for error. 

For one team, there would be the sheer, unimaginable joy of winning the NCAA field hockey championship. For the other team, there would be the sheer, unimaginable agony of having come sooooo close to the big prize. 

In the end, it was Northwestern, who cashed in a penalty corner in the second overtime for a 2-1 win, who got to experience the joy. And that left Princeton with only one available emotion, and as such, hence the tears. 

They didn't form only in the eyes of Olivia Caponiti, of course. The finality of such a loss in such a situation is brutal, and pretty much everyone in a Princeton uniform had the same reaction as Caponiti. 

It's just that Caponiti was standing closest to TigerBlog near the Princeton bench afterwards, and her tears were the first ones TB saw. 

He wanted to say something to make it better. He wanted to tell her that she had played a remarkable game in the Tiger goal, that there was no way that the game would have gone as long as it did without her. He wanted to tell her that she had made some extraordinary saves, the kind that only the elite of the elite would make.

Liv says no again and now has seven saves. We're off to the second 10-minute OT. A goal means the NCAA championship; no goal in 10 more min means a shootout to decide it.

👀 https://t.co/c3pRMcmSxi (ESPNU) pic.twitter.com/YSTDGaHnwU

— Princeton FH (@TigerFH) November 23, 2025

He wanted to tell her that, as a junior, she'd be back next year. He wanted to tell her that she had gone from a two-year backup to one of the best goalies in the country, and that this glorious run to late November would have never happened without her, both in the cage and everywhere else she was as part of this team. 

There was no team gathering where her voice, her laugh, didn't rise about the din. There was no team member who, or even season-long observer, who didn't feel better about things when Caponiti was around. 

Of course, in the moment, none of that would have made any difference to her. Or to any of the other Tigers. 

It'll take some time, actually. And when it does, what will stick out are moments that put them in position to have it hurt this badly. 

TigerBlog had a front row seat for all of it. He saw first-hand how a team can gel and go from a win-some, lose-some 4-3 start to the season that included a home loss to Harvard on Sept. 26 that essentially meant the Ivy League championship to a team that learned how to win and did so 14 straight times until yesterday. 

Along the way, there were two wins over Harvard — a team that went 19-0 against the rest of Division I — including in the Ivy tournament final and then the NCAA semifinals. There were countless wins over the top of Division I, including a 3-2 regular-season win at Northwestern that is the Wildcats' only defeat in their last 27 games. 

Could the Tigers repeat that? 

Oh, did they come close. They led 1-0 after three, scoring with two minutes to go when Beth Yeager scored her 59th and final goal as a Tiger, fittingly on a drag flick penalty corner shot. Through it all, Northwestern continued to pressure Princeton's defense in a way that no other team could this year 

Princeton allowed only 13 shots in its first three NCAA games. Northwestern threw 16 at Caponiti and her defense; the only other game where the opponent had more shots was the first meeting with Northwestern, where the Wildcats had 18. 

You cannot defend any better than Princeton did this weekend. The Tigers wiped out Harvard, allowing five shots and no goals in the 2-0 semifinal win. This time, Princeton kept Northwestern  — the third-highest scoring team in Division I — off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter, when the game was tied off one of the 10 penalty corners. It was another penalty corner that won it in the second overtime. 

What can you say about Princeton's defense? Ottilie Sykes might as well have been a roadblock. The same is true of freshman Gabriella Anderson. And sophomore Clem Houlden. And freshman Tabby Vaughan. 

They were ferocious, limiting Northwestern's swarming offense. Oh, and then there was Ella Cashman, a junior. 

Does it get tougher? She tore her ACL, completely, in the Ivy tournament final. She missed the first two NCAA games. There was no way she was missing the Final Four, and she didn't. Somehow, Cashman and athletic trainer Jade Hennessy pieced her together just enough to play about half of each game this weekend. And play well. 

Princeton started four freshmen and four sophomores. It's a young team with an incredibly bright future. And a present of which they should all be incredibly proud.

Yesterday afternoon, that didn't really matter much in the brutal moment when the ball hit the back of the cage to end it. 

You wanted to be the team in the dogpile on the blue turf at Duke. 

Instead, you were the team whose tears fell to that turf. 

In the moment, no words would help. In the long run? 

They'll be as proud of themselves as TigerBlog is of them. Thanks for the front row seat.

You are one amazing team.  

Smile

Okay, it's a very busy weekend. 

TigerBlog jumps right in ...

* * *

There was an error (since corrected) here yesterday. No, it wasn't that Bill Belichick really did take a picture with Princeton associate head field hockey coach Dina Rizzo. He stiffed her, as TB reported.

The error was that today's NCAA semifinal game between Princeton and Harvard at Duke does not appear to be available on ESPN+, only on ESPNU. It's streamable HERE, though you need an ESPNU account to be able to access it.  

TB apologizes for the mistake.  

The winner of Princeton-Harvard will face the winner of the second semifinal, between North Carolina and Northwestern, in Sunday's championship game at 1. 

Last night was the Final Four banquet, which gathered the four teams who are competing this weekend. It was a very nice event, the calm before the coming storm of the weekend, which will end with an NCAA title for one of those four teams. 

TigerBlog, for his part, broke out his Class of 1965 gear for the occasion:

By the way, that's TB with Rizzo and athletic trainer Jade Hennessy. TigerBlog was honored to be in the picture and would take a picture with Rizzo any time. 

And as a follow-up to the story of that one North Carolina head coach who did not opt to let a Princetonian get a picture taken with him, TigerBlog approached Tar Heel field hockey coach Erin Matson to see if she would take a picture with him. Was it a UNC thing? 

The answer? 

"Of course," she said. That's two UNC head coaches who've jumped at the chance to get a picture with TigerBlog. 

* * * 

As for the game today, it's the third meeting of the season between the teams, and each has a win in the first two. Harvard took down Princeton 3-1 in Princeton back on Sept. 26, but Princeton has not lost since, rolling up 13 straight wins, including a 2-1 win over Harvard in the Ivy League tournament final at Harvard two Sundays ago. 

You can read all about the game in TB's "A to Z" HERE, and he'll give you some highlights:

* Princeton has started four freshmen and four sophomores in its two NCAA tournament wins
* Princeton has not trailed at any point during its 13-game winning streak
* the team who scores first is 19-1 in Princeton's 20 games 
* Harvard has only trailed during four games this season and was the last unbeaten team in Division I
* Princeton allows only seven shots per game and has held Harvard to 14 in the two games
* Harvard has scored four goals on 14 shots in two games against Princeton and averages 15.2 shots per game

If ever there has seemed to be a 50-50 matchup in an NCAA semifinal game, this is it.  

* * *

The men's soccer team found out its opponent for Sunday's second round NCAA tournament game. The third-seeded Tigers will face Duke, who defeated FDU 1-0 yesterday afternoon, interestingly, in Durham as well. 

The goal came on a penalty kick in the final minute by the way. Apparently it was a good call, but the ref needs to be really sure to award it there. 

So now Duke gets to make the same 482-mile bus ride that the Princeton field hockey team did, assuming it's the same difference from Duke to Princeton as it is Princeton to Duke. The regular NCAA tournament rule is that the organization will pay for flights for teams beyond 400 miles from the game site, but because of all the delays of late, it was moved to 500 miles. 

Hmmm. What is 500-482? The answer is "a long bus ride."

Princeton is the No. 3 seed in the men's soccer tournament. The down side of getting a first-round bye is that your first opponent will have just won a game and by definition will have some momentum. The plus side is that you have extra rest and, you know, you've earned the right to play at home for everything you've done all season.  

The game will be Sunday at 4 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium.  

* * *

The women's basketball team is in the Bahamas for games tomorrow against Penn State and Sunday against Maryland-Eastern Shore. 

TB has never been to the Bahamas. He hears it's nice. Going there is not on his bucket list. You want to know what is? 

Princeton head coach Carla Berube was recently on a podcast in which she mentioned her love of karaoke. You can see for yourself at around the 14:40 mark: 

After hearing that, TB texted Berube the video of his rendition of "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" during field hockey Bus Karaoke a few weeks ago. Berube texted him back that she'd like to do a duet, to which TB said that it had vaulted to No. 1 on his bucket list. 

* * *

The Ivy League women's volleyball tournament will be in Dillon Gym this weekend, beginning today with the semifinals between No. 1 Princeton and No. 4 Brown at 4, followed by No. 2 Cornell and No. 3 Yale at 7. 

The winners meet tomorrow at 6 for the Ivy League's automatic NCAA tournament bid. No matter what happens at Dillon this weekend, Princeton is the outright Ivy League champion for 2025. 

The All-Ivy team that was announced this week had Princeton's Sydney Draper as the Player of the Year. There were seven first-team All-Ivy selections, and all seven will be in Dillon this weekend — including Princeton's Draper and Valerie Nutakor.  

* * * 

Beyond those events, it's another busy weekend, including the final football game of the season. The Tigers will be at Penn tomorrow, with kickoff at 1 at Franklin Field. It's always good to end a season with a win.

The NCAA cross country championships are tomorrow, in Missouri. The Princeton men won the Mid-Atlantic Regional last weekend to qualify as a team and enter the event ranked 18th in the country. A Top 20 finish would sound good. 

The full schedule for the weekend's more-than 30 events is HERE.

 

Thanks For Nothing

 

So TigerBlog has told you this story from his days as a vendor at the old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia before:

Mario Soto was the Cincinnati Reds' ace and the favorite player of Evan Weiss, then a vendor who used to drive TigerBlog from West Philadelphia to the stadium every day in his VW and today a doctor in Philadelphia. All season, Weiss waited for the Reds — the last team to come into Philly — to arrive so he could get Soto's autograph, and then finally the day was there. Weiss waited for Soto to get off the bus and went up to him and asked for his autograph, only to have Soto walk by without stopping. Talk about being crushed. 

And now, a mere 42 years later, TigerBlog got to experience those same emotions all over again. 

It happened yesterday in the late afternoon. The Princeton field hockey team had just wrapped up practice at the University of North Carolina, in advance of the NCAA Final Four at Duke. 

Princeton will play tomorrow at noon against Harvard in the first national semifinal (ESPNU), followed by North Carolina and Northwestern. The championship game will be Sunday at 1 (same broadcast outlet). It will be an intense weekend. 

Yesterday, though, was merely a practice after a long trip down for the Tigers, who left Caldwell Field House Tuesday afternoon, stopped for the night in Richmond and finally rolled into North Carolina in the middle of the afternoon. After checking into the hotel, it was off to work out at UNC's field. 

Princeton Associate Head Coach Dina Rizzo is a native of Walpole, Mass., which is pretty much walkable to Gillette Stadium, home of the Patriots. Like most of that area, Rizzo is a big Patriots fan, especially during the glory years of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. 

And where is Belichick these days? He's the head coach at North Carolina. And where was he specifically yesterday when Princeton was wrapping up practice? Inside the building adjacent to the field hockey team, giving a pep talk to the Tar Heels. 

While this was going on, Princeton was milling around outside the very same building, waiting for its post-practice food to be delivered to the bus. The entire Princeton group knew who was inside the building. 

And there was Rizzo, all excited about the idea of getting a photo with Belichik when he came outside and sending it her family of fellow Patriots fans. 

TigerBlog could see it coming from a mile away. It was going to be, sigh, Evan Weiss and Mario Soto all over again.  

With that, 1) Belichick eventually walked out of the building, 2) Rizzo went up and asked if she could get a picture, 3) Belichick said no and got into a golf cart to be driven away (though he sat in the cart for two minutes or so) and 4) it was very, very weak of him. Oh, and 5) Rizzo and her whole family — after she texted them — are no longer fans of said coach. 

C'mon now. How hard would it have been to take one picture? Yes, he probably gets that all the time, but still, this was right after he had just talked to one field hockey team and when another was just sitting there waiting to get on its bus. There wasn't a crush of fans. And besides, Rizzo announced herself by giving her hometown. 

It was just like Mario Soto all those years ago. Soto now works in the Reds' front office; hopefully he's a changed man. 

At the other side of the likeability scale sits Jim Barlow, the head coach of the Princeton men's soccer team. His team will be playing its NCAA opener Sunday against the winner of tonight's first round game between FDU and Duke.

That game will be played at Duke, coincidentally. 

Just before TB got on the bus yesterday, he ran into Barlow, on his way to practice. TB told Barlow that he would be happy to scout the FDU-Duke game. 

Now forget for a minute that TB wasn't really serious. After all, there's an NCAA Final Four banquet for field hockey tonight as well.

You can also forget that TB's scouting report would have gone something like this: "They each had 11 guys, and both teams tried to kick the ball into the other team's goal." 

What did Barlow say? He reminded TB that NCAA rules prohibit any representative from an opponent to see the game in person. 

Barlow never met an NCAA rule he didn't know and follow to the letter. 

Anyway, it's about to get really serious for the field hockey and men's soccer teams. For yesterday? 

It was Mario Soto all over again.  

RIP Chuck Sullivan

TigerBlog took Joanna Dwyer to lunch yesterday. 

It was the last time they'd both be in Princeton prior to Dwyer's leaving to begin her new job, in athletic communications at the University of Southern California. Her last weekend at Princeton will see her on the road with her men's water polo team, who will be at Brown for the NWPC tournament. 

TB, for his part, left yesterday with the field hockey team for the Final Four at Duke, where the Tigers will play Friday at noon against Harvard in the first semifinal, followed by UNC-Northwestern in the other. The winners will meet Sunday at 1 for the national title. 

It was really nice to have lunch with Joanna before she moved on in her career. She'll have gone from graduating from Elon in 2024, to nearly 1.5 years at Princeton and now on to USC, where she will cover water polo and swimming and diving. 

TB told her something that he thinks is important. Make sure, he said, that no matter where your career takes you that you remember your time at Princeton with great fondness, and not as something you had to have on your resume to get your next job. 

There have been a lot of people who have come through Princeton Athletics during TB's years here. Some have indeed cherished their experience. Others have been box checking. 

One of the people in that first group was named Chuck Sullivan. No matter where he went or where he worked, he took a piece of Princeton with him. 

Have you enjoyed reading TigerBlog all these years, or anything else TB has written? Did you enjoy the women's athletics history book? 

You can thank Chuck Sullivan for all of  it. 

Actually, you can't anymore. Chuck passed away earlier this week, at the age of just 54. Melanoma did him in. 

TB didn't even know Chuck was sick. It had been too long since he had spoken to him. 

Who was Chuck Sullivan? At the time of his death, he was the assistant commissioner for communications at the American Conference. Before that, he had been at Harvard, Bryant and UMass-Boston. And before that, he was a member of the Princeton Office of Athletic Communications. 

Chuck was an intern when TB first started on the Princeton payroll back in 1994. At the time, TB knew very little about athletic communications, other than what he'd seen during his five years of covering Princeton at the Trenton Times. He knew nothing of computers, let alone desktop publishing. 

He is not overstating things in the least to say that were it not for Chuck Sullivan, TB never would have lasted more than a few months at Princeton. Chuck taught TB how to use a Mac, starting with the most basic part of turning it on. He basically held TB's hand those first few months, until TB started to get a feel for how the OAC worked. 

That's just how Chuck was. He didn't wonder why some guy from the newspaper got a job that he was probably more qualified to get. He just helped. 

Chuck was a gentleman, and a gentle man. He was kind and caring and compassionate. He loved the experience at Princeton and the athletes with whom he worked. 

He was also funny. He had a dry sense of humor and an understated laugh, but he would certainly make TB smile, even more so with every mistake he made back then. Remember earlier this week, when TB forgot that Trevor Tierney had been first-team All-Ivy League as the son of a Princeton head coach, like Sam Vigilante — son of men's head track and field and cross country coach Jason Vigilante — was this season in men's soccer? 

Chuck would have shrugged his shoulders at TB and offered up a engaging smile, gestures that would have at once made fun of TB while making him realize it wasn't the end of the world. 

TB and Chuck stayed in touch through the years as he moved along his career trajectory. They'd text several times a year, usually about something related to a current event that sparked a memory the two had shared way back when. 

The news of his death hit TB hard. It came on a group text with former Princeton OACers Chuck Yrigoyen, Kurt Kehl and Mark Panus, all of whom were also stunned by what had happen — and all of whom, like TB, regretted that they hadn't spent more time through the years staying in touch. 

TigerBlog has his surgery for his own melanoma this coming Monday. It was only caught because he regularly makes trips to the dermatologist, something that he's been urging everyone he sees to do. 

Sadly, that warning comes too late for Chuck Sullivan. 

TB sends his condolences to Chuck's wife Renee and his sons Orry and Owen. It's of little comfort now for them to know just how many people loved Chuck Sullivan and are deeply mourning his passing. 

TigerBlog is just one of those people. 

He wants to pick up his phone and reach out to Chuck, thank him again for all he did for him all those years ago (something he is very glad he did many times in the decades since) and apologize for not being better at having stayed in touch. 

He knows he can't though. It's horrible, tragic news. 

A wonderful man has been taken decades before his time.  

The Three Seed

 

Duh.

TigerBlog wrote yesterday that Sam Vigilante of the men's soccer team was a first-team All-Ivy League selection while his father Jason is the head coach of the Princeton men's cross country and track and field program and asked the question if Princeton had ever had a similar situation before. 

TB said that it was either something really obvious or something unprecedented and left it out that. 

He'd like to thank all the people who pointed out that it was, in fact, obvious. Uh, does the name "Tierney" ring a bell? 

Yes, Bill Tierney was the head men's lacrosse coach at Princeton and his son Trevor was a first-team All-Ivy League goalie. Together, along with Bill's other son Brendan, they won the 2001 NCAA championship, the sixth in program history.

How in the world could TB have forgotten anything Tierney? TB could say he did it on purpose to see if anyone notice (though that wouldn't be true). He could blame it on the long, busy weekend with a lot of winning. That's better.  

Of all the times Princeton has reached the NCAA tournament in lacrosse, both men's and women's, there have only been three times that the teams have been the No. 1 overall seed. For the men, it was 1996 and 1997, both of which ended in a national championship.

For the women, it was 2004, which ended in an NCAA title game loss, ending Princeton's two-year run as national champ. 

The 2012 NCAA champion Princeton field hockey team was the No. 2 seed. The 1998 and 2001 men's lacrosse championship teams were also No. 2 seeds. The 1992 and 1994 NCAA champs were both No. 3 seeds. 

The 1994 NCAA women's lacrosse champion Tigers did so as the No. 2 seed, as did the 2002 champs. The 2003 champs were unseeded. 

Armed with all of this history, TigerBlog watched yesterday's NCAA men's soccer selections, hoping to see Princeton come up as the No. 1 overall seed. Princeton, after all, has only lost once all season, and that was to Hofstra back on Sept. 10. 

The Tigers have spent much of the year as the No. 1 team in the RPI, and in fact that's where they are today still. So would they be No. 1? 

Nope. That chance went away quickly, as Vermont — the defending NCAA champion — saw its name come up on the No. 1 line as the first time announced. Instead, Princeton flashed under No. 3, drawing the winner of Thursday's opening round game between Duke and FDU, which will be played in Durham.  

The winner of that game will be in Princeton Sunday, with kickoff at 4.

So here's looking on the bright side: 

* of the 10 NCAA titles in lacrosse and field hockey, seven came when the Princeton team was not the No. 1 seed
* the top four seeds will play at home all the way through the national semifinals as long as they keep winning
* being the No. 3 seed in men's soccer is itself an unbelievable accomplishment and a statement on just what kind of season Princeton has had
* there's always an additional pressure with being the No. 1 seed

Princeton Soccer has made two runs to the Final Four all-time, first by the men in 1993 and then by the women in 2004. In both cases, the teams played all of their NCAA tournament games prior to the semifinals at home, on its old Lourie-Love Field.  

Where does this leave Princeton men's soccer 2025? 

As TB said, the first game for this team will be Sunday. At this time of year, it has to be said that every game could also be the last of the year. 

Sure, you could look ahead in the bracket and see what potential matchups there are ahead. Or you could look back to a year ago, when an unseeded team won it all in a Final Four that also had the No. 1 seed, No. 3 seed and No. 13 seed. And you could notice that the No. 4 seed lost in the opening round. 

Princeton has had itself a season for the ages to put itself in a position to play on its home field Sunday, and possibly beyond. 

Those last three words? Don't mention them to anyone associated with this team though. There are 48 teams in the field. There will be 32 come Sunday. 

All of them are thinking big right now. Nobody is going to be looking ahead of anyone.  

As TB said back in today's first word, "duh." 

How About That Weekend?

And just when you thought that a four-Ivy League championship weekend would be hard to beat, along comes this past weekend. 

This time, there would only be one Ivy League championship, though it was joined by an Ivy League tournament championship, a win to vault a team into the NCAA tournament Final Four, an NCAA Regional championship and a whole lot of chances for the best photos of them all — the jubo ones. 

It started when the men's cross country team went 2-4-5-15-19 to win the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional at Lehigh Saturday to earn automatic qualification into the NCAA championship meet Saturday in Missouri. Princeton was led by Myles Hogan, who passed eight runners over the second half of the 10K race to finish as runner-up in 29:21.2.

The men's cross country team is coached by Jason Vigilante. Remember that last name. TigerBlog will be writing it again in a few paragraphs. 

On the women's side, by the way, Anna McNatt and Meg Madison qualified as individuals for the national championship race.  

Next up, the women's volleyball socked away another Ivy League championship and earned itself the host role for the Ivy League tournament with 3-0 wins over Harvard and Dartmouth. That's two straight Ivy championships and 21 all time, easily the most in league history. 

The tournament will start in Dillon Gym Friday at 4 with the top seed Tigers against No. 4 Brown and then No. 2 Cornell and No. 3 Yale at 7. The winners will meet Saturday at 6, with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the winner. 

The women's volleyball team also celebrated Senior Night Saturday, just to add some more jubo to the mix. A Senior Night with an outright Ivy title? That's something the team's three seniors — Luci Scalamandre, Valerie Nutakor and Ella Bunde — won't forget anytime soon. 

Oh, and if you're wondering what "jubo" means, it's the Office of Athletic Communications way of saying "jubilation."

Meanwhile, the men's soccer team won the Ivy League tournament on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium Sunday morning with a 2-0 win over Cornell. The first goal was scored by Sam Vigilante; that name is familiar, no? 

Vigilante was a first-team All-Ivy League selection, one of six for the Tigers this year. It got TB to thinking if Princeton has had a head coach who had a son or daughter who became a first-team All-Ivy selection. 

This falls under the heading of either no, or someone really obvious whom TB is overlooking. 

Princeton's second goal came courtesy of Liam Beckwith, a second-team All-Ivy pick. Once again Princeton's defense did not allow a goal. Hey, it's only allowed five all year, right? 

Next up for Jim Barlow's team is today's NCAA Selection Show, which will be at 1 this afternoon. Princeton has a very, very legitimate chance at being the No. 1 overall seed, which would be an amazing tribute to the season the Tigers are having. 

Princeton, of course, went 7-0-0 in the Ivy League during the regular season and didn't allow a goal along the way. The tournament championship followed that regular season title, which is one of five this fall for Princeton.

The others? Men's cross country. Women's cross country. Men's soccer. Women's soccer. 

One team that did NOT win its Ivy League championship was the field hockey team. Harvard won that one, going 7-0 to the Tigers' 6-1, with a 3-1 Harvard win on Sept. 26 the difference. 

The Tigers have made up for it in a big way since. In fact, that Sept. 26 game was the last time Princeton has lost, and that winning streak reached 13 straight yesterday with a dramatic 2-1 win over Syracuse in the NCAA quarterfinals. 

This came one week after Princeton won the Ivy League tournament championship with a 2-1 win at Harvard. The game-winner in both games came from the incomparable Beth Yeager, who did so with 1:43 to go against Syracuse, after assisting on Pru Lindsey's goal that had made it 1-0 Tigers late in the third.  

The win yesterday sends Princeton to the Final Four at Duke, with the semifinals Friday and the final Monday. And who is going to be meeting Princeton in Durham? 

That would be none other than the Crimson. Yes, it'll be Princeton-Harvard III Friday at 2:30, after North Carolina and Northwestern in the other semifinal. Princeton is the only team this year who has beaten Harvard and Northwestern, both of whom have only that one loss. 

And that was the weekend in jubo. 

You never get tired of them.