Hoy Story

It wasn't a great sports night for TigerBlog.

The Giants lost. The Yankees won, moving back into sole possession of first place in the American League East (and TB will be surprised if they don't win by at least five games).

Going back to the Giants, TB can't really get too upset with the opening-night loss to the Cowboys, or anything else the team does this year or in any of the next few. Not after the Giants won two highly dramatic, highly improbable Super Bowl titles in the last four years.

In fact, TB has said that the Giants could go 0-16 for the next 10 years and he won't complain, not with the last four already in the bank. Think about it. Barring something completely unforeseeable right now, Eli Manning will have more Super Bowl titles than Peyton Manning.

With sports not going well, TB had only one reason to watch the Democratic National Convention, and it had nothing to do with the speakers, their policies or any of it. It was the same reason he watched the little he did of the Republican convention last week, to see the radically different way that the cable news outlets presented them.

TB long ago made up his mind as to who will be getting his vote exactly two months from today. His candidate could come out on stage for the debates wearing a prom gown or dressed like a clown and it wouldn't change anything.

So with no interest in what was being said, there was always how it was being portrayed.

Media bias fascinates TigerBlog, since he had the idea that reporting was supposed to actually be fair and balanced drilled into him early on in his newspaper days. And yet there was MSNBC and CNN on the left and Fox News on the right, all watching the same events unfold and yet reporting them from complete 180-degree differences.

It's embarrassing to watch all of these people with no ability to see anything outside of their narrow view and then have them gush over their candidate and dismiss the other side's, all without any shred of objectivity or even honesty. The ones who take the time to actually analyze what's being said and what's going on stand out so remarkably, even though all they're doing is what they're supposed to be doing.

With football, baseball and politics all depressing him, TB did the only thing he could. He fell asleep.

Now, when it comes to don't fall asleep, don't turn away, TB offers the Princeton women's soccer team and specifically senior Jen Hoy.

There have been athletes who have come through Princeton who were must-sees simply because they had the potential to do something amazing at any given second, and the crowd always reacts anytime such a moment begins to build.

TB doesn't want to leave anyone out, but through the years he recalls people like Keith Elias, Jesse Hubbard, current men's basketball coach Mitch Henderson, Will Venable in two sports, Esmeralda Negron.

When he looks at the current Princeton landscape, there are people like Niveen Rasheed, Ian Hummer and Tom Schreiber. And more than one field hockey player.

And Jen Hoy.

These are athletes who at any moment can make the entire audience stop and gasp and mutter "wow" at what they've just seen.

Hoy certainly showed that last weekend, when she scored four goals in Princeton's first two games to earn Ivy League Player of the Week honors. Hoy was easily the best player on the field in both games, against both Wake Forest (a Final Four team last year) and Colgate.

She obviously has great speed, and she routinely creates opportunities with her ability to make up ground and then open up another gear. She's tenacious defensively, and she is a great possessor of the ball.

When Hoy has a chance off a counter, her gifts are more apparent. She can challenge several defenders at once and still get off shots and, at a rate of 2.0 per game so far, goals.

What was also evident watching Hoy and the Tigers last weekend was the difference between a team that was playing its sixth game (Colgate) and a team playing its second (Princeton). The game fitness is not quite there yet, and in its second game in three days and in the heat and humidity, the Tigers clearly were tired while the Raiders rallied from a 4-1 deficit to tie it at 4-4.

Princeton gets another chance this weekend at home, when its hosts St. Joe's tomorrow night (7) and then Temple Sunday (noon). The Princeton men have their home opener Saturday at 2 against Rutgers.

The women then take a trip to California for two games and have a game at Lafayette before the Ivy opener Sept. 22 at Yale.

By then, Princeton will be fully fit and ready to take a shot at an Ivy title and return to the NCAA tournament.

Watching games at Roberts Stadium is a real treat, and every team that comes into the facility remarks about how special a place it is. The crowds there last weekend were tremendous, and with three games in three days this weekend, it'll be another great opportunity.

If you go, don't take your eyes of Jen Hoy.

She's No. 2, but you'd figure which one she is without knowing in advance.

She's one of those rare athletes where you just can't help but do so.