Championship Chasing

As TigerBlog said a week ago, his longtime friend and colleague Craig Sachson has left the Princeton Department of Athletics, where he worked for 19 of the last 21 years, including the last 17.

It's been weird this week, with Craig's office just dark. It's sort of like he's on vacation, only he isn't. Well, actually he is, but he won't be coming back here after it ends.

TigerBlog shared his thoughts about Craig HERE one week ago.

For today, TB has another link to share with you, and it's THIS one. It's the goprincetontigers.com preview of tonight's EIVA playoff doubleheader at Dillon Gym.

It starts at 5, when Penn State and George Mason meet in the first semifinal. It continues at 8, when the top-seed and regular-season champion Tigers take on St. Francis.

The second link that TB left for you is significant for two reasons. First, it has all of the information you need for tonight's playoff volleyball at Dillon.

Second, it figures to be the last story Craig will write for goprincetontigers.com. That sounds sort of sad, right?

Maybe he'll write a guest blog or two at some point, but writing a story fort the website? Not sure that'll happen again.

Still, he insisted on putting together the preview, which is good, since his Princeton volleyball knowledge is beyond extensive. It also got TigerBlog wondering how many stories Craig has actually written for GPT.

The answer is: a ton.

Meanwhile, back at the volleyball itself, this is the first time Princeton has hosted the tournament. Princeton won the regular-season title by three games over Penn State and George Mason and brings the league's Player of the Year (George Huhmann, who stands 6-11, is Princeton's tallest athlete and has the perfect last name for headline writing) and Coach of the Year (Sam Shweisky).

Huhmann, by the way, also lettered in basketball and cross country in high school.

The championship match will be held Saturday at 7. The winner gets the league's NCAA tournament bid.

Princeton has made one NCAA tournament appearance, back in 1998.

The men's volleyball team isn't the only one playing for a championship this weekend.

The men's and women's golf teams will be competing at the Ivy League tournaments this weekend, both of which are in New Jersey. The men tee off at the Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor, while the women are at the Ridge at Black Brook in Ringoes.

The Princeton women have won the last two Ivy titles, destroying the field two years ago and then going from third after Day 1 to second after Day 2 to winning on Day 3 last year. Actually, the Tigers won on Day 3+ a year ago, since the tournament went to a playoff against Harvard.

While TB is talking about championship chasing, there's the women's tennis team.

Princeton enters the final season of the round-robin schedule at 5-0 in the league, one up on 4-1 Harvard and Yale. Princeton is home against Brown Saturday and then Yale Sunday.

A win over Brown would mean at least a share of the league championship. A sweep means an outright title.

Should Princeton win an Ivy title, that would be two straight and five in six years. And 15 overall. 

This is also a big home weekend in softball, when Princeton hosts Harvard for three.

The Tigers are part of a very crowded Ivy League race as the league starts to head for home. How crowded?

There are eight Ivy League softball teams, and five of them have either nine or eight wins right now.

Princeton is part of the eight-win crowd at 8-4, one game back of 9-3 Harvard and Columbia. Penn is at 9-6, and Yale is at 8-7.

The math is obvious with Harvard here, with two Saturday and one Sunday. First pitch is at 12:30 both days.

The goal in Ivy League softball is to get into the top two in the regular season, which gets you into the league championship series, which is where the NCAA at-large bid gets determined. Columbia would have the tiebreaker head-to-head over Princeton after having taken two of three earlier this season.

The forecast for Princeton for the weekend is iffy but not awful, so hopefully the softball - and the nearby golf - aren't affected.

After all, there are championships on the line.