Thursday Catch Up

If it's Thursday, it must be time to catch up on some things:

* Yes, it's not even Halloween yet, but you can see what figures to be a great matchup in women's hockey at Baker Rink tomorrow night. Princeton, who opened its season with a sweep of Robert Morris last weekend, hosts Yale at 6 in the first game of the season for the Bulldogs. After that, it'll be Princeton-Brown Saturday at 6 at Baker Rink.

The Bulldogs come off a season in which they went 28-4-1, and they are picked second in the ECAC preseason poll. The team is led by goalie Pia Dukaric, who plays for the Slovenian national team and who was named the most outstanding goalie at the 2023 World Championships.

Princeton outscored Robert Morris 10-2 in last weekend's sweep. The Tigers, obviously, are led by Sarah Fillier, who is the third Princeton athlete ever to win an Olympic gold medal and then come back and compete for the Tigers, joining Bill Bradley and Ashleigh Johnson. 

* TigerBlog took a long walk yesterday around the campus. When it is empty here, as it is this week because of fall break, it is very, very quiet, eerily so almost.

* The four fall Ivy League tournament races are reaching their critical moments, with only two weekends left for field hockey and women's soccer and three for men's soccer. The women's volleyball race has just passed the midway point.

TigerBlog will start with women's volleyball. 

Right now, Yale is 7-0, with Princeton and Brown with two losses, Harvard with three and everyone else with four or more. While the other six teams all have a single match this weekend against their travel partners, Princeton and Penn (1-7) are off, since they already played their home-and-home earlier in the year. 

* If it's already women's hockey season, then basketball season can't be far behind. The Ivy League released its preseason polls this week, with the Princeton men picked to finish second and the women a unanimous choice for No. 1. 

What does this mean? Nothing, obviously. 

What matters most in a college basketball season is how a team progresses. Everyone knows where the Tigers finished last year — both teams — but the road is long and there are hurdles along the way. 

Preseason polls are fun. So is the coming of the season. March? That's a long, long way off. 

* All eight Ivy men's soccer teams have played four of their seven league games to date. Right now, first place to seventh place is separated by just four points (three points for a win, one for a tie).

Where does that leave Princeton? The Tigers have four points at 1-2-1 in the league as they prepare to host Brown this weekend (4, Saturday). The Bears are currently 1-0-3, which gives them six points. That's two more than Princeton, but the Bears are four spots ahead in the standings.

Obviously a lot will happen between now and the Ivy tournament. Princeton finishes the league season with games at Harvard (currently in first with eight points) and Penn (one point ahead of Princeton as part of the three-way tie for fourth).

* For tennis fans, the ITA Super Regionals for the men will be held at Princeton this weekend, starting tomorrow and running through Monday. Check the website for schedules, and if there is rain, locations. 

* TigerBlog didn't realize this until he saw it on X, but Princeton alum Tyler Lussi — the all-time leading scorer in soccer at Princeton for women and men — has five game-winning goals this season for the NC Courage in the NWSL. 

In fact, she's scored the only goal in five different 1-0 wins. That's, um, really impressive. 

* Speaking of women's soccer, Princeton has two league games left, at Dartmouth Saturday (3) and home against Columbia next Saturday. The Tigers are currently 3-1-1 in the league, tied with Harvard for second place (they've both lost to Brown and tied each other).

The Tigers are Crimson sit five points behind first-place Brown, who would host the Ivy tournament with one point in their final two games (Cornell and Dartmouth). The fourth spot is currently held by the Big Green, who have eight points, and then fifth place is held by Columbia with five points.

Should Princeton get a win or tie this weekend or should Columbia or tie in its game against Yale, it would clinch a spot in the league tournament. The same is true of Harvard. 

* Speaking of Dartmouth, the field hockey team will be heading south on I-91 when the women's soccer game starts Saturday. The Tigers' game against the Big Green in field hockey begins at 11 am. 

Depending on the outcome of the Yale-Columbia game tomorrow, then Princeton will either be in the Ivy tournament with a win (and a Columbia win) or will be playing a game that has no impact on the Ivy tournament (with a Yale win). 

Should the Bulldogs win their game, then the Princeton-Yale game next Friday would be a de-facto tournament play-in game, with the winner to join Harvard, Penn and Cornell. The Princeton-Dartmouth game in that case wouldn't matter, win or lose. 

* Lastly, TigerBlog wishes all of the best to Meg Moore and Derek Griesdorn as they tie the knot Saturday. Derek is a universally well-loved member of the equipment staff, and Meg used to work at the Ivy League office. Hopefully the honeymoon lasts forever — though TB will still be needing Meg to help with stats at lacrosse this spring.