Photos By Brian McWalters

If you were in the Raleigh-Durham airport Sunday in the late afternoon, there appeared to be a better than 50 percent chance that you were wearing a shirt, jacket, sweatshirt or hat that identified a college team for whom you were rooting.

At least that's how it seemed to TigerBlog, who was there in, of course, Princeton stuff. While he waited for his flight to Newark, it seemed like everyone else was similarly dressed.

Even when he got on the plane, he saw two people who were sitting across the aisle from each other, one in a Duke Lacrosse shirt and other in a North Carolina Lacrosse shirt. TB said "don't start any trouble" as he walked past them.

In the next row was a man in a Penn Lacrosse shirt. There were Princeton Lacrosse parents as well. All four of those teams had played over the weekend, with two games Friday and two Sunday, and now everyone was heading home. 

The Princeton baseball team also played in North Carolina, and there were Princeton baseball parents in the airport, scattering as well. TB met one of them, Doris Zdunek, in the gate area. She was heading back to California.

Her son Dylan is a freshman catcher on the Tiger baseball team. He had his first career RBI in the game Friday at UNC.

The lacrosse games were part of an unofficial Ivy League/ACC event. As it turned out, nobody won and nobody lost, or everybody won and everybody lost. Princeton beat North Carolina, who beat Penn, who beat Duke, who beat Princeton.

It was a great all-around experience for everyone involved. It started with Friday night's games, which were played in epic rains. The games Sunday felt like they were played in mid-summer humidity. 

Back at the rains Friday night, as TB said, they were epic. It rained from start to finish during the Princeton-UNC game, and it kept getting heavier and heavier as the night went along.

The game was played under the lights in Chapel Hill, with an 8 pm start time. The grass was green. Princeton wore black uniforms with black shorts. Carolina wore Tar Heel blue jerseys and shorts. 

As TB stood out in the rain — ditching his umbrella after the first quarter because it wasn't helping much anyway — he had the thought that the colors were perfect for photography. As it turned out, he didn't realize how right he was.

Brian McWalters was Princeton's photographer at the games in North Carolina this weekend, with two lacrosse games and the middle of the three baseball games. Brian has shot a bunch of stuff for Princeton through the years when Tiger teams head to the general area, and he was the one who was challenged to battle through the elements to take fullest advantage of the colors and the atmosphere.

First, TB will share with you one of Brian's pictures from Sunday, in the game against Duke:

That's Princeton sophomore middie John Dunphey who is sprawled out. In any other weekend, that would have been the best picture you could expect to get. 

On this weekend? 

How about these from Brian from Friday night? 

And TB has saved the best for last:

That's Cooper Mueller, checking the ball away from UNC's Andrew Preis. 

And that's about as good as a sports photo gets.