211-20 And 1-0

Just as quick heads up for your Monday morning, the United States was sort of dominant at the World U20 Women's Lacrosse Championships.

The tournament in Honk Kong ended Saturday morning as the USA, well, TigerBlog isn't sure of the right word to describe it. For instance, "won" doesn't really seem to cover it. Neither does "dominated," which comes up just a bit short too.

The championship game matched the U.S. and Canada, and it turned out to be by far the closest game the Americans played in the tournament. Final score? 

USA 23, Canada 6.

The United States played seven games between the group stage and playoff rounds. The team went 7-0 and outscored its opponents by a combined 211-20.

By the way, Canada was 6-0 before it played the U.S. and had outscored its opponents 127-10 to that point. 

Other than the game against Canada, the closest any other opponent stayed to the U.S. was 24 goals. The semifinal game against Australia figured to be at least competitive. Final score: 33-1.

Princeton had two players in the tournament, and both had huge performances. 

Canada's Jami MacDonald finished fourth in the tournament in points with 35 on 25 goals and 10 assists, which also made her one of two players to finish with at least 20 goals and 10 assists. MacDonald's 35 points were fourth overall and were the most by any non-American in the tournament.

Haven Dora of the U.S. had 29 points, seventh-best in the tournament, with six goals and 23 assists. Her assist total tied her for second.

As MacDonald and Dora make their way back to Princeton after their international summers, Princeton has two player who are in Colombia to prepare for the U20 World Cup of women's soccer. And, as was the case in lacrosse, there is one American (Pietra Tordin) and one Canadian (Zoe Markesini).

That tournament begins later this week.

The Princeton women's soccer team opened its season — and for that matter the entire 2024-25 Tiger season — by hosting Miami (Fla.) Saturday night. Isabella Garces scored her first collegiate goal with 26 minutes to play to give Princeton a 1-0 win.

TigerBlog was watching the game on ESPN+, where the play-by-play man was Jeff O'Connor, whose voice you know from Princeton soccer, hockey and women's lacrosse. As soon as Garces put the ball in the net, he immediately called it as the first of her career. That's one of the little things that makes for a really good announcer.

TB didn't have to be there to know that Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium was packed with athletes from the other fall sports. It's something of a late August tradition now. 

The goal itself was a thing of beauty. 

The game, Miami's third, was scoreless into the second half before the Tigers scored the one that would stand up. It started when Kelsee Wozniak played a ball down the right side to Kayla Wong, who then one-timed it back to the middle, where she played give-and-go with Pia Beaulieu. 

By the time Wong got the ball back, Garces was already pointing with her right hand to some open space inside the box. Wong played it perfectly into that space, and Garces redirected it into the far side of the goal. 

26' left, 2nd half | Princeton 1, Miami 0

First career goal for Isabella Garces gets Princeton on the board!

💻: https://t.co/Sz2fmJ4bwc pic.twitter.com/pPkBRf6n78

— Princeton WSoccer (@PrincetonWSoc) August 25, 2024

That goal might have stood up, but it came close to not doing so. Miami had a last chance in the final seconds, but a big-time save from senior goalkeeper Tyler McCamey as time was expiring kept the Hurricanes from tying it.

The win came on the first of three straight home games to start the season for the women's soccer team. Next up will be Seton Hall Thursday at 7 and then Penn State the following Thursday, also at 7. 

Within two weeks from today, every fall team other than the football team will be off and running. It'll get very busy, very quickly. 

Still, there's only one Opening Night. There's always something special about the first game of a new year, with no idea of what's coming between then and June.

For now? Princeton is unbeaten.