Lions And Tigers And Bears

Jeff Zeichner, the amiable public address announcer for several Princeton sports, asked TigerBlog the other day if he was going to be at both lacrosse games Saturday. 

When TB said he in fact was going to be, Jeff said this: "You'll have Lions and Tigers and Bears."

Not bad, Jeff. Not bad. 

Yes, there will be all three of those at Sherrerd Field tomorrow. It'll start at noon with the Tigers and (Brown) Bears in men's lacrosse and then have the (Columbia) Lions against the Tigers at 4 in women's lacrosse. 

The regular season has only three weekends to go, though both Princeton teams figure to be playing into May. It's been a great lacrosse season far at Princeton, as the teams are a combined 19-3 with RPIs of No. 1 (the men) and No. 3 (the women). 

Both teams have seniors who are chasing down their program's career goal-scoring records. Both teams have had big wins to date (hence the high RPIs). 

The women have won 10 straight since an opening loss to Virginia. The men are 8-2 with wins over three top five RPI teams and three more against teams in the top 20. 

Of course, anything that happens down the road is on the backburner right now. The focus is for tomorrow's games, and if the men's team needs a reminder, it can look back 52 weeks. 

 Last season, Princeton was 7-3 overall heading into its game at Brown. The Bears were 1-9. What happened? Brown ran out to a 6-0 lead and took down the Tigers 13-12. 

The men will finish their regular season with games at Penn and then home against Yale after the Brown game. The women will be at Penn Wednesday night (8) and then Brown at home next Saturday followed by a trip to Dartmouth. 

Before all that, enjoy the first episode of "Sticks and Stripes," a new Princeton Lacrosse podcast hosted by players Lane Calkins and Sean Cameron.

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Speaking of Tigers and Lions, what's the biggest event on the weekend schedule? 

It could be Sunday's men's tennis match between Princeton and Columbia at the new racket center on the Meadows Campus, starting at 1. 

The weekend begins today, as Princeton is at Cornell at 2, while Columbia hosts Penn. The Ivy standings are currently a portrait in symmetry, with Princeton and Columbia at 3-0 each, Harvard and Cornell in 2-1, Penn and Yale at 1-2 and Dartmouth and Brown at 0-3.

If you were at last Saturday's match against Harvard, also in the new facility, then you saw just how exciting a college tennis match can be. The Tigers were ranked 20 spots behind the Crimson and yet took them down 4-3, with the clinching point from freshman Milan Markovits.

Princeton moved up five spots and is now No. 30. The challenge against Columbia is a big one, as once again the opponent is 20 spots ahead of Princeton. That puts the Lions at No. 10.

Columbia also features Michael Zheng, who won the NCAA singles championship this past fall (the first time it was contested then). Zheng is currently the No. 1 ranked player in NCAA singles. 

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How about a Tiger and a Bear all at once? 

That would be Derek Ellingson, the head coach of the women's water polo team and a big bear of a man. Ellingston was recently honored by USA Water Polo with its Sandy Nitta Award. 

From the story about Ellingson's honor: The winners, representing zones from all across the country, honor contributions in variety of areas including coaching, officiating, volunteering, masters water polo and more. USA Water Polo will announce the National Award winners from the list of Zone winners later in the year.

It's hard to imagine a more deserving winner. 

The women's water polo team is at Bucknell this afternoon at 2. Princeton and Harvard are tied atop the  College Water Polo Association standings with two losses prior to the weekend. 

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The schedule for the rest of the busy weekend is HERE.