Boat Championships

The IRA rowing championships begin today on the Cooper River in Camden. 

TigerBlog is rooting for Princeton, of course. Ah, but if the Tigers can't win the men's heavyweight race, then he'd like to see Dartmouth take the national championship.

Why? Because of Justin Lafleur.

Who is Justin Lafleur? He is TB's colleague at Dartmouth, where he oversees the Big Green athletic communications office. He's also someone that TB has worked with at the past 14 or so NCAA lacrosse championships, including the one that just passed. 

This year's championships were held at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, which hosted eight games in four days between the Division I women's and men's semifinals and finals and the Division II and Division III finals. 

Justin was the caller for all eight games. TigerBlog entered the stats as Justin called them out. A few guys named Nick (two from Harvard, one from Boston College) did other tasks. 

TB went back and checked. For the eight games, he entered exactly 2,432 separate stat entries. He made a few mistakes, mostly getting the teams reversed as he typed in numbers. 

All in all, it went pretty smoothly. 

For TigrBlog, by the way, he has done this now at every Final Four for the men since 2005. He's also only missed three Final Fours since Princeton made its first appearance in 1992 — in 1995, 1999 and 2003. 

The Division I winners were North Carolina for the women and Cornell for the men. UNC's redshirt freshman Chloe Humphreys was the Most Outstanding Player for the women, and why not? It seemed like 200 or so of the stats TB entered were goals from her. 

Princeton's women lost to UNC 19-10 in the quarterfinals. If you were disheartened by that result, don't be. UNC went unbeaten for the year at 22-0, and the Tigers actually played the Tar Heels relatively competitively compared to the rest of Division I.

As for the men, TigerBlog said after Cornell beat Princeton in the Ivy opener on March 15 that the Big Red were the best team. The rest of the season only proved that to be the case. 

And you know for whom TigerBlog was happiest at the Cornell title? Joe Willie, that's who.  

Congratulations go out to the Big Red, who won their fourth NCAA championship and first since 1977. Princeton has still won more NCAA titles than every other Ivy school combined with six of its own against five for the rest of the league (Cornell's four, plus Yale). 

Which team held Cornell to its fewest goals this year? That would be Dartmouth, in a 10-8 loss. And that brings TB back to Justin, who was so proud of the fact that his Big Green team had that accomplishment. Make that so, so, so proud. He may have mentioned it more than once. 

It's an interesting dynamic to see your closest rivals do well on the national stage. TigerBlog was impressed all year with Cornell men's lacrosse. He was actually in their hotel during their run to the championship last weekend, and they seemed like easy guys to root for — but, you know, TB would much have preferred that to be Princeton in the dog pile on Memorial Day.

That's why he was happy for those who were close to it — like Joe Willie and Cornell's athletic communications guru Jeremy Hartigan. And that's why he could be happy if Dartmouth heavyweights win. 

Princeton's heavyweight first varsity eight is ranked fifth as they head into, trailing, in order, Cal, Washington, Harvard and Dartmouth. The 2V is ranked fourth, behind Washington, Cal and Harvard and ahead of Dartmouth. 

You can read more about the men's heavyweights HERE.

The Tiger lightweights are also rowing in South Jersey. The 1V is ranked third, behind Harvard and Penn. You preview is HERE.

The NCAA women's championships are on Mercer Lake today through Sunday. If you're heading out there from Princeton today, TB hopes you read this early: The Varsity Eight rows at 10:24 am followed by the second varsity at 11 a.m. with the varsity four finishing up at 11:36 a.m. The top three in each heat advance to the A/B Semifinals on Saturday. The top three finishers in the A/B Semifinals move onto the Grand Finals on Sunday.

TigerBlog took that directly from the goprincetontigers.com preview, which has a lot more information HERE.

Go Princeton. Always.

Catching Up

Well, there are some items to catch up on, including the news that George Wendt passed away last week.

You know that you've had an interesting life when your obituary is almost more about the fictional character you once played than it is about you. That was certainly the case here. 

Of course, that character was Norm on the long-running comedy "Cheers." And when you think of Norm, you think of "NORM!!!!" as he walks into the bar. 

What was your favorite? Was it: 

"Hey Norm, how's life treating you?"
"Like I slept with its wife."

or

"Hey Norm, how goes it?"
"It's a dog-eat-dog world out there and I''m wearing Milkbone underwear."

or 

"Hey Mr. Peterson, do you want a beer?"
"Stop with the stupid questions."

Those are great. This one might be the best:

Rest in peace, Mr. Peterson.

*

The Indiana Fever, as you may be aware, have a player named Caitlin Clark. She seems to be worth watching. 

The Fever draw ratings that no other WNBA team could even dream of, every game, home or away. Her impact on WNBA revenues has been dramatic, obviously.

What you might not know is that the team's play-by-play man is John Nolan, who has built a nice career in Indiana calling baseball and college and G-League basketball. He's now in his first season behind the mic for the Fever. 

What is so special about him? A long time ago, TigerBlog tried to recruit him for a job at Princeton, after he'd done some broadcasting for the Tigers after he graduated from Syracuse. 

Nolan nicely turned down the job. It seems to have worked out for him. 

No hard feelings, John. Congrats on the new gig. 

*

The Princeton Athletics calendar is not quite finished for 2024-25. What remains are the national championships for women's open rowing, men's lightweight and heavyweight rowing and men's and women's track and field. 

The rowing championships will be held this weekend in New Jersey, with the NCAA championships for women's open at Mercer Lake, not far from Princeton, and the men's IRA championships on the Cooper River in South Jersey. 

TigerBlog was at the women's championships outside of Dayton last year. He was at the IRA championships on the Cooper River in 1998, when the Tigers won the men's lightweight and heavyweight titles in a span of about 15 minutes. 

If you've ever been in the boathouse, you might have noticed the great picture of the two teams taken shortly after those championships in 1998. TB was taken right back to the moment every time he's see it, as he was standing directly next to the photographer at the time. 

As for track and field, the regionals began yesterday, with 32 Tigers in Jacksonville — 16 men, 16 women — looking to qualify for Eugene and the NCAA finals next week.

*

Welcome back to Princeton Mike Brennan, a 1994 graduate and former point guard on the men's basketball team who is joining Mitch Henderson's staff this year for his second go-round as a Tiger assistant.

In all the years that TB has been around Princeton men's basketball, there haven't been too many guys he's liked more than Brennan. He doesn't say much, but what he says is definitely worth listening to.

Way back when, early in the 1994-95 season to be exact, TigerBlog and Pete Carril went into New York City for an interview on CBS with the legendary Pat O'Brien, who wanted to talk somewhat broadly about Carril and his career. 

Instead, all he got out of Carril was "I lost my point guard," a reference to the graduated Brennan. There weren't too many players Carril ever liked more than Brennan, whose career numbers weren't overwhelming but whose impact on the games he played was. 

If the stat for fewest turnovers per 40 minutes in a career had been tracked at Princeton, Brennan would be way, way, way up there on the list. 

You can read a lot more about his career achievements as an assistant at Princeton and Georgetown under Georgetown and as head coach at American, as well as his other stops, HERE.

Women's Hockey — One Tragedy, One Farewell

TigerBlog has always liked Dodie Calavecchio, Class of 1988.

She was a four-time All-Ivy League selection in women's soccer as a goalkeeper, and she was the second Tiger to be honored as league Player of the Year in her sport when she won the award in 1985. She also was named to the Ivy League's women's soccer silver anniversary team. 

She spent one year as the head coach of the women's hockey team, in 1994. She even spent her senior year on the women's hockey team.

These days she's an accomplished architect. TB hadn't heard from her in a long time, so his first reaction last week at receiving an email from her was to smile. 

Then he read the email.

Dodie asked TB if he'd heard the news of the passing of Lisa Brown Miller, the one-time head coach of women's hockey at Princeton. She said she wasn't sure if TB had been at Princeton when Brown Miller was, and the answer was yes, he was, and yes, he knew her. 

Brown Miller was only 58 years old at the time of her passing. 

A New Jersey native, Brown Miller played college hockey and then joined the US Women's National Team at a time when there was no women's hockey in the Olympics. She was on four US teams that finished runner-up to Canada at the World Championships, and she and her teammates picked a really good time to break through — taking the first-ever gold medal at the 1998 Winter Games in Japan.

She coached the Tigers from 1991-96, with a record of 60-46-5 and two Ivy League championships. 

TigerBlog hadn't heard about her until Dodie's email. It's always stunning to see that someone you knew was gone, especially someone younger than you are. 

In this case, it was no different. You can read Brown Miller's obituary HERE (and it's painful to have to write that). 

Princeton women's hockey has had only five head coaches in its entire history. It's about to get a seventh. 

The first head coach was Bill Quackenbush, who took over when the program achieved varsity status in 1979. Quakenbush was a former NHL player who had played for the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins back when the league only had six teams. 

The second was Bob Ewell, who, among other accomplishments, is the father of the great Nate Ewell, one of the TB's favorite Princetonians ever. Brown Miller was Ewell's assistant coach, and she took over for him. 

When she left in 1996 to devote herself full-time to the national team, she was replaced by a former men's player, Jeff Kampersal, whose tenure lasted for 21 years and 327 wins. When Kampy went on to become Penn State's head coach, the head job went to his top assistant, Cara Morey. 

And now her tenure has come to a close as well. 

The news broke last week that Morey was leaving Princeton to become the general manager of the expansion Vancouver team in the Professional Women's Hockey League. 

Morey, a Canadian, played at Brown (where she was an All-American in ice hockey and field hockey), but she's been a part of Princeton women's hockey for 14 years, including being the head coach since 2017. Her best season was in 2019-20, when she led the team to the ECAC championship. 

Had the pandemic not come along, Princeton had as good a chance as any team to win the NCAA title. 

You don't usually associate Princeton women's hockey and the last week of May, but that's where things are right now. 

The news about Morey's departure brought up feelings of appreciation for all she's done at Princeton and good wishes for her next challenge. It has to be exciting, and a bit daunting, to build a professional team from scratch — especially with only a few months to do so. 

The news about Brown Miller?

That was just horrible.  

TigerBlog sends his condolences to her family.

Congratulations, Class of 2025

How was Reunions? 

Did you dance all night under a tent? You probably did. 

And it doesn't matter if you were at the fifth or any other tent. It doesn't matter if you graduated in a year that started with "202" or "19-something." You loved every second of it.

TigerBlog's favorite part of Reunions is the P-Rade. The sight of wave after wave of alums from every decade as they find their way down Elm Drive is just spectacular.

Hopefully whatever it is you like about Reunions was refreshed this weekend. And TigerBlog has a suggestion for you for next year:

Find Pattie Friend and follow her around. 

Mrs. Friend, as you might recall, is the woman TB met in the diner on Nassau Street more than a year ago. Her husband Lloyd was in the Class of 1965. They were married shortly after he graduated and stayed that way until his death in 2008.

Since TB met her, he's seen her at pretty much any and every Tiger sporting event. She also is a staple at Cannon Club, where 1) Lloyd was a member, 2) where she works on Sunday nights during the year checking people in and 3) where she put some of Lloyd's ashes after he passed away. 

It all led to these two pictures that she sent to TB:

 

That's very sweet.

Mrs. Friend is aptly named. Her superpower is making friends, everywhere she goes. She'll say "I won't know anyone at the game" and then come back talking about how many people she met. 

She was non-stop on the go at Reunions, in her role as the organizer of the widow's group of the Class of 1965 — and as a walking, talking bolt of lightning. If you see the woman in the picture at Reunions next year, just follow her around. You'll have fun. 

Reunions for this are now in the past. So is the prom. So is Class Day. All that is left for this glorious time at Princeton in Commencement.

And this, by the way, is what it's all about. Whatever you did at Princeton, whatever club you were in, whatever community service project you did, whatever team you played on, whatever stage you performed on — the overriding goal was to be there today. 

It's an indescribable feeling for a parent to watch. TigerBlog knows this first hand, having watched his own daughter do so three years ago. 

He wrote this afterwards, and it is so true:

"Ultimately, he guesses the main emotion was marvel, if that is an emotion. He sat there and watched his daughter, and he marveled at the magnitude of what she had done her at Princeton. He smiled. He laughed. He also beamed. He even cried a little. He was in awe. Mostly, he marveled."

You can ask any parent who is there today to watch it. They will confirm what TB just said. 

It's extraordinary, really. It's not easy to be a Princeton student, obviously. Doing all of the work, writing the thesis, navigating it all — not easy. 

To sit there and see their faces as they wear their caps and gowns? It takes you back to every moment of their childhoods, to the day they got their acceptance letter, to every time they reached out to share the stresses and successes of being a Princeton student. 

Congrats to all of the parents. 

And congrats to the Class of 2025. You know how tough it was to get to this point. And you did it. 

You've earned your smiles. And you've earned your place as Princeton alums. 

Whatever road you take from here, TB wishes you the best. You will all remember your time at Princeton with incredible fondness, as over time the difficult moments will fade and all you'll be left with will be the knowledge that you did it. You'll also draw from these four years for the rest of your life, with the lessons that you've learned. 

And next year, if you come back, you'll have a whole new take on Reunions. 

And that'll be doubly true if you find Mrs. Friend. You'll have to take TB's word it. 

In the meantime, you should all be really proud of yourselves.

And The Winners Are ...

TigerBlog remembers clearly the day he met Roko Pozaric. 

The Princeton men's water polo team was on its way to the NCAA tournament in California, and TB was going to write a feature story about its freshman star. The two met in DeNunzio Pool shortly before the players got on the bus to go to the airport. 

And that was nearly four years ago? What the heck?

Here is how the story began:

There were 120 graduates in the most recent class at Gimnazija Titusa Brezovackog, a high school in Zagreb.

Nearly four months ago, the only one of those 120 grads who was heading to college in the United States was sitting on an airplane, heading out of Croatian airspace, wondering what exactly he was getting himself into next. Clearly Roko Pozaric, about to join Princeton’s Class of 2025 and the men’s water polo team, was diving – literally and figuratively – into the deep end of a new pool, with no idea of what to expect.

“I was stressed a lot about coming here,” Pozaric says. “I’d never been to Princeton before. I’d never been to the United States before.”

Can you imagine that flight? Heading into a new part of your life, far away from everything and everyone you've ever known? What thoughts must he have had as he made his first trip west, eventually landing in New Jersey.

TigerBlog is guessing that none of those thoughts involved the William Winston Roper Trophy, given annually to the top senior male athlete at Princeton.

And yet there he was last night at the Gary Walters Princeton Varsity Club Senior Banquet, taking home the big prize. His career at Princeton was one of excellence from the day he first stepped on the campus. Among his accomplishments: a four-time All-American, three-time NWPC Player of the Year, four-time first-team All-NWPC, 2021 NWPC Rookie of the Year. 

He also graduates as Princeton's career leader in goals scored with 281; the former record of 254 had stood for nearly 20 years. 

The C. Otto von Kienbusch Award goes to the top female senior athlete. Its namesake was certainly an interesting character (a blind art collector and collector of arms and armor from the Class of 1906 who lived his entire life in the same New York City apartment at 12 West 74th Street except for his four years at Princeton)not to mention one of the most important people in the history of women's athletics at Princeton. 

It was von Kienbusch who, for reasons he never really made clear, underwrote the earliest days of women's athletics at Princeton, essentially writing blank checks to the first woman athletic administrator at Princeton, Merrily Dean Baker. Because varsity athletics for women were supposed to be gradually launched over a five-year period, there was no money in the budget when they actually started in a few months, rather than a few years.

Maybe he did it to honor the memory of his wife Mildred, who passed away shortly before women came to Princeton. It was his wish that the award given to the top senior female athlete would be the Mildred von Kienbusch Award, but Baker insisted on naming it after him. 

The most recent winner of the award is Mena Scatchard of the women's track and field team. Like Pozaric, she too came to Princeton from Europe, in her case England.

She dominated, especially in her senior year, when she led the team to a Triple Crown of league championships in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track andfield. 

Individually, she was the NCAA runner-up in the indoor mile this past winter, earning first-team All-American honors. She is a five-time Ivy individual champion, and she set seven individual Princeton records with two more as a part of relays. 

She was also a rarity, a middle distance runner who could also run cross country, where she was the Heps runner-up this past fall. She still has the NCAA championships this year ahead of her. 

Those two were the biggest winners at the banquet last night. Or were they? 

Maybe it was a tie, among every senior athlete there, all of whom made it to this point, all of whom were competing as Tigers through the end of their senior year. They learned lessons. They made friendships. 

And last night, they all celebrated together, as a kickoff to Reunions and the beginning of one of the best times of their lives, through Commencement Tuesday. 

Yes. It was definitely a tie. A more than 200-way tie.

Banquet Night

There were 714 members in the Princeton Class of 1965, of whom approximately 500 are still alive. 

There will be 127 members of the class who attend Reunions this weekend. That's 25 percent of the living alums who will be back on campus for their 60th. 

If you graduated 60 years ago, by the way, you're probably around 82 or 83 years old. 

Compare that to what TigerBlog wrote yesterday, about how approximately 15 percent of his class at Penn came back for its 40th. There are reunions, and then there are Reunions. 

And the ones with the capital "R" begin today at Princeton. 

It's the start of a remarkable few days, beginning with Day 1 of Reunions, which run through Saturday. Then there is the prom Sunday, Class Day Monday and finally Commencement Tuesday.

There will be upwards of 30,000 people on campus all weekend. The energy level everywhere will be next level. 

Come Wednesday? It'll be nothing but eerie silence. 

One of the highlights of this weekend every year comes up tonight in Jadwin Gym. It's the Gary Walters ’67 Princeton Varsity Club Banquet, an event that is the near-culmination of the athletic year.

TB says the near-culmination, because there are still events on the calendar, with the NCAA track and field regionals and championships and the national championships in rowing still to come. 

For the most part, though, the story of the 2024-25 athletic year at Princeton has already been told. This was the year that Princeton won 17 Ivy League championships, which means that there were Tiger titles in more than half of the league's sports. 

There is more to the banquet than just on-field success, of course. It's a time to bring an entire senior class, and the "Team Around The Team," together to celebrate the latest chapter in a long line of Orange and Black. 

There are two awards whose winners have already been announced. There is the Marvin Bressler Award, given to "that member of the Princeton family who, through heartfelt support of the University’s student-athletes and coaches, best embodies a belief in the lifelong lessons taught by competition and athletics as a complement to the overall educational mission in the spirit of Marvin Bressler, a Princeton professor of sociology from 1963-94." This year's winner is Momo Wolapaye, the assistant dean for student life at Whitman College. 

TB had lunch with Momo a few months ago and wrote this about him afterwards:

TB can tell you that Momo is exactly the kind of person you want in his role. He's someone who is definitely committed to the student experience and to doing whatever he can to make that experience the best it can be.

There is also the Class of 1967 Citizen-Athlete Award, which is presented by the Princeton Varsity Club "for selfless and noble contributions to sport and society."

The winner is Kara Nortman, Class of 1997 and a huge reason why the NWSL has had the growth it's had in recent years. This is from her bio:

In 2023, Nortman announced the creation of Monarch Collective, an investment platform focused on women’s sports teams, leagues, and adjacent rights opportunities. Monarch Collective’s strategy centers on investing in established leagues such as the NWSL, with current investments in Boston Legacy FC, the San Diego Wave, and Angel City Football Club. Nortman and her co-Managing Partner, Jasmine Robinson, raised $250 million for Monarch’s inaugural fund, making it the largest dedicated women’s sports fund in the market.

There will be other awards, of course. The Roper Trophy and von Kienbusch Awards will be given to the top senior male and female athletes. The Class of 1916 Cup will go to the senior athlete in the highest academic standing. There are also awards for service and leadership. 

There's also an orange carpet, a cocktail hour, a lot of mingling, a lot of laughing and the senior athlete video at the end, where each soon-to-be graduate will be recognized. 

The banquet that began as an idea from the man whose name is now in its title was first held with a small gathering in the lobby of Jadwin Gym. It's grown into a full multimedia, multi-fun event that no Princeton fan who has ever attended hasn't loved.

It's a marvelous way to end a marvelous year. 

And that's something that can said every year. 

Happy Reunions

It was 40 years ago this week that TigerBlog graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.

He even has a diploma to prove it. Somewhere. He's pretty sure he knows where it is, on the bottom of a bin in his closet. 

Perhaps ironically, or tellingly, or whatever the right word is, hovering over his hidden diploma in the same closet would be an army of orange and black. 

Last weekend was his 40th reunion. It was a lot of fun.

How does TB know this? It's because his roommate his senior year told him it was. 

It's not like TB was there. He's never gone to a Penn reunion. That's not to say that he didn't have a great college experience, because he did. 

It's just that, unlike most people, TigerBlog has spent most of those 40 years since graduation as part of his own school's rival. It's been a fun perspective, to say the least. 

As former Ford Family Director of Athletics Gary Walters used to tell him, he has: "a Penn diploma and a Princeton education."

And as he says, he knows where that diploma is. 

As part of the Class of 1985's 40th at Penn, an online Reunion book was created. Each graduate as invited to fill out a form that included name, major, current occupation, current place of residence, who your friends were and a segment called "my journey." There were also other boxes, like "when not in class you could find me ..." and "favorite memories." 

Of course, most of TB's favorite memories of Penn involve games in which the Quakers lost to Princeton, but he left that out.  

The book is pretty interesting, with its opportunity to see where all of the people are 40 years later. One of the more interesting parts for TB is how few people he either knew or even remembered, something he contrasted laughingly with how many Princetonians he knows. 

Oh, and you could also post pictures of yourself, your Penn friends, your family, whatever you like. Interestingly, TigerBlog is wearing Princeton gear in all of his photos. 

While TigerBlog has never been to a Penn reunion, he has been to many Princeton Reunions. The annual tradition begins again tomorrow, as more than 30,000 people are expected to flood to campus. 

Hopefully the people are the only ones flooding and not the weather. 

You know what, though? Even if the weather is rainy, it won't stop the alums from coming back and having a great time. It never has in the past. 

Princeton Reunions are unique. When TB spoke to Charlie about Penn's reunion, he said about 300-400 of their classmates attended (out of a graduating class of around 2,000). What percentage of the Princeton Class of 1985 will be back for its 40th? 

It will be way higher than 15 percent, TB would think.

And the numbers don't begin to describe the scene. For one, there are the Reunion jackets. They are different for each class, but they are all a cacophony of orange and black, in some of the most creative ways imaginable. 

If Penn has something similar, nobody ever offered one to TB.

Then there is the scene, the mass of humanity that goes throughout the campus, from tent to tent, with "hellos" and "hugs" and "heys!!!!!" every few yards. It just bounces from one scene of joy to another. 

If you're into jubo photos, Reunions is the place to be. 

It starts tomorrow. Among the highlights will be the P-Rade Saturday at 2, which is TB's favorite part of being there, and the fireworks at the end. 

More than any of that, though, there is the whole idea of what Reunions is all about. Once you graduate, you go on very different paths, or "journeys," as the Penn 40th Reunion book calls it. 

As TB went through the book, he took note of those journeys — occupationally, familial and geographical. According to the book, there are Penn alums from TB's class in more than 240 different cities, all around the world. 

The same is true at Princeton, whether you're coming back for your fifth or 60th.

And yet, for this weekend each year, they're all back where it all started, to revisit the friends and places and experiences that did so much to shape them and point them each to a different direction. 

It's such a special event, and Princeton does it better than anywhere else. 

Maybe that's because it really is the best damn place of all. 

Heartbreak Squared

The venue was the same — Shuart Stadium at Hofstra University.

Would the emotions match those of three years ago or of 16 years ago? Sadly, it would be the latter. 

TigerBlog couldn't help but think back to Princeton's previous two appearances in the NCAA men's lacrosse quarterfinals before the Tigers took on Syracuse Saturday. For the winner there would be a trip to this weekend's semifinals in Foxboro. 

For the losing team, there would only the heartbreak of coming oh-so-close no matter how the game played out. With the way this one went? It was heartbreak-squared.

This was the same field where Princeton had defeated Yale 14-10 in the 2022 quarterfinals. It was also the field where Princeton had fallen to Cornell 6-4 in the 2009 quarterfinals. 

The game this past Saturday would have more goals than those two combined. Final score: Syracuse 19, Princeton 18. 

As with any shootout like that, you're left with a ton of "what-ifs" when it ends. Every detail becomes something to stew about over and over and over. 

In the end, it doesn't matter. There's only the final score — and nothing can ever change it. 

TB has always put that 2009 quarterfinal loss among the top two most heartbreaking losses he's seen in all his time at Princeton, along with the 1998 NCAA second-round men's basketball loss to Michigan State. The game Saturday has, as the kids say, "entered the chat." 

Princeton led 5-2 early. Syracuse led 16-11 in the third quarter. It was tied 16-16 in the fourth. And 17-17 (after Syracuse had briefly regained the lead). And 18-18 (after Princeton had as well). Then Syracuse scored with three minutes left to go ahead, and Princeton's last two shots were stopped. 

And just like that, a season of greatness, a more-than-three-month run with so many big moments, had ended. 

The finality of it is just brutal. 

If there were any consolations, these were they:

1) Princeton and Syracuse had played one of the greatest NCAA games ever. Had this been two rounds later, it would have been considered THE best the tournament has seen, or at worst one of the top three. If you were simply a fan of lacrosse, or someone who had never seen a game, then you would have loved to see it.

2) It was also great to see the Princeton-Syracuse rivalry renewed in May. Princeton and Syracuse won every NCAA title from 1988-2004 except for 1991 (North Carolina), 1999 and 2003 (Virginia), and they played each other in four of those finals, including three straight from 2000-02. The teams are 2-2 against each other on Memorial Day. All NCAA games are special — Princeton vs. Syracuse has always been a little more so, and the game Saturday certainly added to the lore. 

3) There was also the whole Sam English dynamic. English is a Princeton graduate who scored three goals in the 2022 quarterfinal win over Yale and then had two against his alma mater Saturday as a grad student for the Orange. English is a difficult guy to root against. 

With the season over, it's a good time to look back on what the Class of 2025 accomplished in its four years together. There was the 2022 Final Four and the 2025 quarterfinals. There were two Ivy League tournament championships. 

The Class of 2025 went 43-21 overall and 13-4 as seniors. Those numbers include a postseason record of 8-5 and the distinction of being the first Princeton class since 2004 to reach four NCAA titles.

Special recognition goes to Coulter Mackesy, who graduates as the all-time leading goal-scorer in program history with 167, as well as the single-season leader after having 55 as a sophomore. He also finished with 248 career points, one ahead of Kevin Lowe, in second place behind only Michael Sowers. 

And also to Chad Palumbo, a junior, who tied the program record with six goals in an NCAA game in the loss Saturday. With two assists, he also had the second-highest single-game NCAA point total by a Tiger with eight. 

It was a long bus ride back to Princeton after the game. It was a sad gathering in Caldwell Field House after returning. 

It's never easy when a season is over, unless you're the ones rolling around in the dog pile on Memorial Day. In time, they'll come to appreciate what the seniors accomplished, what they all accomplished, and the returning players will be back next year to make another run at it. Princeton figures to be a preseason top five team next year at least. 

Still, in that moment? There were tears and long faces. That's how it should be. It should sting when you put that much into something.

And it does. If you've never seen it up close, you'll never really appreciate it. 

Count von Count

How was your weekend?

TigerBlog starts your Monday with three numbers: four, eight and 17. He also asks you to think about which one is the most impressive. 

This has sort of a "Sesame Street" vibe now that he thinks about it. Count von Count and all that, though he'd count out each number, no?

He'll start with four. Or, as the Count, as he is also known, would have put it: "One, two, three, four ... four seconds."

If you go back to Saturday, April 19, and check out the Princeton women's open rowing schedule, you'll note that the Tigers were beaten by Yale by 3.5 seconds on Lake Carnegie. If you go back to last week and check out the women's rowing national rankings, you'd see that Princeton (No. 6) was ranked behind Yale (No. 5).

The only teams ahead of them were, in order, Stanford, Texas, Washington and Tennessee. 

The Ivy League women's rowing championships were held yesterday on the Cooper River in South Jersey. Yale went off as the big favorite, but that's not how it played out. 

Princeton got out quickly and led wire-to-wire. In the end, the Tigers pretty much reversed the regular season outcome. 

Okay, it wasn't exactly four seconds. It was 3.8. The Count rounds up. 

Splash Down. 🧡🖤 pic.twitter.com/N8Rk9I6YDc

— Princeton Open Women (@princetonwcrew) May 18, 2025

The Princeton first varsity eight boat consisted of Sara Covin, Margot LeRoux, Joely Cherniss, Anne du Croo de Jongh, Katherine George, Eleanor Smith, Samantha Smart, Zoe Scheske and Kerry Grundlingh.

Next up?

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight ... eight consecutive championships."

The winner of the first varsity 8 race is recognized as the Ivy League champion. And how many years has that winner been Princeton? 

Well, it doesn't take a math genius like the Count to figure that out. The answer is eight. It's also 10 of the last 11, for that matter.

It's an incredible run of consistency on the part of the women's open program, whose roster has turned over several times during that run. Along the way, Princeton has produced Olympian after Olympian and then seem them graduate, only to be replaced by new generations after new generation. 

The constant? That would be head coach Lori Dauphiny. Whatever goes into building a winning program — from the athletes to the culture to the leadership to the teaching to all of it — Dauphiny has long ago figured it out. 

And so that leaves one more number:

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 ... 17 Ivy League championships."

That's how many Ivy League championships Princeton has won this academic year.

"That's a lot of championships," the Count says. 

For the official rundown, that would be: 

field hockey, women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's cross country, women's cross country, men's fencing, women's swimming and diving, men's swimming and diving, men's indoor track and field, women's indoor track and field, softball, women's lacrosse, men's golf, women's golf, men's outdoor track and field, women's outdoor track and field, women's open rowing. 

That doesn't include the men's water polo team's NWPA championship or the men's soccer team's Ivy League tournament championship.

And that is just an extraordinary accomplishment. In fact, it's a history-making one. 

The old record for Ivy titles in an academic year had been 15, done by Princeton in 2001-02 and 2010-11. 

Getting to 17? That seemed unlikely to TigerBlog. That would mean winning in more than half of the Ivy League's sports. And yet that's what Princeton did in 2024-25.

Can that ever be beaten? Who knows. 

What this record should not be is taken for granted. There are no guarantees for future success. This doesn't happen without a lot of great athletes and coaches, all of whom buy into the same positive, winning culture as women's open rowing. 

At the same time, there are seven other Ivy League schools who are also trying their best to catch Princeton. And so, once again, TigerBlog presents the same message he always does after a year like this one:

It's the end of the movie "Patton."

 

The Great Rivalry Renewed

It was back in 2002 when TigerBlog entered the men's lacrosse schedule before the season started, like always. 

This time, though, he did something a little different. He entered a game for Memorial Day: Princeton vs. Syracuse, NCAA championship game. 

He thought it was funny. Then someone pointed out that he had actually made that public. Then he had to change it.

Then it came true. 

And why wouldn't it? Princeton and Syracuse had met in the 2000 NCAA final (Syracuse win) and the 2001 NCAA final (Princeton win). They were preseason No. 1 and No. 2. Why wouldn't they meet again in the final? 

The answer is that they did (Syracuse won). They also played in the 1992 final (Princeton won). 

In fact, between 1992 and 2003, Princeton was 21-0 against anyone else and 4-6 against Syracuse in NCAA tournament games. That streak ended when Princeton lost to Navy in the 2004 NCAA semifinals. 

A week ago, in the opening round, it was the Tigers (Princeton) vs. the Tigers (Towson). Tomorrow in the NCAA quarterfinals, it'll be Orange (Syracuse) vs. Orange and Black (Princeton). 

Princeton, the No. 3 seed, and Syracuse, the No. 6 seed, meet at approximately 2:30, after the first game of the doubleheader at noon between top-seed Cornell and unseeded Richmond. The venue is Shuart Stadium at Hofstra University, out on Long Island; both games are on ESPNU.

Princeton and Syracuse have not met in an NCAA tournament game since 2003, an Orange win in the quarterfinals at the Carrier Dome. 

For TigerBlog, he was rooting for this last weekend. Princeton easily lived up to its end, topping Towson 22-12. Syracuse? It was hardly easy.

The Orange trailed Harvard by as many as six goals. It was a five-goal deficit in the fourth quarter. Then Syracuse scored five goals in less than two minutes, tying it, and then took the lead before Harvard tied it with six seconds to go. 

Final score: Syracuse 13, Harvard 12 in overtime. 

That's no offense to the Crimson, who always seem to play hard and, as Pete Carril would have said, gave a good account of themselves. 

It's just an NCAA game between Princeton and Syracuse? Oh yeah. Sign TB up. 

There have been so many great moments in the postseason in this series. Princeton's first of six NCAA championships was that 1992 game, which was somewhat similar to the Syracuse-Harvard game: Princeton went out quickly, Syracuse came back to tie on a late goal, Princeton won in OT — when Andy Moe cashed it in off the second OT face-off.

Syracuse has had so many great players through the years who have had huge moments against Princeton. Those guys from the Orange remain some of TB's favorite ever to watch — players like Ric Beardsley, the Powell brothers, face-off man Chris Cercy, Dom Fin and so many others. 

There have been some heartbreaks at the hands of Syracuse, especially the 2002 final, where a big Princeton comeback fell one goal short at 13-12. The 2003 quarterfinal was a dominant performance by the Orange in the Dome, after Princeton had won there in midseason. 

Syracuse's game against Harvard was its 100th NCAA game in program history. Princeton's game last week against Towson was its 50th. The Orange are 70-30. Princeton is 33-17.

Once the game starts, history will mean nothing. Princeton is hoping to return to Championship Weekend for the second time in four years and the 12th time overall. 

It's been a great season so far for the Tigers, who are 13-3, with two losses to No. 1 Cornell and one to No. 2 Maryland. The other quarterfinal games will be Sunday at the Naval Academy, with Maryland against Georgetown and then No. 5 Penn State against unseeded Notre Dame. 

The Irish are the two-time defending champion. The last team to win three straight was Princeton, from 1996-98.

The Final Four will be next weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, the home of the New England Patriots.  

Before that, it's Princeton-Cuse. Again. In May. 

Something about that makes TigerBlog smile.

Time And Other Materials

TigerBlog received an email yesterday morning that leapt out at him for reasons other than the message itself. 

The subject line was this: "Time and Other Materials premieres Friday, May 30th." It's about a documentary that is being released by a Denver filmmaker about five local artists whose work is much different but who all represent the spirit of the work itself:

"Time and Other Materials" is a captivating exploration into the minds and hearts of five
accomplished artists. Each with their unique perspective and medium - be it animation, ceramics,
installation art, or large-scale sculpture - they unveil their inner worlds through a series of
intimate studio sessions. This revealing documentary delves into their collective need to create
and connect, not only with each other but with the broader world and beyond. Emphasizing
themes such as discovery, mystery, femininity, and the vision of a better future, the film
illustrates what it truly means to live a life devoted to creativity. Through five individual chapters
filled with personal reflections and artistic processes, the documentary highlights the profound
significance of art for both its creators and audience.

On the surface, it was one of many emails you get, the kind that you can pretty much delete without opening. TB didn't on this one, because of the name of the sender. 

And then, when he opened it, he saw another name that also quickly got his attention. 

The sender was "Martha Russo." The first name he saw in the body of the message was "Amie Knox."

Are those names familiar? If you're a serious Princeton Athletics fan, they should.  

They're both among the greatest women athletes Princeton has ever had. Amie Knox won the 1977 von Kienbusch Award after playing field hockey, squash and tennis for four years each. Russo may have been the best Princeton woman athlete ever had her Olympic field hockey dream not ended after she blew out the same knee twice, taking with it her Princeton career in that sport and in lacrosse. 

They're both featured prominently in TigerBlog's book "I Can Do Anything," about the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton. Order yours HERE. 

And while he's plugging books he's written, buy this one too.

Russo then turned to art when her athletic career ended before graduating in 1985. Knox spent her career in television production, and she now has collaborated with Russo on "Time And Other Materials."

It does sound interesting. You can get more information HERE.

Who will win the 2025 von Kienbusch Award? And the 2025 Roper Trophy? 

You can find that out in another week, when the annual Gary Walters ’67 Princeton Varsity Club Banquet is held in Jadwin Gym. 

Another year, come and gone already? When you're in the moment, it doesn't seem like that much time goes by. When you think about how quickly one PVC banquet follows another? That's how you end up with your 30-year gift clock.

Once again, Princeton Athletics is releasing its finalists for those two awards, plus the other top senior awards that will be presented. In addition to the two top senior athletes, there will also be student-athlete recognition for top grade point averages, service and leadership.

You can see the list of those finalists on social media and the websites for Princeton Athletics and the Princeton Varsity Club. 

If TigerBlog is counting correctly, this would be the 27th such banquet. It's grown considerably from its initial version, a small gathering in the lobby of Jadwin. 

It has made several stops along the way, with locations such as the boathouse, the concourse at the football stadium, many years at the grad college. 

Wherever it's been, the banquet has always brought out a lot of emotions. Some have lasted longer than others. Some speakers have been better than others. 

The emotions, though, they have always been there. It's the first time since their freshman student athlete orientation that the entire class has been in attendance. It's the start of Reunions, with graduation less than a week following. 

And then they go off, to find their paths in life. The banquet is a time to see up close the relationships that have been formed. It's a chance to reflect on the different roads they took in their years at Princeton. 

Did they stay healthy and start for four years? Were they constantly injured? Did they give everything they had every day but never get the playing time they wanted? 

Whichever road they took, they all learned things that they will take with them forever, along with the friendships. 

And now there's another one? Just a week away? 

TB isn't sure about "other materials." But "time?"

It moves very fast. 

Snake Or Shoelace?

So TigerBlog was walking through the Stadium Garage at Princeton the other day and saw this on the floor:

He stopped and studied it for maybe a full minute, which is a longer time than you'd think. And, even after the picture and up close observation, he still is not sure if that's a dead snake or a shoelace. 

Maybe if it had moved he would have figured it out. And run away quickly. 

Perhaps he would have long-jumped as far as Princeton's Georgina Scoot, who won the Ivy League Heptagonal title this past weekend at Yale. Oh, and she also won the triple jump — setting the league record in the long jump and tying it in the triple.

Had it been a snake that was slithering his way, perhaps TB would have triple jumped out of the way. 

Scoot's performance earned her the USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week. If you think this is something that happens often, this was Princeton's first-ever winner of this honor. 

Princeton has had NCAA champions and Olympians and who-knows-how-many record setters. Scoot is the first one to be recognized in this way. 

Any time you do anything that has never been done before at Princeton, you've accomplished something very special. 

Scoot came to Princeton from Maypool, which is on the southwest coast of England, right on the River Dart. That would be in the county of Devon. 

*

Speaking of rivers, this weekend will feature the Ivy League women's rowing championships on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, which is in South Jersey. This weekend will also see the Ivy League champion crowned in men's lightweight and heavyweight rowing at the Eastern Sprints in Worcester, Mass. 

That will be on a lake, not a river — Lake Winnipesaukee. TigerBlog came very close to spelling that correctly on the first try. 

If you're looking at the current rankings, the No. 1 team in NCAA women's rowing is Stanford, followed by Texas, Washington and Tennessee. After that, you have back-to-back Ivy teams: No. 5 Yale and No. 6 Princeton.

Brown is ranked eighth, with Rutgers in between. 

In other words, this figures to be a pretty intense weekend of racing for the women, with heats beginning Saturday at 4 in the afternoon and then finals Sunday morning, culminating with the women's varsity 8 grand final at 9:40. 

On the men's side, the entire Eastern Sprints will be held Sunday. The highest ranked Ivy heavyweight is Harvard at No. 3, behind No. 1 Cal and No. 2 Washington. The Boys In The Boat would be proud. 

Behind Harvard are four more Ivy teams, going in order Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown and Penn. Again, figure the racing to be intense. 

Then there are the men's lightweights. This week's poll has six Ivies at the top: Harvard, Cornell, Penn, Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale. This will, again, be crazy racing. 

If you get a chance to go, jump at it. TB has been to enough of these championship regattas to know that they are well worth the time. 

These three championships will be the 31st, 32nd and 33rd (and final) Ivy titles to be awarded this academic year. 

*

One of TigerBlog's favorite storylines for any athlete is when there is an ever-present chip for being from a non-hotbed area of that particular sport. 

As such, he very much enjoyed the feature story his colleague Warren Croxton wrote about Kayla Yelensky of the women's water polo team. Is she from California, as much a hotbed as any sport has? 

Nope. She's from Connecticut, having grown up in Stamford. She'd travel back and forth to California several times a month for tournaments and better competition and then fly back to be in school Monday morning. 

That's a grind. 

She'd make her way from Stamford to the youth national teams and then to Princeton. Her rise through the sport is well worth reading, and you can do so HERE.

By the way, Connecticut actually has the second-most representation on the Princeton women's roster. There were 15 players on the team this past season, of which 12 were from California and one was from Hungary. The other two were from Connecticut.

Goal Oriented

The goal of every NCAA lacrosse team that played this past weekend was to be able to practice again this week. 

And so it will go until there are only a handful of teams who get to celebrate their national championships with dogpiles on the field. 

On the Division I level, there were 47 teams who were practicing at this time a week ago. Now there are 16. 

The inverse of that would be that 31 teams had to turn in their equipment Monday. That doesn't count men's and women's Division II and Division III.

Of those 16 teams who are still practicing, there's only one school where both the men and women are readying for this week's quarterfinal games. Want to guess which school that is? 

Here's a hint: Were it not Princeton, odds are good TigerBlog wouldn't have mentioned it. 

Between them, the Princeton men and women played three NCAA tournament games, winning all three. Princeton averaged 19.7 goals in those three wins, as the women took down UMass 19-9 and Johns Hopkins 18-12 and the men bounced Towson 22-12. 

That's 59 goals in three NCAA tournament games. In all, there were 18 Princeton players who scored at least once. 

Only one of those 18 managed to get into double figures. That would be McKenzie Blake, who had herself quite a weekend. 

She started out with five in the win over UMass, breaking the record for goals in a season at Princeton. Blake finished that game with 78 goals, three better than Olivia Hompe had in 2017.

Blake wasn't the only one who broke a record in that game. Haven Dora had three assists, giving her 101 for her career, giving her the all-time Princeton record. Before TB gets back to Blake, he'll point out that Dora had four more against Hopkins, pushing her total to 105. 

Keep in mind that Dora is only a junior. With another year to go, it's likely that you can come back 50 years from now and still see her with the career record. 

As for Blake, with the Princeton record on her resume, the only single-season mark left was the Ivy League, which has stood for 43 years. It belongs to Francesca DenHartog, who played at Harvard in the late ’70s and early ’80s, which made her a teammate of Princeton Hall of Fame coach Chris Sailer. 

It was in the 1981 season that DenHartog scored 83 times. Princeton went into its game Sunday on Hopkins' home field as a slight underdog against the No. 8 seed. This could have been it for Princeton had the Blue Jays won.

Instead, the Tigers exploded yet again. And Blake? She was the detonator. 

How many goals did she score? How about eight. Is that enough? 

By the way, there was a show in the 1970s called "Eight Is Enough," about a father and his eight children and their misadventures. The woman who played the mother in the first four episodes actually passed away in real life, and her role was eventually taken by Betty Buckley. 

TB remembers liking the show very much when it was on but then saw a few episodes recently and thought "eh." That makes you appreciate the shows that stand up over time.

The eight goals Blake scored against Hopkins bounced DenHartog from the top spot. Blake now has 86, to be exact.

Princeton will need another big-time outing from its offense when it heads to North Carolina for Thursday's quarterfinal against the top-seeded Tar Heels. 

In the meantime, they, and the men's team, are practicing, just like you want to be at this time of May. The men will be facing Syracuse Saturday at 2:30 at Hofstra in their quarterfinal game, renewing one of the best postseason rivalries the sport has known. 

And if you're wondering what the full list of Princeton goal scorers from this weekend was, here you go: 

McKenzie Blake 13, Meg Morrisroe 6, Nate Kabiri 5, Tucker Wade 5, Jami MacDonald 5, Colin Burns 4, Haven Dora 3, Sophie Whiteway 3, Sean Cameron 3, Maggie Molnar 2, Collette Quinn 2, Nina Montes 2, Lane Calkins 1, Andrew McMeekin 1, Coulter Mackesy 1, Cooper Mueller, Chad Palumbo 1, Peter Buonanno 1.

Mackesy added four assists. His one goal was a big one — it gave him 164 for his career and sole possession of the Princeton men's career record.

Right On Track, And Field

Happy Day-After Mothers' Day to all the moms out there. 

There's nothing quite like the mom of a college athlete. Those four years in college are the culmination of a lifetime of organizing carpools, spending hours watching club tournaments or swim meets or any other sport and keeping their growing athletes fed and hydrated. 

They've taken a backseat during birthdays and anniversaries — and loved every minute of it. When it's over, they miss it terribly.

And nobody cheers like the college sports moms. They high-five and hug and wear their collective hearts on their sleeves. There's a reason the TV cameras find them after a goal is scored.

Hopefully, for everything they've done, they were showered yesterday with gifts and flowers and whatever they might have wanted. 

The Princeton Department of Athletics is loaded with moms as well. Hopefully they received the same treatment. 

Not all moms had the day off. There were plenty of track and field moms who were in New Haven for the Ivy League Heptagonal outdoor track and field championships.

Those whose offspring compete for Princeton went home very happy .

The Princeton men and women swept the team championships on a history-making day. For one thing, both teams completed the "Triple Crown" of having won Heps titles in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. That makes an extraordinary 12 times that the men have done so and three times that the women have. 

This academic year joins 2010-11 as years where both teams won Triple Crowns. 

Also, the two Ivy championships brought the year's total to 16, eclipsing the old league record of 15 that Princeton had done on two other occasions. That's 16 Ivy League championships with three still on the table this coming weekend in women's open rowing and men's heavyweight and lightweight rowing. 

TigerBlog went to the Ivy website yesterday to see what the updated team scores were. To get there, he clicked on a story that read "Harvard Men, Princeton Women Lead After Day 1 Of Heps." 

By the time he had clicked on the "live results" link, the Princeton men were way ahead. 

The women built their Day 1 lead with help from Georgina Scoot in the long jump and Shea Greene in the javelin, both of whom 1) won their event and 2) set a Heps record while doing so. For Greene, a junior, that's three straight Heps javelin titles. 

Princeton went 1-2-4 in the javelin, with Greene, Niki Woods and Kameil Crane. Princeton went 1-2 in the long jump, as Scoot was followed by teammate Alexandra Kelly. 

Greg Foster won yet another Ivy League long jump championship of his own, by nearly a foot, for the first points of the meet Saturday. That's six between indoor and outdoor, if you're keeping score. 

As yesterday afternoon went along, Princeton added points without many first place finishes but with seconds and thirds, and sometimes both in the same event (like Marcelo Parra Ramon and Franco Parra Ramon in the men's steeplechase and Joe Licata and Casey Helm in the men's shot put). 

There was even a 2-3-4, with Layla Giordano, Makenna Marshall and Siniru Iheoma. Each time TB checked the team standings, Princeton was further ahead, especially after Mena Scatchard and Harrison Witt did what they do, which was to sweep the 1,500. 

And then there was Foster again, with a win in the 110 hurdles, followed in third by teammate Easton Tan and fourth by teammate Yuki Hojo. There was another 2-3-4 in the men's 100 meters, with Jadon Spain, Jackson Clarke and Paul Kuhner. 

By mid-afternoon, the team titles were pretty much locked up. There would still be more highlights. 

Scoot would win the triple jump. Iheoma won the shot put. Helm and Avery Shunneson went 1-2 in the discus. Clarke and Gant went 1-2 in the 200. 

The women put up 202.5 points, followed by runner-up Harvard with 178.5, with nobody else over 100. The men won by a larger margin, with 212.5 points to 128 for Harvard, who was also in second-place here. 

Dominance? Yes, having the men and women win a Triple Crown in the same year fits that description. 

So does winning 16 of the first 30 Ivy titles awarded in an academic year. 

That's a lot of high fives from the Tiger moms.

Staying Busy

Well that turned into a busy Thursday for TigerBlog. 

It was the good kind of busy, of course — the kind of busy you get when your team is heading into the postseason. 

The Princeton men's lacrosse team will host Towson in the opening round of the NCAA tournament tomorrow at 2:30. The Tigers are the No. 3 seed, and the Tigers are unseeded.

Those are the kinds of sentences you can write when both teams have the same nickname. 

Princeton and Towson meet for the fourth time, with all of those meetings as NCAA tournament games. The first one was a famous one, back in 1991, when Towson defeated Princeton 14-13 in three overtimes at Palmer Stadium (TigerBlog was there).

After the game, Princeton goalie Scott Bacigalupo vowed that his team would never lose an overtime game again — and it didn't, not on his watch. In fact, two of those OT wins would come in NCAA championship games in which Batch was in goal, in 1992 against Syracuse and 1994 against Virginia. 

The Princeton women, by the way, play UMass this afternoon at 5 at Johns Hopkins in their first NCAA game. It's the third meeting between the two, and the first two were also NCAA games. That's fairly interesting, at least to TigerBlog. 

Towson, meanwhile, is coached by one of TB's favorite people he's met in the lacrosse world, Shawn Nadelen, a former Princeton assistant under Bill Tierney from 2002-04. During that time, who was Nadelen's roommate? 

TB gives you a few paragraphs to guess. 

The usual pregame writing gets a bit more extensive when it's an NCAA tournament game. Then you can throw in a few other things that came up out of the blue. 

First, there was the selection of Princeton's Coulter Mackesy as a Tewaaraton Award finalist, one of five, along with Army's Jackson Eicher, Notre Dame's Chris Kavanagh, Harvard's Sam King and Cornell's CJ Kirst. All five finalists are attackmen.

Then, just as TB was getting that under control, an email with the USA Lacrosse All-American team was sent. Princeton had seven honorees: Mackesy on first team, defenseman Colin Mulshine on second team, offensive middie Chad Palumbo and defensive middie Cooper Mueller on third team and goalie Ryan Croddick, defensive middie Jackson Green and offensive middie Tucker Wade as honorable mention. 

Wade's father Ryan, by the way, was a first-team All-American at North Carolina. And Mueller's dad? You know all about Kit Mueller. 

Cooper Mueller is the kind of player who is a hugely deserving All-American but who is often overlooked because of the position he plays. Mueller, though, put up extraordinary numbers this season, and yet his biggest impact isn't really measurable. The same is true of Green who is a walk-on from the football team and now a lacrosse All-American.

As for the Princeton women, they had five USA Lacrosse All-Americans: McKenzie Blake (second team), Haven Dora (third team) and Dylan Allen, Amelia Hughes and Jami MacDonald (all honorable mention). 

Beyond all of that, TigerBlog also wrote a feature story about McKnight Pederson, a longstick midfielder/defenseman on the Princeton men's team. McKnight is a senior whose career has unfortunately been defined by injuries. 

At the same time, it's also been defined by his spirit, which is just incredible. He is, as TB calls him in the story, the "heart and soul" of the team. To fully appreciate it you have to watch him day after day. TB hopes he was able to capture that spirit. 

The story will be up today. It would have been up yesterday were it not for everything else going on.

In the world of lacrosse, this is the best time of year. It's also the most unforgiving. 

Each weekend that comes by brings with it one goal for every team that has been fortunate enough to make it this far. And what is that? 

Everybody wants to have practice Monday. Not everybody will. 

And if you're TigerBlog? You definitely want to have a busy week next week. 

If you feel differently, you're in the wrong line of work. 

Trivia answer: Nadelen lived with John Mack, Princeton's current Ford Family Director of Athletics.

First Pitch

IVY LEAGUE SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT TICKETS HERE

UPDATE - FIRST PITCH TODAY HAS BEEN MOVED TO 10 AM

The low temperature in Princeton yesterday was 57, with a high of 74.

There was bright sunshine throughout the day with only a very slight wind and no humidity. In other words, or word, it was perfect.

TigerBlog's question is this: Would he ever get tired of having the weather be this way every day? Wasn't that the whole point of the 18th century novel "Candide?"

“Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts flourish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege.”                       

Oh well. All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds, right? 

Is that too deep for your Thursday? 

Hopefully the weather will cooperate for the next few days at least so that the Ivy League softball tournament can go off as planned. First pitch in the four-team, double-elimination event is today at 10 am between top-seeded Princeton and fourth-seeded Brown, followed by No. 2 Harvard and No. 3 Columbia. 

This will be the third Ivy League softball tournament, all of which have been hosted by Princeton. The venue will be different this time, though, as the brand-new and beautiful Cynthia Paul Field will be the tournament site. 

It couldn't be at a more perfect spot. The Meadows Campus is a great setting, and the new softball facility will be glistening with its comfortable orange seats, perfect views and welcoming concourse. 

Of course, these teams would play in a dirt and grass sandlot somewhere if it offered the prize that this tournament does. For the winner, there will be a ticket to the NCAA tournament. 

If you recall, Princeton won this event last year and then made some noise in the NCAA regional, defeating Ole Miss and almost knocking off host Louisiana-Lafayette.

Princeton went 17-4 in the Ivy League to win the championship, something that won't change in the tournament. Regardless of who wins, Princeton will be the official Ivy champion for 2025.

Princeton swept Harvard, took two of three from Brown (last week) and lost two of three to Columbia during the regular season. Brown is making its first appearance in the Ivy postseason, either the tournament or its league championship series that preceded it. 

As the tournament begins, Princeton brings with it some gaudy statistics. This is from TB's colleague Andrew Borders, whose pre-tournament story can be read HERE:

In Ivy League games, Princeton had the best ERA in the league, at 2.13 and ahead of Harvard's 2.92, Brown's 2.97 and Columbia's 3.94, with the top four teams in the league in that stat all having made the Ivy tournament. Princeton's .325 BA is third in Ivy games, behind Harvard (.333) and Columbia (.328) with Brown fifth (.293). Princeton led the Ivy in fielding percentage in Ivy games, at .983 and ahead of Columbia's second-best .980. Princeton also led the league in Ivy games in slugging percentage (.508), on-base percentage (.425), runs scored (133), RBI (130), walks (92), opponent batting average (.211), batters struck out (123), fewest hits allowed (111), fewest runs allowed (46), and fewest homers allowed (six). 

Princeton's 245 runs scored this season are the most for the program since 1996, when Princeton scored 284 runs. The program record is 402, set in 1995. Princeton's .313 BA would be the best season-ending batting average since 1996, when Princeton hit .316. The program record there is .341, set in 1995. Princeton's 15 triples this season are the most since a program-record 27 in 1995. The team's 41 homers this season are tied for the second-most in program history with Lisa Van Ackeren's first team, which hit 41 in 2013. The only team that hit more was the 2008 team, which hit 55. The team's 236 RBI this season are the third-most in program history, behind only the 1995 team's 328 and the 1988 team's 246. 

As TigerBlog said, first pitch is at noon today. There will be three games tomorrow.

Last pitch will hopefully be Saturday.

 

Shocking

TigerBlog woke up yesterday to a rather "shocking" development.

It started when he couldn't turn on the TV in the living room. Assuming that it was the remote, he first changed the batteries. Nothing. 

Next up was a check of the outlets by plugging in something simple to see what would happen. The answer was nothing. They weren't working. 

Were any in the house? He started with the surge protector in the bedroom, which, in about two seconds, began making really strange noises and then smoking. As in actual smoke. Before it could turn to fire, TB yanked it out of the wall. 

Yes, it was a "shocking" start to the day. And a smelly one. Hey, it could have been worse, right?

On the other hand, it's not terrible to get to 7:30 in the morning and be fairly certain that the worst part of your day is over. Life is about turning negatives into positives. 

And on a happy note, the electrician came by in the late afternoon and has everything up and running again. Hopefully. 

Today is May 7, which reminds TB that he needs to wish his cousin Nicole a happy birthday. Or just send her the link from here.

Meanwhile, the Princeton athletic calendar has reached the point where the aren't that many events that remain, but pretty much all of them are important. 

The women's golf team plays its final round in the NCAA regional today in Charlottesville. The Tigers were eighth after Round 1; the top five teams move forward to the championships.

The baseball team is at Harvard today in a game that will have a direct impact on the Ivy League tournament field. There are three teams who have already clinched their spots — Columbia, Yale, Penn — and the fourth team will be either Princeton, Dartmouth or Harvard. 

Right now, Dartmouth is 8-10, followed by Princeton and Harvard at 8-12. This is the final regular season game for the Tigers and Crimson, while Dartmouth has three with Yale this weekend in Hanover. 

The loser of the Princeton-Harvard game will be eliminated at 8-13. The winner will be 9-12. Should Dartmouth get to 9-12 as well (by going 1-2 against Yale) and finish tied for fourth with today's winner, then the tiebreaker would go to Princeton over Dartmouth but Dartmouth over Harvard. 

First pitch at Harvard is at 1.

Oh, and as a side note, Yale needs to sweep Dartmouth to get a share of the league championship. As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts there. 

The softball tournament, by the way, begins tomorrow at noon at Princeton's brand-new Cynthia Paul Field, with Game 1 between the top seeded Tigers and Brown, against whom Princeton took two of three last weekend in Providence. Harvard is the No. 2 seed and will take on Columbia at 2:30.

The double elimination tournament runs through Saturday, weather permitting. TigerBlog will have more on the softball tournament tomorrow.

The women's lacrosse team will play Friday at 5 against UMass at Johns Hopkins in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The winner of that game will play the winner of the host Blue Jays and Liberty, who start the doubleheader at 2.  

Princeton and UMass have met twice before, both times in the NCAA tournament. Interestingly, the Princeton men will host Towson Saturday at 2:30, and those two have met three times before, all in the NCAA tournament. 

You also have the Ivy League Heptagonal track and field championships this weekend, at Yale. The Princeton women and Princeton men have already won the cross country and indoor Heps titles this year, and both are going for another Triple Crown. 

The men have won 11 of these Triple Crowns. The women have won two, in 1980-81 and again in 2010-11, an academic year in which the men also did so. 

There's nothing like a little history to try to match. 

As TB said, there aren't that many events left for this athletic year, but the ones that do exist are big ones. It'll be that way through the end of this month and into early June, before summer rolls around. 

For now? 

TB is going to go catch up on the television he missed earlier. Rockford Files, anyone?

Finding Joe Willie

Back when TigerBlog was a kid, he used to read the New York Post and the old Newark Star-Ledger every day. 

His favorite sportswriter was Jerry Izenberg, the Star-Ledger columnist. TigerBlog remembers reading his pieces every day and thinking "he gets paid to do that?"

At the time, TB had no idea that his own career path was headed in that direction. He also never realized that he'd actually come to get to know Izenberg as part of that career. 

To show you the respect that Izenberg had earned, TB takes you to the 1996 NCAA men's basketball tournament and the day after Princeton's win over UCLA. On that day, everyone from every media outlet everywhere wanted to talk to Pete Carril, who had obliged way more people than TB thought he would have. 

Anyway, once all of that seemed to be done for the day and the team was starting to practice at the RCA Dome when Izenberg asked TB if he could get some time with Carril, someone with whom he went way back. It led to this conversation:

TB: Coach, there's one more request.
Carril: I'm not talking to anyone else. It doesn't matter who it is.
TB: It's Jerry Izenberg
Carril: Gotta talk to that guy.

To be honest, TB was a bit awed when he first met him. 

It wasn't quite like that Sunday afternoon in Ithaca when TB met the man he knows as "Joe Willie," but it was close. 

The days of reading multiple newspapers — made of actual paper — every day has come and gone, at least for TB. These days, he finds his favorite writers in all different venues, including one called "Fan Lax," which is an online message board that is a great source of information and entertainment for the sport, pretty much all of it written by anonymous authors with great synonyms. 

Who are these people? Who knows. It could be anyone. A coach. A parent with a beef. Alums. Anyone. Not all of what you read is factual. Almost none of what you read is objective. 

A few years ago, TB found himself connected with someone who goes by "CU77," a Cornell alum who was as into dissecting Ivy tournament scenarios as TB was. CU77 lives in California, but he and TigerBlog correspond through email regularly. 

Then there was the poster who calls himself "Joe Willie." In a world where the average anonymous poster on an internet message board can be somewhat, um, less than cordial, Joe Willie stands out as a beacon of positivity and friendliness. 

TB has been reading what Joe Willie has written for a long time. No matter how intense a game between Princeton and Cornell in men's lacrosse can be — or Cornell and anyone else — Joe Willie can always be counted on to talk about how great it is to be able to watch a game, how impressed he is with both teams and how much he loves the sport. 

And so it was that before Princeton played Cornell in the Ivy tournament final Sunday, TigerBlog decided he would find the man himself. There was only one problem — he didn't know anything about him other than 1) he calls himself Joe Willie, 2) he often wears a New York Jets hat and 3) he likes to sit around the 50 yard line. 

Oh, and Joe Willie adds "78" to the end of his moniker. Could that be his class year? 

While the Tigers began their warmups, TB walked up to the top of Schoellkopf Field, near the 50 yard line, where not too many fans were already sitting. 

"Do you come to most of the games?" TB started asking. "And if so, do you know a guy who wears Jets' hat?" 

The first three responses he got were identical: "No, and besides, I'm a Giants' fan."

He went up to the concourse and saw the Cornell tailgate outside. Would he be there? Hey, there's a green hat. Is that the Jets? 

Well, no. It was a Dartmouth hat, Class of 1966. Dartmouth? 

Eventually, TB made his way back into the stands, where he ran across someone who looked like he might be a regular. Did he know a guy who comes to all the games and wears a Jets' hat? 

Nope, but he and TB spoke for about 10 minutes. By this point, it was getting too close to the start of the game and TB had to run, but the man said that he'd keep an eye out for the mystery man in the Jets' hat. TB was to look up into the stands at the end of the first quarter to see if he'd found him.

And that's what TB did. And there he saw his friend from before the game. He was pointing to his left, and that's where TB saw him — a man not in a Jets' hat but in a Joe Namath jersey. It had to be Joe Willie, right? 

It was. TB made his way up through the stands and introduced himself. Joe Willie was a bit overwhelmed that someone could possibly have wanted to meet him. 

They took a picture together, and TB thanked Joe Willie for bringing his warmth to the sport and the message board. 

Later on, TB mentioned to CU77 that he'd met Joe Willie and sent him the photo. CU77 asked if he could post it to the site, and TB said of course. 

Once Joe Willie saw it, he followed up with this: 

Even though as usual at the Kopf, the weather was awful, the atmosphere was electric. The Princeton fans were such a great bunch, cheering loud and very respectful. I had many people who read this forum, come up to greet me, many from Princeton, and when I was told that Jerry wanted to meet me, I was a bit embarrassed, as I'm just an ordinary guy who loves lacrosse, and my alma-mater. Jerry was of course, the nicest person, as you could imagine and i was humbled to be able to meet and talk to him. I told him win or lose, we hopefully will see you again, especially Memorial day weekend. The game lived up to the billing of #1 vs #2, and having the Big Red prevail was just a great ending to a great day. Both teams played so hard. Princeton is a great team but the Big Red were just a little better on this day.

Gobigred
Joewillie78

Did you read that? It gives you hope, doesn't it. 

Hey Joe Willie. It was great to meet you. 

Don't ever change. 

Off To The Races

Back in TigerBlog's newspaper days, there was always this friendly discussion in the sports department about horse racing coverage.

Specifically, there was a small faction, including a much younger TigerBlog, who felt that instead of using head shots of jockeys, the paper should print head shots of the horses themselves. The overwhelming majority thought this was ridiculous.

With the start of the Triple Crown season, Sovereignty ran through the mud Saturday to win the Kentucky Derby. Again, there was no post-race interview with the horse, only the jockey and trainer. 

And here's a fun fact: Even 52 years later, Secretariat still holds the record for the fastest Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. 

And here's an even more fun fact: Every horse who raced at Churchill Downs Saturday in the Derby is a direct descendant of the great horse himself. Every horse in the race was between a fourth and seventh generation descendant of Secretariat, who sired 660 foals in his lifetime.

Hey, there's a good theme for today. Off to the races. 

What? You were expecting lacrosse today? There will be plenty of time for that later in the week. 

First, there was the Ivy League softball race. 

Princeton went up to Providence this weekend hoping not to have go back next weekend. To make sure this happened, Princeton needed to win one of three games at Brown.

If the Tigers could do so, that would mean the Ivy League tournament would be coming to Princeton this week (and would also mean an outright Ivy League title). Should Brown could get a sweep, then the league tournament would be back on that same Rhode Island field.

Princeton took care of things pretty quickly, with a two-hit, no-walk shutout courtesy of Brielle Wright in a 5-0 Game 1 win Friday in the first of the series. Princeton got all five of its runs in the third, with three of them courtesy of a three-run home run by Sonia Zhang.

The teams then split Saturday's doubleheader, with a 4-3 Brown win in the first game and a 7-5 Princeton win the second in a game the Tigers trailed 5-1 at one point. 

Brown still qualifies for the Ivy postseason for the first time ever, either in the old Ieague championship series format that started in 2007 or the Ivy tournament. It'll be Princeton and Brown at noon on Thursday in Game 1 of the tournament, followed by Harvard and Columbia in the second game. 

The double-elimination event ends Saturday.

Then there was racing on the water. 

The Princeton women's lightweight rowing team did what it has come to do this time of year, and that's run row away from the field at Eastern Sprints. This time the Tigers won the varsity 8 and varsity 4 races and took second in the varsity 2. 

Added all together, it came to another team points trophy. The win in the varsity 8 was the fifth straight and 11th overall for the Tigers, who go for another IRA national championship at the end of the month. The win in the 4s was Princeton's ninth all-time and second in three years.

There aren't too many celebration shots (jubo, as it's known) that are better than smiling rowers on a dock. See?

Finally, in the racing that happens on a track, the Larry Ellis Invitational was held at Princeton this past weekend.

Among the top performances was the the men's 4x400 relay of Karl Dietz, Kavon Miller, Joey Gant and Xavier Donaldson, who bettered the 14-year-old program by one full second with a 3:04.85.

 On the women's side, Mena Scatchard won the 1500 and 800, just missing her own record in the 1500 by a half second. 

The racing continues this coming weekend when the Ivy League Heptagonal championships will be held at Yale. 

And, to wrap this theme up nicely and connect it all back to the beginning, both Princeton teams will be looking to complete their Triple Crowns.

Weekend Update

TigerBlog received a text message yesterday morning that said simply: "Craig Robinson and Leslie Robinson."

Even without any context, TB knew exactly what it meant. He wrote yesterday that he was wondering if there'd be any other parent/child combination to have both been first-team All-Ivy League selections after Cooper Mueller (men's lacrosse) matched his father Kit (three times in basketball) this week. 

TB said he had to be overlooking someone obvious. Craig and Leslie Robinson are about as obvious as it gets. 

He hasn't heard from anyone else about anyone else, so maybe there aren't any others? He'll let you know if he thinks of another combo, or if someone alerts him to one. 

*

The Ivy League women's lacrosse tournament will be held on Sherrerd Field this weekend, beginning at 4 this afternoon with top-seeded Princeton against fourth-seeded Brown, followed by second-seeded Yale and third-seeded Penn. 

The final will be Sunday at noon, and the winner gets the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Like the Princeton men who are playing at Cornell this weekend, the Princeton women are assured of an NCAA tournament at-large spot if they don't win the tournament. 

That hardly means that there is no incentive this weekend, since Princeton is playing for the best possible NCAA seeding and to play at home. The Tigers enter the tournament with an RPI of four, which is as impressive as it sounds. The goal is to make it all the way to Foxboro, site of the men's and women's Final Four Memorial Day weekend.

Princeton has appeared in all but one Ivy women's lacrosse tournament, and that was back in 2012. The Tigers' streak of 11 straight is the longest in history, and the team's six Ivy tournament championships is also the most of any team. 

As a side note, McKenzie Blake enters the weekend one goal away from tying Kyla Sears' school career record of 209. The Princeton women rank second in the country in fewest turnovers per game. It must be something in the water: The men rank third in the same stat.

*

The softball team is at Brown for three in a series that has had its schedule shifted, with one game this afternoon at 4 and then a doubleheader tomorrow at noon. 

The Ivy League tournament for softball will be next weekend, and it will be at one of these two schools. Princeton has already clinched at least a share of the league title — but not the host role yet. 

To do so, the Tigers need to win one of the three games this weekend. A Brown sweep puts the tournament right back on the same field in Providence, and no other team other than Princeton or Brown can host. 

Princeton leads the Ivy League in batting average in all games. Brown leads the Ivy League in ERA in all games. 

In league games only, Princeton leads in batting average, ERA and fielding percentage. That's a good place to start for a championship team. 

*

The baseball team heads to Cornell for two games tomorrow and one more Sunday. After that, Princeton may or may not have to make up a game against Harvard, depending on whether or not it impacts the Ivy League tournament race.

Yale, Columbia and Penn are all in the tournament, which will be held at one of those three campuses next weekend. Right now, The Bulldogs and Lions are tied for first, one game ahead of the Quakers. 

Princeton is part of a four-team mix, along with the Big Red, Dartmouth and Harvard for the final spot. 

*

As May moves along, there are still five Ivy League titles still on the line, in men's and women's track and field and in men's heavyweight and lightweight and women's open rowing. Heps track and field will be held next weekend at Yale, where Princeton will look to finish off Triple Crowns for both the men and the women. 

The complete schedule for this weekend is HERE. 

*

Finally, TigerBlog sends congratulations to his colleague Stacey Bunting, who will be leaving Princeton to become the Director of Athletics at Bates College in the NESCAC.  

You can read the release about her hire HERE.

There are not a lot of NCAA Director of Athletics jobs out there. Getting one puts you in an elite class in the world of college athletic administration. To have that opportunity anywhere is extraordinary. 

To do so in a conference as respected as the NESCAC is even more so. Good luck to Stacey, and go Bobcats. 

Headed To Ithaca

For the record, TigerBlog had not yet received any advance knowledge of the men's All-Ivy League lacrosse announcement when he wrote that Princeton goalie Ryan Croddick should be a first-team choice. 

He did get that heads up several hours after he'd written, and with it came the news that Croddick, a junior first-year starter, was in fact voted a first-team selection by the league's head coaches. This year, that designation also for the first time came with another honor built in — Ivy League Goalie of the Year. 

When TB first got the heads up and saw Croddick's name, he was really happy for him. It's not easy to come into a season with no reputation at all and come away as the first-team all-league selection. 

It did, though, get TB wondering if he would have changed what he wrote had he seen Croddick wasn't honored. He thinks not. 

Anyway, congratulations to Ryan Croddick. He leads the Ivy League in goals-against, save percentage and saves per game and has been great all year. He is a most deserving selection. 

Princeton had five first-team All-Ivy League selections, the most the team has had since its 2001 NCAA championship team also had five. You get extra credit if you can name those five. 

Coulter Mackesy, who is three goals away from the school career record of 163, was a unanimous first-team selection and now has three All-Ivy honors. Colin Mulshine, a defenseman who has prevented at least 163 goals, was first-team for the second straight year. Tucker Wade became Princeton's first sophomore offensive midfielder to be a first-team selection since Tom Schreiber in 2011 — that's pretty good company to mentioned with, right? 

The fifth first-teamer? That would be sophomore Cooper Mueller, shortstick defensive midfielder. He also came into this season without a huge reputation after a solid freshman season, but he's been awesome all season, putting up numbers that almost no other Princeton SSDM ever has. 

In fact, Mueller has four goals, one assist, 10 caused turnovers and 29 ground balls. The only other shortsticks at Princeton to do so? Jake Stevens and Zach Currier (who did it three times). Again, that's the kind of company you want to be mentioned with, right?

If Mueller's name is familiar, it's because he's the son of Kit Mueller, a three-time first-team All-Ivy League selection in basketball from 1989-91 (and the Ivy Player of the Year his last two years).

This got TB to thinking. Have there been other father/son duos who have been first-team All-Ivy selections at Princeton? Or mother/daughter, mother/son, father/daughter? 

Off the top of his head, he can't think of any. There have to be a few out there, though, right? Is he overlooking the obvious?

He can think about it on the bus ride to Cornell today, where the men's lacrosse team is headed for the Ivy League tournament. The Tigers are the second seed behind the top-seeded Big Red, who will open the tournament against fourth-seeded Yale tomorrow at 4, followed by Princeton and No. 3 seed Harvard. 

Princeton has won the last two Ivy men's lacrosse tournaments. In both of those cases, there was no other path into the NCAA tournament. This year, Princeton is assured of an NCAA bid no matter what (as is Cornell and probably Harvard). 

In fact, you can make your plans to be at Sherrerd Field next weekend, since the Tigers have, according to any metric, a 100 percent chance of being at home. 

Still, you don't want to leave anything to chance. And winning this weekend would mean a higher seed. If it's Princeton-Cornell Sunday, the winner of that game could be the No. 1 overall seed — or no worse than No. 2.

Harvard is probably secure too, though the Crimson will come into the weekend not wanting to leave anything to chance. Princeton defeated Harvard 13-11 in the regular season matchup. 

Here are two notes that are interesting:

* Princeton is third in Division I in fewest turnovers per game (13.31). Harvard is first in Division I in causing turnovers (12.15). Princeton turned it over a season-high 20 times against Harvard the first time.

* From the start of the Division I season through March 28 — which for Princeton was seven games — the Tigers were ranked 44th in scoring defense in the country. From March 29 through now, Princeton is ranked fourth in scoring defense. 

It's May 1. Not every college lacrosse team gets to play this month. The whole point of the season is to be playing this weekend — and all the way through to the end of the month. 

Oh, and the trivia answer: Trevor Tierney, Sean Hartofilis, Rob Torti, Ryan Mollett and Matt Striebel.