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.