Goaltending

You want to hear something fascinating? 

One of the officials at Sunday's Princeton-North Carolina men's lacrosse game on Sherrerd Field was also one of the referees at Saturday night's Princeton-Dartmouth men's basketball game. Do you find that as interesting as TigerBlog does? 

Maybe TB should have realized something was up when he tried to start the lacrosse game with a jump ball and then immediately called traveling. Just kidding. 

He could have called goaltending. That would certainly have been the order of the day on Sherrerd Field. 

And not the "ball was in the cylinder" kind. Nope. This was the Ryan Croddick kind. 

The Princeton senior goalie was extraordinary this past weekend, with 39 saves and 16 goals against in two games. Those two games were both wins — 11-7 against Syracuse Friday and then 11-9 in the Sunday game against UNC, who was ranked No. 1 before that. 

By the way, if you didn't realize it, Syracuse and UNC between them average just short of 30 goals per game in their non-Princeton games.  

Croddick made highlight-reel saves in both of those games, none of which were more spectacular than the three that game with less than five minutes to go in a tie game. See for yourself: 

CRODDICK WITH A 3-SAVE-EFFORT ➡️ A WADE STRIKE. TIGERS LEAD 10-9. pic.twitter.com/hSEQ2DIeb6

— Princeton Men's Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) March 1, 2026

He finished the game with 25 saves, which just happened to be one better than his previous career high. They were also the most by any Princeton goalie in the last, oh, 41 years. 

Those two games completed a nine-day run in which the Tigers defeated three teams who have already been ranked No. 1 this year, including a victory at Maryland. All of this came after an opening 13-7 loss at home against Penn State that 1) saw the Tigers fall behind 7-1 after the first quarter and 2) seems like forever ago.

Actually, that game definitely set the tone for the three that have followed. Princeton came into the game ranked either second or third in the country. The game against Penn State knocked the Tigers off that perch (all the way down to No. 12) and more importantly got everyone's attention.

The wins this weekend moved Princeton back up to No. 3 in all three major polls, who agree with Notre Dame at No. 1 and then Richmond at No. 2. They also, rightly, earned Croddick all kinds of awards, such as Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week and several national Player of the Week Awards (Princeton attackman Nate Kabiri was the Ivy Offensive Player of the Week).

Because Croddick was so dominant, he stole a bit of the spotlight from defenseman Jack Stahl. Knowing Stahl the way TB does, he can say without hesitation that Stahl was just fine with that. 

The win over Syracuse saw Stahl wipe out Joey Spallina, the Orange attackman who 1) was the No. 1 player in the country in Inside Lacrosse's preseason rankings and 2) had 17 points in two games against the Tigers, including eight in last year's excruciating 19-18 SU win in the NCAA quarterfinals. Stahl held him without a goal or an assist. 

Afterwards, TB convinced Stahl to do some postgame interviews on the field, with an army of cameras, microphones and notebooks staring at him. To say Stahl is quiet is an understatement, but it was definitely nice to see him get some attention. He then followed that up by holding Owen Duffy of UNC, another of the top attackmen in Division I, to a single goal. 

Next up for Princeton is a home game Saturday at noon against Rutgers, with the Meistrell Cup to the winner. Rutgers comes in with a record of 5-1 and is ranked as high as No. 12 in one of the polls. This will clearly be another challenge. 

Still, it's good to take one more look back at this past weekend. It was the ACC/Ivy League Challenge, which saw UNC and Cuse play at Princeton and Penn. UNC defeated Penn Friday night 11-9 at Franklin Field, and Syracuse needed OT to take down the Quakers 9-8 Sunday. 

The games at Princeton both drew big crowds. Both games were intense. Both made for great viewing, either live or on ESPN+.

They also leave you wondering what the next two months will bring. It's great to be No. 3 the first week of March, especially when you were No. 12 not that long ago. 

May, though. That's when you really want to be up there. The games this weekend only left you wanting more.  

Hockey Happiness

Well, TigerBlog is pretty sure he saw something in the Princeton-Dartmouth men's hockey game the other day that he's never seen before. 

What was it? How about a 2-on-0 breakaway? Have you seen one of those? 

It came in the first minute of the third period, with a Big Green turnover that started the breakout. The two Tigers were David Jacobs and Kai Daniells, who sent it back and forth and then back (as in the back of the net), the goal to Jacobs. 

The announcer called it a give-and-go and then corrected himself to say a "give and give." It all happened so quickly and normally, and yet who can remember seeing 2-on-0? 

Second Service!

Jacobs and Daniells cash in a 2-on-0 to make it 2-0!@ecachockey | @TeamECH | @NCAAIceHockey pic.twitter.com/laArt39fRu

— Princeton Men's Ice Hockey (@princetonhockey) March 1, 2026

It did make TB wonder what would happen in a similar situation in soccer. If you pass it back and forth there, is it automatically offsides, since only the goalie is back for the defense? Who has the answer to this?

The 2-on-0 made it 2-to-0, but there was plenty of game left for Princeton after that, with plenty on the line to go with it. Princeton had lost a 3-1 lead at Harvard the night before in what became a 5-3 loss, and now that 2-0 lead vanished to 2-2 with a Big Green goal with 1:10 to play. 

What was at stake? Princeton had already clinched some form of home ice for the ECAC playoffs, but the right combination of points would add a first-round bye and the host role for the quarterfinals after a week off. That's something that Princeton hadn't had since 2008-09, by the way. 

For Year 2 of head coach Ben Syer, the progress made already was extraordinary. Getting the bye would be an incredible accomplishment. 

The loss to Harvard Friday night had left the Tigers and Crimson even in fourth place heading into the last night of the regular season at 35 points, two ahead of Union. 

The first thing Princeton needed was Quinnipiac to beat Harvard, which it did, shortly after Dartmouth tied the Princeton game. Ah, but Union took down Brown 3-0, giving the Dutchmen 36 points, one ahead of Princeton.

Getting to overtime against Dartmouth would have meant one point for Princeton. Since the Tigers had the tiebreaker advantage over Union, the only thing that would have meant playing this weekend instead of resting would have been if the Big Green won in regulation. It made for a tense last 1:10 after Dartmouth had tied it — and it would stay that way through the horn at 0:00.  

Princeton had the point it needed. The result of the OT (Princeton won in a shootout) no longer factored into the bye. The Tigers will be the fourth seed and will play the highest remaining seed after this weekend's single-game opening round matchups. If No. 5 Union defeats No. 12 Brown again, then it'll be the Tigers and Dutchmen.

Meanwhile, back home at Baker Rink, the Princeton women were playing in the ECAC quarterfinals after getting a first-round bye of their own. The opponent was Harvard, in a best-of-three. 

Game 1 went to Princeton, 1-0, Friday. Game 2 went to Harvard, 3-1, Saturday. This set up a winner-take-a-trip-to-Lake-Placid Game 3 Sunday, and this time it was all Tigers, building a 4-0 lead, winning 5-1 and getting goals from five different players. 

The win moved Princeton into the ECAC semifinals at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, where the second-seeded Tigers will play Quinnipiac at 7, after top-seed Yale plays Cornell at 4. The winners will meet Saturday at 5.

Herb Brooks was the USA coach at the 1980 Olympics. The arena that now has his name is where the Miracle On Ice occurred. TigerBlog was inside the arena once, on an August day, and it's a place of awe still. The most recent USA gold medal in men's hockey was awesome, but no, the Miracle On Ice will never be approached by another sporting event.  

For the winner of the tournament, there will be an automatic NCAA tournament bid. Will Princeton get one without winning the tournament? Right now, the NPI ratings (which pretty much determine the NCAA field) have Quinnipiac seventh, Yale eighth, Princeton ninth and Cornell 11th. 

There are 11 teams who will make the NCAA tournament. Due to automatic bids, one is guaranteed to be lower than the top 11 in NPI. 

A Three-Title Weekend, Again

Welcome to March.

It's supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Whether that's true or not, TigerBlog is just happy to see January and February go into the rearview mirror after the winter it's been around here. 

Hey, just a week ago there was a blizzard of 25 inches of snow that actually resulted in all of Princeton University being shut down. That was seven days ago. 

And now? Almost all of that snow is gone. And if you're looking ahead for the forecast, you're seeing 60s and yikes even 70s around here in the next week. That's certainly something to look forward to, right? 

Looking back into the near past, do you know how many highlights were there this weekend in Princeton Athletics? 

There were so many that the men's lacrosse team's sweep of No. 6 Syracuse and No. 1 North Carolina isn't the starting point. Neither is hockey, men's or women's, even though they both had huge accomplishments of their own. 

The women's basketball team had itself a dominating sweep at Dartmouth and Harvard to close in on another Ivy League championship. That also isn't at the top of the Monday Morning Leaderboard. 

On this Monday, you needed an Ivy League championship over the weekend to earn that spot. And also on this Monday, there's a three-way tie up there. 

Yes, Princeton had itself a three-Ivy-title weekend, as there were championship celebrations in men's swimming and diving, men's indoor track and field and women's indoor track and field. Did you see the front page of goprincetontigers.com yesterday? This isn't too bad, huh:

TigerBlog will mention the three championships this weekend chronologically.

The men's swimming and diving team rolled through four days and night of the Ivy League championships before closing out a 200-point win over second-place Yale. Princeton has now won 33 Ivy titles in men's swimming and diving (including two straight). That's a lot of winning. 

Once again, Princeton had the High Point Diver of the Meet (Aidan Wang) and the High Point Swimmer of the Meet (Mitchell Schott). That's three of those for Wang and two for Schott. 

The meet was filled with NCAA qualifiers, records and individual and relay winners. You can read more about it HERE.

By the time the men were celebrating their title at DeNunzio Pool, the two track and field teams were already looking like they were on their ways to repeats. As it turned out, they were.

For the women, this is two straight. For the men, it's an amazing 11 straight. 

The women scored 188.5 points, outdistancing second-place Penn by 20.5. The men won by a huge margin, with 187 points, which was 51 better than second-place Cornell. 

Those three run the total for the academic year to 10, before a spring championship is even contested. 

The complete list to date is: men's soccer, women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's cross country, women's cross country, women's squash, women's swimming and diving and the three this weekend. 

Has it ever happened that Princeton has gotten to double figures in Ivy titles by the end of the winter? Hmmm, well, this is from exactly 52 weeks ago today:

If you're keeping score, this was a three-Ivy League Championship weekend for Princeton Athletics. Further scorekeeping reveals that the Ivy titles for the 2024-25 academic year has reached 10 — by the end of the winter season. That might be unprecedented

That number could reach 11 with either a women's basketball win against Yale or a Columbia loss to Harvard next weekend. 

Congratulations to the three teams that won their Ivy titles the last few days, and to the individuals who also won their events. 

Given everything else that happened around here this past weekend, being the lead story is really saying something.  

Spring Is Ahead

Wait, can it really be true? 

TigerBlog glanced at the forecast moving forward and saw that the high temperature in a week will be, egads, 68 degrees? This is a joke, right? 

That's not exactly why Princeton's Cooper Mueller and Jackson Green are jumping for joy there, but hey, it might as well be. Is it possible that TB has shoveled snow for the last time in the winter of 2026? That would be totally acceptable to him.

Even this weekend will be reasonable. Sunshine and 47 today? That works. 

Of course, after getting 25 inches of snow the other day, only a foot would have seemed at least a little reasonable. Speaking of the most recent snowfall, hopefully your power is back on if it went out. 

Lauren Jobes, Princeton's Coordinator of Marketing and Fan Engagement, is one of those who lost power. TB asked her yesterday if it had come back on, and this was her response after saying that it did Wednesday night: 

I felt like a medieval peasant. 

That was laugh out loud funny. 

Meanwhile, TB mentioned what's going on at the "winter" teams in yesterday's entry. Today, it's time for the spring teams, even if springing ahead is technically next weekend. 

*

It was the idea of Syracuse athletic communications mensch John Stark to refer to this weekend's men's lacrosse games as the "ACC/Ivy League Challenge," and so it shall be known thusly. Regardless of what you call it, there are four really good games on the schedule in the next three days. 

It starts today, when No. 7 Princeton hosts No. 6 Syracuse at 4, while No. 19 Penn hosts No. 1 North Carolina at 5. The second games will be Sunday, with UNC at Princeton and Syracuse at Penn, both at noon. 

This is Year 3 of this event, with two big changes: 1) Syracuse replaces Duke and 2) the games are being played here and in Philadelphia, as opposed to in North Carolina. 

The best game in college lacrosse last year was Syracuse's 19-18 win over Princeton in the NCAA quarterfinals (at least if you were a neutral fan or a Syracuse fan). As much as that loss stung (and still stings), there is something about being part of such an extraordinary event. That game featured 37 goals on 93 shots, of which 63 were on goal. 

Of more recent interest, the Ivy League went 7-0 a week ago, including matching 13-12 wins by Princeton over then-No. 2 Maryland and Harvard over then-No. 1 Syracuse. Those two decisions enabled North Carolina to move into the top spot in the media poll.

*

Speaking of John Stark, by the way, he is also the Syracuse field hockey contact. The last five meetings between one of his team's and one of TB's teams have all been decided by one goal — three in field hockey, the NCAA game last spring and even a men's lacrosse scrimmage this past fall. 

*

The baseball team is heading back to North Carolina, one week after going 1-2 at North Carolina State. This time, the Tigers will be about 30 minutes from that campus, with four games at Duke. 

First pitch for Game 1 will be today at 4, with a doubleheader tomorrow at 1 and a single game Sunday at 1. Duke is 8-2 on the season. 

As TB mentioned earlier this week, Princeton's 1-0 win over No. 17 NC State was courtesy of two freshmen pitchers, Brady Kaufman and Ryan Penney, who shut out the Wolfpack on three hits between them. Both were honored by the Ivy League, with Kaufman the Pitcher of the Week and Penney the Rookie of the Week.  

The Tiger run came on the first career home run from sophomore Isaac Lamson. 

*

The men's tennis team has a top 40 matchup in Tennessee, where the No. 19 Tigers will take on the No. 39 Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State today at 6 Eastern, 5 Central. 

TB hopes that air travel is kinder to the Tigers this time than it has been the last two times a Princeton tennis team has flown this year — the men were stuck in California by the first blizzard, and the women were stuck (stuck?) in Florida after the most recent one. 

The women are at Penn State tomorrow.  

*

The complete weekend schedule is HERE. 

Winter Weekend

There are 18 Princeton teams who will be competing this weekend alone. 

So where does TigerBlog start? With his longtime friend Ernie Larossa, the Johns Hopkins University Associate Director of Athletics for Communications. 

Like TigerBlog, Ernie is an athletic communications lifer. Like TB, he's raised his children (three of them, all grown) around the home team. 

Ernie and TigerBlog have worked together on quite a few occasions, especially as it relates to updating the stat-keeping rules for men's lacrosse (along with Ryan Eigenbrode of Loyola and Stacie Michaud of Navy). Here are the four of them this past summer, with Ernie in the blue shirt:

TB isn't sure there's anyone who knows Ernie who doesn't like him. He's just one of those people. 

That's why TB wanted to make sure he took some time to congratulate his friend on his selection into the Hopkins Athletic Hall of Fame, something that was announced last week. He was a different kind of Blue Jay in college, having graduated from Elizabethtown, and now he'll be enshrined in April among the greats that Hopkins has ever had. 

He belongs there as much as anyone. 

*

Okay, seguing from Blue Jays to Tigers, as TB said there are 18 Princeton teams in action this weekend. Where in the world did you start with that? How about with the "winter" teams? 

Specifically, how about at the Armory in Upper Manhattan? 

If you've never been to a meet at the Armory in Washington Heights, it's certainly worth attending. Hey, this weekend would be perfect for that. 

The Armory will host the Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Track and Field Championships Saturday and Sunday. The Princeton men will be chasing an 11th straight title, while the women are the defending champs after winning a year ago for the first time since 2011. 

You can get lost on THIS PAGE, which has top times and rankings and everything else you could ever want to see about NCAA indoor track and field for men and women, Divisions I, II and III. Here's one note TB found: Princeton's Greg Foster has the best long jump by an Ivy athlete so far this season — by more than three feet. 

On the women's side, Georgina Scoot and Alexandra Kelly rank 1-2 in the Ivy League in the triple jump and 2-1 in the long jump. There's all kinds of Princeton on that website. There will be all kinds of Ivy athletics at the Armory site.

* 

The ECAC women's hockey quarterfinals are this weekend, with four best-of-three series on four different campuses, one of which is Princeton's. It'll be the Tigers and Harvard at Baker Rink, with games tomorrow and Saturday at 3 and then, if necessary, again Sunday at 3.

Princeton is 10th in the NPI ratings, which will decide NCAA sports. Harvard is 19th. During the regular season, it was a split of two games, with each having won on home ice. 

The winner of this series will advance to the Lake Placid for next weekend's semifinals and final. The other quarterfinal series have Colgate at Cornell, Brown at Quinnipiac and Union at Yale. 

Princeton tied Yale for the ECAC regular season championship and is the No. 2 seed in the tournament.  

*

And basketball?  

The Princeton men are home this weekend tomorrow night against Harvard (7) and Saturday night against Dartmouth (6). With three games to play (Princeton will be at Yale next weekend), the Tigers are one game back of fourth place; the top four teams will advance to Ithaca for the Ivy tournament. 

On the women's side, Princeton is tied for first place with Columbia at 9-2 with three games to go. This weekend sees Princeton at Dartmouth tomorrow and Harvard Saturday, with a home game against Yale next Saturday. 

The Tigers and Lions have clinched their trips to Cornell for Ivy Madness. Harvard is a game back at 8-3 and is pretty much a lock to be in the field as well. Brown is currently in fourth, two games up on Penn. 

*

More hockey?  

The Princeton men are at Harvard tomorrow and Dartmouth Saturday as the ECAC regular season comes to a close. 

The Tigers have already clinched home ice in the ECAC tournament, but the question still to be determined is whether that will be next week or the week after. Princeton hits the road in fourth place in the league, three points up on Harvard and four up on Union and six back of Cornell for third. 

The top four teams on the men's side also get a bye in the first round and home ice in the quarterfinals. A Princeton win, regulation or OT, at Harvard would clinch fourth place. A Harvard regulation win would leave the teams tied heading into the final night of the season. Keep in mind the Crimson will have to play first place Quinnipiac Saturday night. 

Snow Days

 

So what do you do on your snow day? 

It depends where you're snowbound, TigerBlog supposes.  

If you in Florida with a cancelled flight due to the storm, you do what the women's tennis team did. If you're in Princeton with the 25 or so inches of snow that fell here, you build a giant men's lacrosse snowman. 

The uniform on the snowman belongs to Princeton senior David Smythe, by the way. TigerBlog isn't sure exactly who built it, but hey — that's a tremendous effort, no?  

TigerBlog has never made a great snowman, try as he might have through the years. He has spent plenty of time on beaches, so he gives this point to the women's tennis players.  

The University finally was able to get back to normal operations yesterday. TigerBlog starts today by giving a huge shoutout and thank you to everyone in facilities in Athletics and throughout the campus who was out there getting rid of tons and tons of snow. 

In Athletics, that means: Greg Paczkowski, Brad Cabral, Aaron Ostroff, Ryan Statham, Michael Huggins, David Santoro, Matthew Duker, Andrew Mangone, Tyler Mills, Chris Vance, Seth Sherman, Mark Bartlett, Tim Birch, Craig French, Jay Kubitsky, Josef Lavko, Christopher Maple, Paul Merrow, Robert Nacarella, Adam Salmon and Mike Santoro. 

That's a lot of people who did a lot of heavy lifting to get athletics up and rolling again. If you happen to see them out and about, say thank you. 

As the athletic schedule gets going again, there are two huge events on today's calendar. First, there is women's lacrosse at home tonight at 7 against Rutgers, four days after a 14-10 loss to Loyola Saturday in the season opener. 

That opener was similar to the men's the week before in that the Tigers started slowly and couldn't overcome a tough first half, even if the second half was much better. The men bounced back from that to defeat Maryland 13-12 this past Saturday in Game 2. 

Will the women have a similar rebound? It was an 11-2 Loyola lead at halftime and then an 8-3 Princeton run in the second half. Meg Morrisroe and Jami MacDonald had eight goals between them — on just 10 shots between them. MacDonald also had two assists. 

Rutgers comes to Sherrerd Field with a record of 3-1, with an opening loss to Army followed by wins over Delaware, Monmouth and Villanova. Rutgers has scored at least 12 goals in every game and averages 15.25 per.

The other event today is Day 1 of four of the Ivy League men's swimming and diving championships at DeNunzio Pool. If you're looking for schedules, results and any other possible information, you can find it HERE.

The Princeton men are ranked 20th in Division I heading into this weekend, with a 7-0 run through the Ivy dual meets. The Tigers won their first Ivy swimming and diving championship back in 1965 — one year after Jed Graef's Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in the 200 backstroke.

Most recently, the Tigers won it a year ago, giving them 32 of these titles. No other Ivy program has won more. 

Actually, that last sentence got TB to wondering in how many sports does Princeton have the most Ivy League championships. 

Well, the answer is: a lot of them. 

On the women's side, the Ivy League crowns a champion in 17 different sports. Of those, there are nine different ones where Princeton has the most: basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, open rowing, swimming & diving, indoor track and field and volleyball. 

On the men's side, you have basketball, cross country, golf, swimming & diving, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. 

Meanwhile, back at DeNunzio Pool, Princeton's Mitchell Schott was the High Point Scorer of the Meet last year after winning three individual races and being part of winning relay. Aidan Wang is looking for his third straight High Point Diver of the Meet.  

Princeton will still have the all-time Ivy title lead no matter who wins this week. The event runs through Saturday night.   

Nobody Ever Does Anything About It

TigerBlog begins today with a thank-you to Princeton women's tennis head coach Elizabeth Johnson for sending the above picture yesterday. 

The women's tennis team played two matches in South Florida this weekend, defeating Florida International and Florida Atlantic. The Tigers, by the way, were ranked 34th in last week's ITA poll (the men were 19th). 

Look at the picture. Palm trees swaying gently in the warm tropical breeze. The clear blue-green of the ocean beckoning beyond. The cloudless sky of blue sending its own personal greeting. 

Now, if you were in the path of the storm that pushed through, look out the window. It's quite the contrast. 

TigerBlog was outside Saturday at the men's lacrosse game at Maryland on a beautiful late February day. The snows of the previous six weeks had almost vanished completely. Grass was actually visible. 

And now? Bang. There's more snow than there was before. And it's the heavy, hard-to-shovel kind. 

If you were affected by this storm, hopefully you're okay and you still have power — or if not that you get it back soon. This storm was a wild one, with nearly two feet of snow and then crazy winds. 

Also, if you're wondering, the women's tennis team was supposed to be back Sunday night but now can't get back until today at the earliest. What has the team been doing there? "Training and studying," Johnson said. 

That's a good use of time. 

The storm was so intense that in-person classes were cancelled, something that has happened because of weather less than five times probably in all the decades TB has been at Princeton. 

Oh well. As Mark Twain once said: "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it." Or was that Charles Dudley Warner? 

The timing of the storm wasn't horrible as far as the athletic schedule was. Had it come through 24-48 hours earlier, it would have been a logistical nightmare for sports at Princeton and everywhere else in the Northeast. 

The week coming up is a huge one, with major events up and down the schedule. The weather app on TB's phone, by the way, still has a few too many snowflakes for his liking. 

Before any of that becomes an issue, there are two more mentions from this past weekend. 

The first is for the baseball team, which opened its season with three games at North Carolina State, who was ranked 17th in the country. The Wolfpack won the first two games, which, as an aside, improved them to 5-0 on the year. They also outscored Princeton 22-5 in those two games, including 16-1 in Game 2.

So what happened in the third game? Princeton 1, NC State 0.

The run came via an Isaac Lamson home run in the sixth. It was the first career home run for the sophomore. 

The pitching came from Brady Kaufman, who went the first five innings, allowing one hit while striking out three, and then Ryan Penney, who went the last four, allowing two hits and striking out four, including two to end it after allowing a lead-off double in the bottom of the ninth. 

Those are two big-time performances right there. Oh, and both of them are freshmen. 

The Tigers head back to North Carolina for four with Duke this weekend. 

TB also wants to talk about the men's hockey team, who lost in a shootout to Colgate Friday night and then turned around 24 hours later to beat No. 10 Cornell 4-2 on senior night.  

As a result, Princeton heads into the final weekend of the regular season alone in fourth place in the ECAC standings. Fourth is a really good place to be, since the top four teams will receive a first-round playoff bye and home ice in the quarterfinals, while 5-8 will host the opening round next weekend. 

Princeton is three points ahead of fifth-place Harvard, a team whom they play Friday night (in Cambridge), followed Saturday by a stop in Hanover to take on Dartmouth. The standings right now have Quinnipiac with 47 points, Dartmouth with 43, Cornell with 41 and then Princeton with 35.

No matter what happens, Princeton can finish no lower than sixth, which means there will be postseason hockey at Hobey Baker Rink for both the women and the men. The women will host Harvard in their quarterfinal series, which is best-of-three. Those games will be Friday, Saturday and if necessary Sunday, with a 3 pm start time each day.  

That's Golden

That was, without question, a great gold medal men's hockey game at the Olympics. 

The United States defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime, getting a goal from Jack Hughes less than two minutes into the 3v3 period — and not that much time after he lost his front teeth on a high stick in the third period. 

While Hughes may have scored the game-winner, it was USA goalie Connor Hellebuyck who WAS the game-winner, stopping 41 of 42 shots and making some of the most ridiculous saves you will see anywhere (maybe even better than the one that Princeton men's lacrosse goalie Ryan Croddick made to seal the Tigers' 13-12 win over Maryland Saturday).

In all seriousness, it would have been hard to tell which save by Hellebuyck was even his best until the one in the third period. You know the one.

Hellebuyck with one of the greatest saves ever
pic.twitter.com/ouRYLtspvJ

— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) February 22, 2026

How? How in the world did he do that? And on that stage? That might have been the greatest save ever. 

TigerBlog was in the racket center on the Meadows Campus for Princeton-Georgetown men's tennis yesterday, and he was watching the game on his laptop while he also watched the tennis in front of him. Right at the time that Hughes scored, a big roar went up from the other side of the center, though it was also at the same time that Princeton clinched the Ivy League women's squash tournament championship.  

TigerBlog would like to say two things about this Olympic men's hockey tournament. 

First, the intensity with which the teams played throughout was incredible, especially considering they're all highly paid pros. If this had been a February game in, say, Tampa or Winnipeg, there would have been no way that these players would have played as hard as they did. Put a national team jersey on them and put them in the Olympics, and their compete level just ratchets way up.

Second, sorry, but as great as this was, it wasn't anything like the 1980 Miracle On Ice. If you hadn't been born yet or weren't old enough to appreciate it, there's no comparison to what that event was. For so many reasons, it's impossible for any athletic event to ever even remotely approach what that was 46 years ago. 

And so these Olympic Games have ended. It'll be four years until TB gets to watch skeleton again. 

Ah, but are you ready for this segue: 

While the United States had to wait 46 years between Olympic men's hockey gold medals, the Princeton women's swimming and diving team only had to wait a little more than 46 weeks for another championship of its own.

Not bad? Too forced? 

The Ivy League championships were held this weekend, and once again it all turned out to be golden for the Princeton women. That's four straight titles, if you're counting. 

It's not easy to put together that level of consistent dominance. There aren't that many teams in any sport that can win four straight, and it has to be quite a feeling to be part of a senior class when that does happen. 

The biggest story, objectively, from these championships is that Penn finished second. When was the last time that a team other than Princeton, Harvard or Yale finished in the top two? 

You have to go back 2002, when Brown was the runner-up to Princeton. Penn, by the way, finished fifth last year. 

As TB said, that is an objective view. This is a Princeton-centric space, though, so permit TB to say the biggest story was the team that won. 

The Tigers put up 1,432 points, followed by Penn at 1,204 and then Harvard at 1,153.5.

Eleanor Sun, a Tiger junior, was once again the High Point Swimmer of the Meet after taking the 200 IM, 400 IM and 200 butterfly, qualifying for the NCAA Championships in all three. Her 200 and 400 IMs were both pool records, with the 400 IM also an Ivy meet record. She was also part of the 800 free relay that set a Princeton record. 

Charlotte Martinkus was the High Point Diver of the Meet for the third time. Martinkus won the one-meter in an Ivy and pool record performance. 

The Ivy men's swimming and diving championships will be at DeNunzio Pool beginning Wednesday. 

The Weekend Part II

The puck had just trickled across the goal line into the back of the net, touching off a massive gold medal celebration for the United States women's hockey team after a 2-1 overtime win over Canada yesterday afternoon. 

And still TigerBlog wasn't sure which team he wanted to see win the game. 

He's an American, after all — but the U.S. team didn't have any Princeton alums. The Canadian team had two.

Those two, Sarah Fillier and Claire Thompson, had to settle for silver after the very dramatic game, one that saw the U.S. tie it with two minutes to go and then win it in the 3v3 overtime. The format certainly ramps the drama way up, that's for sure. 

Fillier, who almost won it in the overtime, are now two-time Olympic medalists, after they both won gold four years ago in China. This is the eighth time that women's hockey has been contested in the Olympics; the gold medal count is now Canada 5, USA 3, Rest Of The World 0.

These Olympic Games are heading into their final weekend. Next up will be the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, where there figure to be many more Princetonians who will compete.

If you're going to watch the Olympics this weekend, make sure you also pay attention to the weekend in Princeton Athletics. TB ran down some of this weekend's events yesterday, and here are some others:

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There are two big men's hockey games this weekend at Baker Rink, both at 7, as Colgate is here tonight at Cornell tomorrow. '

The ECAC regular season has two weekends to go, and Princeton is currently in fifth place in the league, one point back of Harvard in the race for a first-round tournament bye and then home ice in the league quarterfinals. 

Colgate is in seventh place, with 25 points (Union is sixth with 27), while Cornell is in second, tied with Dartmouth at 38 points. Quinnipiac leads the league with 44. 

The Tigers will finish the regular season on the road next weekend, with a massive trip to Harvard and Dartmouth. 

The Princeton women will be off this weekend and then home in the ECAC quarterfinals next weekend.  

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The men's lacrosse team is at Maryland tomorrow at noon, hoping to bounce back after its 13-7 loss to Penn State in the season opener last weekend. The schedule will get no easier after this, as next up will be a home weekend next Friday and Sunday against Syracuse and North Carolina.

If you're following the rankings, then you know that Maryland was No. 1 until Syracuse defeated the Terps last week in the Dome, moving the Orange to No. 1 and Maryland to No. 2. North Carolina? Well, the Tar Heels enter this weekend ranked third. 

Princeton is 0-6 against Maryland since the start of the 2022 season and has not had the lead in the second half of any of those games. 

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Meanwhile, about 30 minutes north of College Park, the Princeton women's lacrosse team opens its season at Loyola (also at noon). 

Princeton is ranked ninth in the coaches' poll but dead last in a different Division I stat: The Tigers will be the last of the 133 teams in the country to start their season. Loyola is ranked 19th and has already played three games, with a win over Lehigh sandwiched between losses to Johns Hopkins and Florida. 

Princeton needs to replace its all-time leading goal scorer, McKenzie Blake, but there are returning impact players all over the field, including three on the Tewaaraton Award preseason watchlist: Dylan Allen, Haven Dora and Jami MacDonald. 

It's unlikely that MacDonald will set the Princeton career scoring record, but it is likely that she'll set the MacDonald family record. She enters her senior year with 189 career points, which leaves her 19 away from tying older brother Mikey, the 2015 Roper Trophy winner as the top male senior athlete. 

If you're wondering, the points record at Princeton is 307, held by Kyla Sears. MacDonald had 92 a year ago, so there is a chance. 

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The women's basketball team is home tomorrow at 5:30 against Brown in the only game this weekend. 

Princeton and Columbia are tied for first in the league at 8-2, one game ahead of both Harvard and Brown at 7-3.  There's a three-game drop from there to fifth place, where Penn is 4-6, which means that the four teams for Ivy Madness are pretty much dialed in. 

Princeton defeated Brown 58-49 in Providence earlier this season. The rest of this weekend's schedule is Columbia at Dartmouth, Yale at Penn and Cornell at Harvard. 

The men's race is much more balanced, with five teams separated by two games from third to seventh. Princeton, at 4-6, is currently one game back of fourth place, with a game tonight at Brown (7).  

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The complete weekend schedule can be found HERE.

Darin Yrigoyen?

Are you serious?

TigerBlog received the typical email he gets prior to an event for one of the teams he covers, asking for a roster and basic team information and needs. Of course, this one was different than any he's ever gotten before. 

The sender was the women's tennis contact at Florida International, where Princeton will play Saturday, before playing at Florida Atlantic Sunday. 

If this was all normal, then why did TB say "are you serious?" Well, that's because the contact at FIU is Darin Yrigoyen. 

If you don't recognize the last name, Darin's father is the great Chuck Yrigoyen, one-time member of the Princeton Office of Athletic Communications and long-time Associate Commissioner at the Ivy League Office. He's also one of the all-time greats in Jadwin Gym lunchtime basketball history and would be a first-ballot Hall-of-Fame, if such a thing existed. 

TB has always said that he'd feel old when the children of athletes whom he covered at Princeton would come to compete here as well, and that's something that's happened quite a few times. Darin Yrigoyen though? TB remembers when he was born, for crying out loud. 

Now he feels old. 

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The Olympic gold medal game in women's hockey will be held today at 1:10 pm Eastern time between the United States and Canada. This isn't exactly the Miracle on Ice; it's more the Inevitable on Ice. 

Maybe in four years, they can have these two play a best-of-seven for the gold and then have everyone else play for the bronze?

Princeton is represented by two players on the Canadian team — Sarah Fillier and Claire Thompson — both of whom already own gold medals from four years ago. The United States team is a heavy favorite this time around, having already taken down Canada 5-0 earlier in the tournament. 

Canada has won five of the previous seven gold medals since women's hockey was added in 1998. The other two belong to the USA. 

Canada won the 2022 gold medal game 3-2 in Beijing.  

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The Ivy League women's swimming and diving championships began yesterday and will run through Saturday at Brown. 

Princeton will be going for its fourth straight championship and 27th overall, which would rank third among Ivy League women's programs all-time, behind the 28 of Princeton field hockey and Harvard women's squash. 

Princeton went 7-0 in the dual meet portion of its Ivy League schedule, though the official champion wil be the winner of the meet in Rhode Island this weekend.  

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By the way, speaking of the Winter Olympics, you know where the next ones will be in 2030? The French Alps, with most of the events about a three or four hour drive from where the current ones are being held. 

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Is .611 a good batting average? 

Actually, a better question might be is .526 a good batting average? That's where Princeton's Graciela Dominguez stood after the opening weekend in Florida, where the Tigers went 4-1. 

Of course that's a great number to put up. It also puts Dominguez in third place on her own team, behind Braeden Hale (she of the .611) and Karis Ford (.545). Hale, a first-team All-Ivy League selection last year as a freshman, ranks seventh in Division I in batting average after the first weekend. 

Mia Valenzuela was named Ivy Rookie of the Week after having at least one hit in all five games, with two home runs and two doubles. Valenzuela came to Princeton from Houston's St. Agnes Academy, which is also the Tigers. In fact, Valenzuela won the school's Tiger Pride Award a year ago. 

Next up for the Tigers (the ones from Princeton) is a weekend in Chapel Hill, N.C., with five more games on the schedule, beginning tomorrow with North Carolina Central and Appalachian State, with another App State Saturday, as well as a game against the host Tar Heels, and finishing up Sunday morning against, of all teams, Rider. 

Princeton and Rider are separated by about eight miles or so, and they will play on a field about 500 miles from either campus. 

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The baseball team will also be in North Carolina this weekend, and next, for that matter. 

Princeton will open its season with three games this weekend at North Carolina State and then be back next weekend for four more at Duke. The weekend after that? There's a trip to South Carolina to start its spring break portion of the schedule.  

ECAC Champs II

In TigerBlog's piece yesterday about the women's hockey team's ECAC regular-season championship, he forgot to mention one item. 

While Princeton and Yale tied for the ECAC title, neither won the Ivy League championship. That went to Cornell, who finished with 21 points, to 20 for Yale and 18 for Princeton. 

The ECAC regular season has 22 games for each team, with one home and one away against the other 11 league teams. Of those 22 games, though, the Ivy vs. Ivy games count in the Ivy standings, so those 10 games are a subset of the ECAC ones. 

As such, you can have co-champs in the ECAC who do not win the Ivy League. It's a pretty interesting anomaly, and you know how TigerBlog loves a good anomaly. 

The ECAC Hockey League, by the way, isn't the same entity as the ECAC. Confusing, right? 

The ECAC itself dates back to 1938, when Asa S. Bushnell (Princeton Class of 1921, by the way) became the first commissioner. Today the ECAC is an extension of Northeast Division I, II and III schools, pretty much all of whom are in other primary leagues (such as the Ivy League, for instance). 

The ECAC, according to its mission statement, "exists to enhance the experience of student-athletes participating in intercollegiate athletics, and provide great value for universities and colleges, by sponsoring championships, leagues, bowl games, tournaments and other competitions throughout the Northeast."

One of the championships that the ECAC sponsors is Division I tennis, both for men and women. Those two tournaments — which featured all eight Ivy League teams and nobody else — were held the last two weekends at the Si Qin Family Indoor Tennis Center at Princeton. 

The women's event saw Princeton go 2-1 two weeks ago. This past weekend, it was the men's turn. 

The final matched Princeton and Columbia Sunday. Guess what? It was one of the best Princeton events TigerBlog has seen in a long time.

Princeton and Columbia both won their first two matches by 4-0 counts, setting up a championship match between the two top seeds. Columbia was ranked 12th nationally; Princeton was on the cusp of the national rankings. 

Throw in that Princeton had already come close to beating two other ranked teams (Arizona State, North Carolina State) and lost 4-3. And throw in that Princeton had lost 14 straight to Columbia.  

The match started at 3:30. It was nearly 7:30 when it ended. Final score: Princeton 4, Columbia 3. 

It was crazy. It was wildly intense. Every point seemed to make a big difference. It was everything you could have asked from a sporting event.  

If you don't know how college tennis matches work, there are three doubles matches to start off, and whichever team wins two gets a team point. Then there are six singles matches, worth one point each as well. It takes four points to get a team to win. 

There are other differences from what you see during Wimbledon or the U.S. Open. For one thing, if a game gets to 40-40, then the next point wins. And then for another, it's hardly quiet during play. Spectators. Players. Teammates. The sound bounces everywhere, always. It turns the whole event into something of a party atmosphere.

The biggest subplot of Sunday's match came at first singles, where Columbia's Michael Zheng and Princeton's Paul Inchauspe met. It was a rematch of the NCAA singles tournament semifinal last fall, when Zheng defeated Inchauspe in three sets on his way to his second-straight individual national championship. In addition, Zheng also happened to win a match in the Australian Open main draw a month ago. 

The match between them Sunday was a great one. It was incredible shot-making, by both players. Inchauspe won the first set. Zheng won the second. If you were waiting for Inchauspe to fold, well, you're still waiting — he won the third set and the match. 

Princeton had won the doubles point. Aleksandar Mitric gave Princeton a win at No. 6. Columbia won at No. 2, No. 4 and No. 5. All were back-and-forth matches that only made the drama build and flip almost game-by-game. 

And so it was 3-3 as the third set at No. 3 started. The crowd was big and very into it. The building was loud. Very loud. 

The match had Princeton's Landon Ardila against Columbia's Sachin Palta, the No. 37 player in the most recent ITA singles rankings. It didn't matter. Ardila played with a visible combination of poise and confidence, and he rolled through the set 6-1, touching off a celebration worthy of the moment. 

Have the Tigers seen the last of the Lions? Hardly. The teams meet again in New York City on April 12, with an Ivy League championship possibly at stake that day. 

Can it live up to what the teams did Sunday? If it does, then that's going to be an incredible scene.  

No Judgement

You know what TigerBlog hates (besides winter)?

Sports that are judged. You're just begging for reputational biases or, even worse, outright cheating, all of which lends itself to questionable outcomes. 

Take the side-by-side bumpy-hill skiing, or whatever it's called. Two skiers race down a hill, stopping along the way to twirl and somersault and a bunch of other things that slow them down, eventually getting to the finish line — and then you wait for the judges to decide who won. 

When TB watched this event (he thinks it's called "dual moguls") the other day, he couldn't help but think of the words of one of the greatest American authors of all time: 

Then those things ran about with big bumps, jumps and kicks and with hops and big thumps and all kinds of bad tricks.  

Why not just make the tricks the same for all the skiers and then whoever gets to the bottom first after having done all of those tricks wins? Instead, the woman who won the gold medal finished well behind the silver medalist, but the judges awarded her first by one point. 

Bonus points, by the way, to those who correctly identified the quote, which TB will tell you at the end.  

You know what event TB was awed by? Skeleton. 

Basically, you're on a sled similar to the one that everyone had as a kid, only you're flying down an icy course at speeds that approach 80 miles per hour, with winding turns and 180 degree direction changes, not to mention your face a fraction of an inch from the track. TB wants to try it, and by that he means "no possible way would he ever do that." 

Janine Flock was the women's gold medalist and one of the feel-good stories of the Winter Olympics. The 36-year-old Austrian was in her fourth Olympics without ever having won a medal, finishing fourth in 2018. 

Lucky for her nobody came along after she crossed the finish line to tell her that someone who went slower won the gold because of subjective judging. 

Speaking of things that happened on ice this weekend, how about the end of the ECAC women's hockey regular season? That was as wild as almost anything the Olympics has had so far. 

Princeton went into the regular season assured of one thing — a first-round playoff bye and home ice for the quarterfinals (which, he supposes, is actually two things). How would it all play out? 

It started Friday night, when Princeton hosted Yale, where a win would have clinched the outright title. Instead, the Bulldogs won 2-0, vaulting them over Princeton and into first place with one game to go. 

Where did that leave the standings? Yale now had 45 points, followed by Princeton with 44 and Quinnipiac at 43. With three points for a regulation win, two for an overtime win, one for an overtime loss and zero for a regulation loss, the permutations were many. 

Saturday night saw Brown at Princeton and Yale at Quinnipiac. The Princeton-Brown game ended first, when Issy Wunder scored in overtime after the Bears had tied the game with 1:30 to play in regulation. This was all after Wunder had given Princeton a 2-1 lead with eight minutes to go.

The OT win left Princeton with 46 points, which meant Yale would win the outright championship with a regulation win, something that seemed inevitable with a 3-1 Bulldog lead with less than two minutes to go. 

And then? Shockingly, Quinnipiac scored two empty-net goals 38 seconds apart and then won it in overtime. Shocking indeed. 

When it all settled, Yale earned one point for its OT loss, making it a 46-46 tie for the championship, with Quinnipiac one point back at 45. For Princeton, its first ECAC regular season title came in the first year for head coach Courtney Kessel.

Yale earned the No. 1 seed over Princeton through the tiebreakers. Princeton will be the No. 2 seed, giving the Tigers this weekend off while its opponent is determined. The quarterfinals will be the following weekend, and the league's semifinals and final will be in Lake Placid March 6-7.

Oh, and extra credit goes to those who knew that quote was from "The Cat In The Hat." 

Two Championships, One Today And One Tomorrow

Where to start with your week? 

Should TigerBlog go with the women's hockey team, which came out on top of the final ECAC regular season standings after a wild weekend? Or perhaps with the women's squash team and its dominant Ivy League championship? 

Both are compelling. Both earned home postseason berths with their wins this weekend.  

He considered combining the two into one entry, but that didn't seem fair, given what both teams accomplished. So what did he do? 

He used the random number app on his phone and asked it to generate a number between 1-100. If it came up evens, he'd start with women's hockey. If it came up odds, he go with women's squash. 

It came up "43," so it's women's squash day. Tomorrow will be women's hockey.  

You know which team TigerBlog was rooting for in the Princeton-Harvard women's squash match yesterday? 

Hint - It's not necessarily obvious. Hint 2 - It was Princeton, but ... 

Princeton defeated Harvard 7-2 yesterday to close out a perfect Ivy League regular season. The win gave the Tigers the outright Ivy League championship and the host role for the first Ivy League women's squash tournament, which will come to the Meadows racket center this coming weekend. 

There's a lot more to Princeton's win than just that, though. 

Harvard came into the weekend ranked No. 1 in the country and why not? The Crimson have been a machine of late, with 10 of the last 13 Howe Cup national championships. Princeton, by the way, was ranked second, while Penn was ranked third. 

In the league? Harvard had won nine straight titles entering this weekend and had a 74-match regular-season Ivy League winning streak.  

The weekend began with Princeton and Harvard unbeaten, followed by Penn, with only a 6-3 loss to Princeton. The Crimson started their weekend in Philadelphia Saturday, at the same time the Tigers hosted Dartmouth.  

Princeton, as expected, won 9-0. Harvard-Penn? The winning streak ended there, as the Quakers won 6-3. 

That set up yesterday's final day of the regular season. A Penn win over Dartmouth, which was something of a given, would leave the Quakers with one league loss. A Harvard win would have set up a three-way tie. A Princeton win would have meant the championship outright for the Tigers. 

Maybe TB should have let the drama build, but he already gave away the ending. If you forgot, it was 7-2 Tigers. In only one match did Princeton lose more than one game. 

The 7-0 run through the league was Princeton's first since 2013. The Tigers have now won seven league championships all time.  

Meanwhile, back at which team TigerBlog was rooting for in the match? That would be Princeton field hockey. Where did the field hockey team fit in? 

Well, TFH, as its known, went into the academic year tied with Harvard for the most Ivy League championships all time for any women's programs with 28 each. Princeton reached the NCAA field hockey championship game and won the league tournament this past fall, but it did not win the regular season, which is where the championship is officially won. 

As such, Harvard women's squash would have taken a 29-28 lead in championships with another one. Instead, the two remained tied at the top. TB even sent a text to the team group chat telling the players to thank a squash friend.

The Ivy League squash tournament is new. Unlike the other Ivy tournaments, there is no automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, as the squash national championship is decided by the College Squash Association's Howe Cup tournament. 

It should still be a fascinating event. Princeton, as the top seed, will play fourth seed Cornell. Penn and Harvard will have their rematch (by virtue of the women's win, the men's tournament will also be at Princeton and feature the Tigers, Yale, Harvard and Penn; the men's winner will host both tournaments next year). Both tournaments will be held this coming Saturday and Sunday; the CSA championships for both will be March 5-8 in Philadelphia. 

So that's the women's squash. Women's hockey will be here tomorrow. 

Oh, and skeleton too.  

Beginnings, Middles, Ends And More

It's opening weekend for some, championship weekend for others and pretty much anything in between for the rest. 

In other words, there's a lot going on this weekend, so TigerBlog will jump right into it.

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The women's basketball team is at Columbia tonight at 6, in a game that will be televised on ESPNU. Princeton is a game up on the Lions and Harvard as they head into the weekend, though all three figure to be locks for the upcoming Ivy League tournament. 

Columbia and Princeton played two weeks ago in Jadwin Gym, where the Lions won 73-67 to give the Tigers their only league loss (and only loss in the last 17 games). There were eight players in that game (five Lions, three Tigers) who were in double figures. 

Columbia then turned around and lost the following night at Penn. Like that weekend, this one is also a back-to-back, with Princeton then at Cornell Saturday at 5 and Penn at Columbia. 

Princeton-Columbia women's games have become incredibly intense the last few years, and tonight's game figures to be no different. No matter what happens tonight, both teams will have to turn it around in less than 24 hours and be ready to play again. 

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Opening weekend? Yes it is, for Princeton softball and men's lacrosse. 

The softball team is in Florida, where it will play games at Jacksonville and North Florida, whose campus is located within walking distance of TB's college roommate Charlie's house. 

By the way, here is the closest beach to North Florida. It's about a 15-minute ride from the campus: 

TigerBlog took that picture when he was there in December. He didn't realize how close North Florida was to his friend's house. It certainly looks like a good place to watch softball, especially in February. 

The season actually kicks off today, when Princeton will be at Jacksonville to take on Stony Brook at 11 am and the host Dolphins at 4. The venue shifts to North Florida tomorrow, for games at 3 and 5 against Stony Brook again and then UNF. Princeton will then play Iona Sunday, also at North Florida at 10 am.

Princeton has won four straight Ivy League championships and is now the preseason favorite to make it five, after the league poll was announced this week. 

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The Jacksonville forecast is for sunshine and temps near or above 70 this weekend. The Princeton forecast for tomorrow is for sunshine and 44 degrees, which, after the last month, will feel like 70 degrees.

The moderation in the weather comes at a perfect time, as the third-ranked Princeton men's lacrosse team opens a season of great promise with a visit from Penn State (noon). The Tigers won in State College last year in a game that was moved indoors, and there was some thought that this game might have to find an indoor site too until this forecast came along. 

Penn State is playing its third game, with a win over Colgate that was followed by an overtime loss to Villanova last week. The game on Sherrerd Field tomorrow starts a stretch of four games in 16 days, all against teams who, like Princeton, have a legitimate chance to win the NCAA championship. 

After this game, it'll be Princeton at No. 1 Maryland and then home against No. 2 Syracuse and No. 5 North Carolina. If you're into good lacrosse, there's plenty of it coming your way. 

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Princeton's athletic website yesterday featured two, well, features. 

One of them was from TigerBlog's colleague Warren Croxton, who wrote about former women's basketball player Krystal Hill, Class of 2011. You can read his story HERE.

Hill was a big part of the great transformation of Princeton women's basketball, which went 7-23 her freshman year, 14-14 her sophomore year and then 26-3 and 24-5 her last two years, winning the league championship both times and reaching the NCAA tournament for the first two times in program history. 

Since then, there has been nothing but sustained success — for the team and for Hill, who went on to medical school at Penn and now is an internal medicine physician at the Veteran Affairs medical center in Houston and assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine,

The other feature is TigerBlog's story on men's lacrosse senior Chad Palumbo, the preseason Division I Midfielder of the Year by USA Lacrosse. Palumbo's story is about way more than lacrosse, though. 

He was diagnosed with a rare soft tissue cancer before his senior year of high school, and his resilience in the face of that illness has been inspiring. His growth as a lacrosse player has also been impressive, to the point where he's gone from being benched as a freshman to being a captain this year. 

Oh, and he also tied the program record for goals in an NCAA tournament game last spring with six against Syracuse in the quarterfinals, despite sustaining a knee injury on the first of those goals. It would be six months before he was fully recovered. 

You can read about Chad HERE.

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The Ivy League women's squash championship and host role for the inaugural league tournament will be decided this weekend at the racket center at the Meadows Campus. Princeton hosts Dartmouth tomorrow and then No. 1 Harvard Sunday, with both at noon. 

This is from the preview story on goprincetontigers.com:

Harvard and Princeton are both 4-0, with Penn right behind at 3-1. All three teams have clinched Ivy League Tournament bids, with the fourth spot coming down to the last weekend among 2-3 Cornell, 1-3 Dartmouth and 1-3 Yale. Harvard will go to Penn on Saturday before coming to Princeton. The women's top seed will host the tournament, set for Feb. 21-22. 

The men will also host Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend, with start time also at noon. The building will also be the host for the ECAC men's tennis championships (No. 2 seed Princeton plays Dartmouth tonight at 6).

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This is the final weekend of the ECAC women's hockey regular season. As TB wrote Tuesday, Princeton is still very much in the running for the championship. 

First-place Princeton hosts Yale tonight (6) and Brown tomorrow (3). The Tigers are already assured of no worse than fourth place in the league, which means a first-round playoff bye and the host role for a best-of-three quarterfinal series. 

Princeton has 44 points entering this weekend, two ahead of second place Yale. There are almost endless scenarios for the way the weekend breaks, but obviously Princeton can win the championship by winning out. 

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The complete schedule for the weekend is HERE. 

Remembering Lorin Maurer, 17 Years Later

TigerBlog goes back into the archives today, back 16 years ago to be exact.

It was on that day that he, and the rest of Princeton Department of Athletics and world beyond, woke up to the shocking news of the plane crash outside of Buffalo. Among those killed was Lorin Maurer, who oversaw the Princeton Athletic Friends Groups at the time. She had just turned 30; she'd be nearing 50 today.

 

Each year since, TB has written about the emotions of losing a colleague and a friend. With each year, the number of people who knew Lorin has dwindled until now there are only a handful left who remember her, the warmth she always displayed, the smile that never went away. In fact, her smile is the last thing TB ever saw from her. 

 

Here is how TB put it back in 2009, with the comments he received afterwards... Lorin, you were truly an exceptional person, and nobody who knew you will ever forget you:

 

When she walked past the door of TigerBlog HQ yesterday afternoon, like she had a million times before and figured to a million times again, Lorin Maurer paused, smiled and kept going. She never said a word; TigerBlog didn't say anything back to her.

Who could have ever have imagined it would be the last time he'd ever see her?

Lorin Maurer was killed late Thursday night when Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo. She was heading there for the wedding of her boyfriend's brother (her boyfriend was not on the flight); she was just 30 years old.

TigerBlog knew Lorin since she first started working here in 2005. We've worked together any number of times on all kinds of projects. As with any people who approach projects from different angles, we had our disagreements and clashes, but for the most part we were on the same page.

She was young and full of life. She had accomplished a great deal in her young life, and sadly, much of that was learned while writing her obituary. The last time TigerBlog ever saw her summed her up perfectly. Nothing to say? Flash a smile, and let that speak for you: "Hello; hope you're doing okay; I'll see you another time."

So what to make of all this? How do you make sense of the fact that a 30-year-old just starting out, with so much energy and zest, is gone like that? How do you rationalize the fact that you were just in the same meeting the day she died, that you have another meeting scheduled with her on Monday? How do you figure that you came to HQ figuring to work on a lacrosse program and that you wrote a youthful colleague's obit instead?

The first reaction is that you never know what's coming down the road, so you have to stop every day to appreciate whom you have and what you have. But that should all be obvious. It's not something we all do enough of, but Lorin's passing isn't going to change that.

She had a great many friends here at Princeton, not only in the athletic department but also in development and with alums throughout the country with whom she interacted. She was well-liked and well-respected for the job she did.

TigerBlog thought for awhile about something profound to say, some inspiration to draw from her death. In the end, what is there to say?

She was here yesterday, so alive. She's gone today. It's beyond sad.

That's all there is to say.

44 Down

TigerBlog loves to do the New York Times crossword puzzle every day. 

The easiest puzzle of the week is Monday's, and they're supposed to get progressively harder as the week goes along. TB sometimes goes with the "check" function, which will show him if he's gotten everything correct to that point. 

What he won't do is cheat — unless that counts as cheating, which he doesn't think it does. Sometimes he'll reach out to someone for help, especially on pop culture. That's about it. 

There's also a crossword archive that goes all the back to the 1990s. Those are fun, considering how much the world has evolved, technology has changed, pop-culture has moved along and phrases are different, al of which makes the clues completely different. 

Yesterday's puzzle was fairly easy. TB finished it in less than 20 minutes. 

Here was 37-across: 

"Toy Story 2" character who says "I'm packing you an extra pair of shoes, and your angry eyes, just in case"

That was clearly Mrs. Potato Head, who was voiced by Estelle Harris. Mr. Potato Head was voiced by Don Rickles, by the way. 

Then there was 66-across. It was definitely a challenge: 

Catholic university whose mascot is a lion, aptly.

Turns out the answer is St. Leo. TB got that because he had the "t," "e" and "o."

Ah, but this was a special edition of the puzzle, largely because of 44-down and 45-down. Here they were:

44 down: John ___, longtime writer for The New Yorker
45 down: State that's the subject of 44-Down's book "Coming Into the Country"

They were both six letters. 

How great was this? The answers are, of course, "McPhee" and "Alaska." TigerBlog has read almost all the books of the first, including "Coming Into The Country," of which he has a signed copy. 

Mr. McPhee, as you probably know, is one of TigerBlog's heroes and favorite people. They have spent hours and hours and hours together, riding bikes, talking about the writing process, talking about Princeton Athletics history, talking about pretty much anything. Oh, and they've even gone fishing together. 

That's one of TB's favorite pictures ever. 

McPhee, now in his 90s, is a member of the Class of 1953. His father Harry was the team physician for Princeton Athletics in the 1930s and ’40s, and John grew up around Princeton games and athletes.  

What are your plans for your 90th birthday? John McPhee and TigerBlog rode together for 11 miles on the day McPhee turned 90. That's a good goal to have, right? How many 90 year olds do you know, let alone 90 year olds who could ride 11 miles?  

John McPhee has been a living, breathing almanac of Princeton Athletics. His roommate at Princeton was Dick Kazmaier, the 1951 Heisman Trophy winner. His first book was about Bill Bradley and his senior year of 1964-65. He was incredibly close with Pete Carril and is still incredibly close with Bill Tierney. 

He taught a writing seminar at Princeton for five decades, impacting hundreds of students. He has been a longtime Fellow with the men's lacrosse team, where his influence has been felt by another few hundred Princeton students.  

And, of course, by TigerBlog, who has learned a lot from his time with Mr. McPhee. Included in their time together have been three international trips with the men's lacrosse team — they've ridden together in Portugal, Spain and Costa Rica. 

Mr. McPhee has told TigerBlog some of the best, funniest, deepest, well-communicated stories he's ever heard. There are so many of them that TB hardly would know where to start to share them. Trust him though. Every second of them has been way worth it.   

And there John was, in the New York Times crossword puzzle yesterday. TigerBlog smiled and then filled in the correct answers. 

It was a welcome sight in his daily puzzle.  

And of course, if there had been a crossword clue that was, say, a nine-letter word for "has written five days a week since 2009," he's certain that Mr. McPhee would have easily gotten "TigerBlog." 

Skating To The Finish

Today might be the day, finally. 

 For what, you might wonder? Today, for the first time in 28 days, the forecast for Princeton calls for temperatures to actually go above freezing. 

If you're wondering, those 27 straight days without getting to at least 33 degrees is a record for these parts, by a lot. TigerBlog read a story about how the previous record was 14 straight days, set back in 1961 and equalled in 1979. 

TB doesn't remember such a cold snap back in 1979, when he was in high school. He does know that the past four weeks here have been brutal. 

He'd go so far as to say that this past Saturday was the coldest day he can ever remember in the Central New Jersey area, where he grew up and where he has worked for four decades. It was 1 degree Saturday morning when he got into his car, with the windchill somewhere around minus-20.

And now there is at least the slightest hint that winter might finally be letting its vice grip go. Oh, and TigerBlog can hear his longtime friend and fellow Ivy League sports chronicler Bruce Wood — he of the Big Green Alert and the Dartmouth coverage — laughing at TB for thinking that this is cold. 

When TB asked the question a few weeks ago about who could possibly like winter more than summer, Bruce sent him a two-word email: "I can."

TigerBlog saw someone ice skating on the Delaware-Raritan Canal as he drove home yesterday afternoon. That's something he's never seen before. 

There is still important ice skating to be done indoors at Baker Rink in the next few weeks. 

There is only one weekend to go in the ECAC and Ivy League women's hockey regular seasons. For Princeton, that means home games against Yale Friday (6) and Brown Saturday (3). Here's the way things stand right now, starting with the ECAC:

* Princeton is in first place with 44 points, two ahead of second-place Yale as the teams get set to meet Friday night. Keep in mind that teams get three points for a regulation win, two points for an OT win, 1.5 points for a tie, one point for an OT loss and zero points for a regulation loss. TB leaves you to do the math. Quinnipiac, by the way, is in third with 40 points with games against Brown and Yale as well, and the Bears are tied for fourth place with 38 points along with Clarkson. The top four teams get a first-round tournament bye and will host the quarterfinal round.

* The Ivy League women's hockey champion is determined by the ECAC games involving Ivy teams against other Ivy teams, as opposed to a separate schedule of games. Princeton is in fourth place in the league and needs a sweep this weekend to have a chance at the Ivy title. 

As for Princeton men's hockey, the Tigers have played 16 ECAC games so far, with six more to go. That's two per weekend for three more weeks.

A year ago, in 22 ECAC games, Princeton had 25 points, finishing in ninth place in the league standings. Through those 16 games this season, Princeton already has 31 points, leaving the team in fourth place at this stage. 

Remember — the top four teams get a first-round tournament bye and get to host the quarterfinals. 

What's the difference this year? Last year, Princeton gave up 73 goals in 22 ECAC games, which equals 3.32 goals-against per game. At the same time, Princeton scored 55 goals in 22 games, which is 2.5 per game. 

This year, Princeton has already scored 51 goals in 16 games. That's 3.2 per game. And defensively? Princeton has allowed only 39 goals in 16 games, for an average of 2.4. That's one goal less allowed per game and one more scored per game. 

That's a winning formula. 

Not shockingly, Princeton's Arthur Smith was named the ECAC Goalie of the Week this past week after wins over Yale and Brown, with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage. Smith is now the first goalie in the league to win the honor twice this season. 

It'll be a big weekend for the Tigers, who have a home-and-home against league-leading Quinnipiac, with a game Saturday in Connecticut and then home Sunday (4). Quinnipiac is 13-2-1 in the league, with the top offense and top defense (tied with Cornell) in the ECAC.