Busy Bodies

Now that was quite an opening night for the Princeton men's basketball team.

Princeton came from 16 points down to rally past Iona 81-80 on Carril Court Monday night. The game had an intensity level that certainly superseded the date of early November. 

It was a showcase of what you can see all year from the Tigers, which is to say that any time you have a chance to see Xaivian Lee, Caden Pierce and the rest of the team, you should take advantage of it. Lee went for 27 points against Iona, including the game-winning foul shots with three seconds to play.

Lee was then on the postgame interview headset for the ESPN+ broadcast, where he said this: "Every day at the end of practice we shoot free throws for 10 minutes. I tried to pretend it was an empty gym, took my time and thankfully they went in." 

Not to get too far ahead on basketball season, but the way Lee controls a game is so impressive. As Pete Carril used to say: "He's got every shot in the deck," and in this case, that includes getting to the basket, pulling up from deep and nailing the stepback three-pointer, something he did multiple times against the Gaels.

TigerBlog watched the game on his television from his couch while he did work to prepare for the upcoming Ivy League field hockey tournament. It's something that is taken for granted now, that any game you want to watch is there for you. 

This isn't something that magically happens. For the overwhelming majority of events you watch, it also doesn't happen because ESPN sends a crew over. 

Nope. This originates with Cody Chrusciel and his multimedia staff  — Dave Turner, Mike Galayda, Drew Miller and Aylin Arifkhan. 

TB remembers interviewing Cody when the position was first created, when TB and Mollie Marcoux Samaan Skyped with Cody while he was in Europe with UMass men's basketball. At the time, it was pretty clear where the profession was going. Having someone in that position who was ready for the explosion that was to follow was imperative.

And in that respect, Princeton Athletics and Princeton fans everywhere are lucky that Cody signed on. And that Steven Mayer gave Princeton the Levine Broadcast Center. And that Princeton invested in the resources — and people — necessary to make it all work.

This week, especially this Friday, will be a challenge unlike any that the multimedia department has faced yet, TB believes. 

Consider this: Between 11:30 Friday and 1 Sunday, Cody's team will produce 17 broadcasts across eight sports in eight different venues, utilizing 15 different broadcasters. 

That's a lot. 

It was already going to be a busy weekend, with the overlap between fall sports and winter sports well underway. It got even busier when Princeton won the Ivy League championships in field hockey and women's soccer, which earned both teams the right to host their respective league tournaments. 

By the way, hosting the league tournaments means doing all three games on the weekend, not just the ones where Princeton plays. 

For the tournaments alone, that means a field hockey game Friday at 11:30 (Princeton vs. Columbia) and 2:30 (Harvard vs. Brown), with a women's soccer game at 1 (Columbia vs. Brown) and 4:30 (Princeton vs. Harvard).

Oh, and did TB mention there's a home football game Friday at 7? And home women's volleyball at the same time. And if that's not enough, how about the season opener for men's hockey, also at 7. 

When you're watching, just remember how much planning has gone into giving you the chance to do so.

It also puts a great deal of pressure on the communications staff as well. There are all of those games, plus home tennis, plus men's basketball in Trenton Friday at 8:30 against Duquesne plus women's hockey and men's water polo on the road. 

That's all Friday.

It'll all get done. It always does. 

It's just that those involved deserve a bit of a hat tip every now and then. For communications, that would be Andrew Borders, Elliott Carr, Warren Croxton, Chas Dorman, Joanna Dwyer and Alex Henn. Oh, and TB as well.

Not that they do it for any recognition. They do it because it's a passion. And because of how much pride they all have in Princeton Athletics.

Being busy bodies like this? 

It's not easy. It does beat the alternative.

It's Really 8:16, Lloyd

Do you remember TigerBlog's friend Pattie Friend? 

She was the woman whom TB met in the Nassau Diner back in March. Her husband Lloyd was a member of the Class of 1965, and she had just moved back to Princeton from North Jersey. 

As it turns out, Mrs. Friend is about the biggest Princeton Athletics fan TB has ever seen. Here's a list of sports that she's attended in just the time since they've met: men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, softball, baseball, women's tennis, men's tennis, women's rugby, football, men's soccer, women's soccer, field hockey, men's volleyball, women's volleyball and men's water polo. Did he miss any? 

Actually you can add men's basketball, which she attended last night. She has season tickets for the women and men. And TB is sure that she'll be going to way more winter events. 

Can anyone else match that number of sports seen? 

Lloyd passed away in 2008, but Pattie has continued to be active in the Reunion activities of his class. She also has remained great friends with many of the members of the 1964 football team, and she was able to spend time with them Saturday, when they were back to be honored at the football game. 

Her last name certainly suits her. She makes Friends everywhere she goes.  

After TB wrote yesterday about the end of Daylight Savings Time, he heard from his friend Mrs. Friend about how she'd always say the same thing to him when the clocks changed, something like: "It's 7:16, but it's really 8:16." Every year. Every time.

She laughed as she said it. TB could hear a little more in her voice, though. It was a great memory for her, which made her laugh, and yet it was also a reminder that her husband is no longer here.

Lloyd did not pass away from cancer, but Pattie's way of remembering him reminded TB of the messages he received after his story last week on the women's soccer players who have been impacted by the disease.

You can read it HERE if you have not already done so.

The response to the story that TB received was overwhelming. In fact, he's pretty sure that no other story he's written has gotten him this much feedback.

It was a series of emails or texts of people who all had similar stories to tell, of their own experiences in dealing with someone close to them whom they lost or who fought their way through it or both.

TB wanted to share some of what he heard, both because of the raw emotions of those who wrote to him and also because of how much it was helpful to all of those out there who have been in this position. TB will leave out names and specifics, though he will say that not everyone who reached out to him was someone he knew.

There was this:

Finding it hard to type this. I read your story while sitting next to my brother, in his hospital bed, as we await more test results. He is battling lung cancer and things are not going well. He fell the other day, and now we’re worried he may have broken bones on top of everything else. He is suffering. I’m not sure how long he has left. Like you, I lost a parent at 55. My dad died of lung cancer. He didn’t see me get married, or never met my two daughters. I miss his sage advice to this day. Cancer truly sucks. Your piece was powerful. Thank you for writing it. 

That was the basic tone of the messages. There was this too:

I lost one of my childhood best friends to metastatic breast cancer in the summer of 2012. Her daughter, had just turned 16, and her son, a basketball player, was heading off to his first year as a college student-athlete. She would have been 59 this past Saturday and her daughter, now 28, living on her own in Brooklyn, decided she wanted to spend the day with me, so we were sitting at the men's soccer game together thinking about all that had happened since that awful summer; we laughed and cried. It was good. 

And, quite succinctly, there was this one:

My eyes are a little glassy at the moment. I lost my best friend from high school 3.5 years ago to pancreatic cancer. Sadly, yes, we can all relate. 

There were others. Lots of them.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reach out. TB is sorry for all of your losses and struggles. 

As the last one said, yes, everyone can relate. 

If you're struggling, just remember what Summer Pierson's yellow bracelet says: "No one fights alone."

Four Titles

Well, that was depressing.

No, not all the Ivy League championships Princeton won Saturday. TigerBlog is talking about the fact that it was pretty much dark by 5 yesterday. Why in the world can't there be Daylight Savings Time all year? 

Oh well.

Those Ivy championships? That was not depressing. How could it be when this past Saturday Princeton teams won three Ivy League championships and finished off an outright championship in a fourth.

Before he gets into that, though, he does want to mention that tonight is opening night for Princeton men's and women's basketball. The men are home against Iona, with tip-off in Jadwin Gym at 7. The women open their season at Duquesne at 5, also on ESPN+.

Basketball season already? 

Meanwhile, back at the Ivy championships on Saturday, it was quite a few hours there for the Tigers.

Pretty Nice Little Saturday.

🧡🖤🏆#BackToTheBest pic.twitter.com/I89mEAl0oT

— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) November 3, 2024

It started at 11 am with a win by the women's cross country team at the Ivy League Heps on the new course at Princeton Meadows. It ended five hours later when the women's soccer team closed out its own outright championship at Columbia. 

In between, the men's cross country also won at Heps and the field hockey team, who had already clinched at least a tie for its Ivy League championship last weekend, finished its regular season at a perfect 7-0 with a 1-0 win over Yale. 

The women's cross country team ended Harvard's streak of four straight championships and in the process won for the first time since 2015. How did the Tigers do it? With four runners in the top 8.

Mena Scatchard, from North Yorkshire, finished second overall and first among the Tigers. North Yorkshire is about three hours north of Shrewsbury, where competitive cross-country running originated in the early 1800s.

Scatchard's time of 20:04.7 was the third-fastest 6K time in women's Heps history. It also left her as the only runner to cross the finish line in a span of 25 seconds, after Columbia's Phoebe Anderson ran the second-fastest Heps time ever (the great Abbey D'Agostino of Dartmouth holds the record).

Anna McNatt was third overall in 20:17.1, followed by teammates Alexis Allen and Meg Madison in seventh and eighth. Princeton's championship was wrapped up when Emma De Jong finished 20th. Princeton had a score of 40; Harvard was in second with 53.

Next up where the men, who finished off their fourth-straight Heps championship with five runners who came in between fifth and 14th: Myles Hogan (fifth), Nicholas Bendtsen (eighth), Connor McCormick (11th), Jackson Shorten (13th) and Harrison Witt (14th). 

Team-wise, that added up to 51 points, 11 better than the Crimson.

The field hockey game started on Bedford Field at the same time as the men's cross country race. Princeton had clinched no worse than a share of the championship a week earlier with a win over Dartmouth, and with that win the Ivy League tournament was headed to Princeton this coming weekend.

At stake Saturday, though, was an outright title for Princeton versus a spot in the Ivy tournament for Yale, who battled all the way before Beth Yeager's penalty stroke goal with 3:14 to go gave the Tigers a 1-0 win.

The rest of the results of the weekend finally sorted out the crowded field, and so here are your field hockey matchups for the tournament: No. 1 Princeton vs. No. 4 Columbia Friday at 11:30, followed by No. 2 Harvard and No. 3 Brown at 2:30. The winners will meet Sunday at noon, with an automatic NCAA bid for the winner.

And that left women's soccer. 

Princeton went to New York City knowing that a win would mean an outright championship, while a tie or Columbia win would mean an outright championship for the Lions. Pietra Tordin's goal off a free kick was all Princeton needed, winning 1-0 and earning the big prizes: Ivy title and Ivy host. 

The women's soccer tournament will also be held this Friday and Sunday, also with the same four teams. The semifinals Friday will have No. 1 Princeton against No. 4 Harvard at 4:30, after the game between No. 2 Columbia and No. 3 Brown. The winners will play at 1 Sunday for the automatic bid. 

Oh, and the men's soccer team? It got two goals from Nico Nee to win at Dartmouth 2-1, forcing its own showdown Saturday at 2 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, which would host the Ivy tournament the following weekend with a Princeton win. A tie or a Penn win sends the tournament to Philadelphia.

1964, 1969, 1989

The last book that TigerBlog read was "Semisweet: An Orphan's Journey Through The School The Hersheys Built."

It was written by Johnny O'Brien, Princeton Class of 1965. His story is an amazing tale of survival, learning, growth, hardship and sorrow, from his time as a pre-school age boy all the way through high school.

When he first attended the school, it was intended for orphan boys. His story hints at his designation as an orphan, and TB doesn't want to give any spoilers. You really need to read this one yourself. 

You can get it HERE on Amazon. It's worth it. Ask yourself what would have become of you had that been your upbringing.

If his name is familiar, that's because Johnny O'Brien made the leap from the Milton Hershey School to Princeton, where he played on the football team. After he left Princeton, he embarked on a long career that eventually brought him back to the school where he grew up, becoming its Headmaster. 

The only time TB ever spoke with O'Brien was in 2005, when he was awarded the Class of 1967 Citizen-Athlete Award for his contribution to sport and society. There have been few more deserving winners. 

TB hopes to see him again tomorrow, when Princeton hosts Cornell at 1 on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. 

O'Brien will be here along with many of his former teammates. If he does get the chance, he'd love to tell him how much his book moved him and how much respect he has for what he's been through and how much he's helped so many others. 

The occasion will be the 60th anniversary of the 1964 football season. That team went 9-0, with four straight shutouts in midseason to boot, and Princeton wrapped up the perfect season with a 17-12 win over Cornell in front of 32,000 at Palmer Stadium.

Led by legendary players like Cosmo Iacavazzi, Stas Maliszewki and Charlie Gogolak and coached by Dick Colman, the 1964 Tigers remain one of the very best teams in program history. You'd be hard-pressed to make a list of the top five Princeton football teams ever without including the 1964 group.

Those Tigers will be honored on their anniversary, but they won't be the only Princeton team in the building. Or, for that matter, on the field to celebrate.

In addition to the 60th anniversary of 1964, this is also a major anniversary for two more of Princeton's 13 Ivy titles.

Colman would coach Princeton through the 1968 season, and he was loyal to his single-wing offense until the end. By then, pretty much every football team everywhere was using what is now known as the T-formation. 

Colman's replacement in 1969 was Jake McCandless, and he scrapped the single-wing, putting the quarterback under center. His first team at Princeton would win an Ivy title as well, finishing in a three-way tie with Yale and Dartmouth.

The 1969 Tigers won their first five Ivy games before falling to Yale 17-14 in the second to last game of the season. Needing a win over Dartmouth to clinch a piece of the championship, the Tigers rolled 35-7, this time with 35,000 at Palmer. 

Dartmouth, by the way, came into the game with a perfect record and had outscored its opponents 285-48. Princeton's 35 points in that one game represented 42 percent of the points Dartmouth allowed all season.

The 1989 team also went its final game needing a win to get a share of a championship. This time, the opponent was again Cornell, who scored first but then saw Princeton answer with three touchdowns in the 21-7 win. 

The first of those touchdowns for Princeton, by the way, came on a fake field goal. That championship would be the first of three for head coach Steve Tosches. 

It'll be a day of great nostalgia and mini-Reunions for Princeton Football. It'll also be a chance for the team that has alternated a loss with a win through five weeks to get back to .500, both in the league and overall. 

Kickoff is at 1. The weather will be perfect. 

Come to the game. 

And read Johnny's book.

Happy Halloween

It's Halloween!!

If anything deserves exclamation points, it's a holiday where the central theme is fun, costumes and candy, right? 

*

When TigerBlog thinks of Will Venable, he'll always go first to that time he drove the baseline and dunked at Cameron Indoor Stadium. That was on Jan. 5, 2005, a game Duke won 59-46.

Here are two stat lines from that game: 

Player A - 39 minutes, 21 points, 3 for 10 from the field, 1 for 3 from three-point range, 14 for 14 from the foul line, two rebounds, two assists
Player B - 39 minutes, 21 points, 8 for 13 from the field, 0 for 1 from three-point range, five for six from the foul line, four rebounds, three assists

Player B is Venable. Player A is JJ Reddick.

Venable was a great all-around basketball player at Princeton, a defensive stopper who scored 1,010 points and who was at his best in the biggest moments. Those are great qualities in an athlete. If you asked TB to list the players he's seen at Princeton who were at their best in big games, Venable's name would be way up there.

Of course, Venable's future was not in professional basketball but instead Major League Baseball, where he played for nine seasons, for the Padres, Rangers and Dodgers. He then became a coach, winning a World Series a year ago in Texas, along with another former basketball/baseball player Chris Young, the Rangers' GM.

It was only a matter of time before Venable became a Major League manager, and that time appears to be here. Venable will be taking over as the head man for the Chicago White Sox.

His task will be not be an easy one. The White Sox are horrible, having set a Major League record with 121 losses last year. 

Still, being a Major League manager is a rare opportunity. And just think where Venable's stock will be if he can bring the Sox back to respectability. 

*

One of TigerBlog's favorite days of the Ivy League calendar comes up Saturday — and TB won't be able to be there. 

The Ivy League Heptagonal cross-country championships will be held on the new Princeton course at the Meadows Campus. The women's race begins at 11, followed by the men at noon.

TB, for his part, will be at the Princeton-Yale field hockey game, which starts at noon on Bedford Field.

The Princeton men have won three straight Heps cross-country titles, as well as five of the last six. The Tiger men are currently ranked 22nd nationally, behind only No. 15 Harvard in the Division I rankings. 

No Ivy League women's team is ranked in the Top 30 nationally. Princeton is fifth in the incredibly loaded Mid-Atlantic Region.

Heps cross country is a great event. As much as anything else in an Ivy League year, Heps cross country combines high-quality athletic competition and a party atmosphere. If you're never been, the weather will be perfect. 

*

There will be an Ivy League championship awarded Saturday in at least one other sport — women's soccer.

In fact, this one is pretty straightforward. Princeton is at Columbia Saturday at 2, and here's how it works for the Ivy title: Princeton gets it with a win; Columbia gets it with a win or tie. 

There is no mathematical chance for a co-championship. Whoever comes out ahead after Saturday's game will also be the host for next weekend's Ivy League tournament. 

The Princeton men are at Dartmouth at 7 pm Saturday. Penn is at Yale, with that game at 5.

Should Penn win or tie and Princeton lose, then Penn would win the outright championship and get to host the Ivy tournament. The same is true if Penn wins and Princeton ties. Anything else and the game a week from Saturday at Myslik Field between the Tigers and Quakers would decide the championship and where the tournament will be.

*

There will also be home events in tennis, women's hockey, women's rugby, men's water polo and rowing (the Princeton Chase) this weekend. Oh yeah, there's also a football game against Cornell Saturday with a kickoff at 1.

The complete schedule is HERE.

In the meantime, have a happy and safe Halloween. 

Save some mini-Three Musketeers for TigerBlog.

New Friends

TigerBlog would like to tell you about his six new friends.

You're going to love this story.

Their names are Christa and her husband Tom, Linda and her husband Bill, Heidi and Lynda. TigerBlog had never met any of them before yesterday.

They were random strangers, thrown together in the name of democracy. How's that? 

TB lives in Pennsylvania, where yesterday was the last day for early voting. He could have gone at any point the last few weeks, and of course, he decided to go yesterday.

To vote early, he had to go to the courthouse in Doylestown. He figured he'd drive past in the early afternoon, see what the line looked like and then wait it out.

Why not just vote on Election Day? That was an option too, though he remembered back to the last Presidential election, when he waited in line for two hours or so.

How long would this take? Even it took that long, it was such a nice day that standing outside didn't seem to be so big a deal.

So, TB parked his car, walked over and got on the end of the line. The first person he met was Heidi, the youngest of the new friends. She was also the one who seemed to be the most dialed in on the process, which turned out to be simple — take a form, fill it out ... and wait. 

And wait and wait and wait. In the end, it would be three full hours between getting on the line and casting his ballot. And you want to know what? 

To quote Crista — "could it be that our little group almost made waiting in line for three hours fun?"

Yes. It was fun. Seriously. It turned out to be fun.

It started out like any long line with total strangers. A nod here, a "hello" there. Everyone had the same question: "How long do you think this will take?" Heidi gave instructions to the newcomers. And then the wait began.

By the way, it's human nature, TB supposes, to look behind when you're in a long line and be a little annoyed that there aren't more people who have to wait as long as you were. 

Lynda, for her part, was the most prepared, as she had brought along a book to read. It started to look like 1) the group would be in the line for a long time and 2) that she would finish her book long before she voted. 

If you're going to wait for that long, you might as well make the most of it. By the time it reached the front, the group of seven people knew what each other's favorite movies were, the best place they'd ever traveled to, that it was Bill and Linda's second marriage and that Christa and Tom had been married for more than 30 years. Lynda was an artist. Heidi was a caregiver. 

Bill had been a teacher and administrator in the Central Bucks School District. Linda was the bookkeeper at a local church. Christa and Tom were also retired; she had been a librarian, and he had  been a high school art teacher. 

It took about 30 minutes to find out that Lynda grew up close to where Bill did in New Jersey, and they both loved the Sloppy Joe sandwich at the Millburn Deli. And that's not Sloppy Joe as in ground beef. If you're from that area, you know the difference.

And, of course, it came out that TB was a writer. And that he'd be chronicling all of this.

The natural follow up question was what kind of writer? When TB mentioned Princeton Athletics, Bill said something about how his sister had been an athlete at Princeton.

When Bill said his last name was "Meier," TB immediately said: "You're Maggie Meier's brother?"

And he was. 

Maggie Meier's brother? TB was in line with Maggie Meier's brother this entire time? At one point about an hour earlier, TB had said that the group was closing in on the moment when "somebody knew somebody's sister." 

As it turned out, TB was right. 

Maggie Meier? How about that? 

TigerBlog wrote a long story about Meier just last year, when Ellie Mitchell was closing in on her longtime record for career rebounds at Princeton. You can read it HERE if you like.

Bill and Linda were amazed that TB was the one who'd written the story. They said it was a big deal in their family, and TB appreciate that. 

Maggie Meier graduated from Princeton in 1978, winning the von Kienbusch Award her senior year as Princeton's top female athlete. No player, male or female, ever had more than her 1,099 career rebounds, and that record stood until this past February, when Mitchell finally broke it.

TB and Bill posed for a photo together, which Linda sent off to Maggie. TB said to say hello. 

The line wrapped around the courthouse. When you eventually got to the front steps, you had to wait until you were allowed inside in groups of 10. Were you there already? Nope. There was still another line to wait on before you were issued your ballot. 

It was great to meet them all. They made the three hours seem more like 30 minutes or so. There were way more laughs and smiles than complaints.

And another great part of their time together? The subject of who was going to vote for whom never came up.

Hey, maybe there's hope after all.

Joy And Sorrow

This past weekend was a very good one for Princeton Soccer, both the men and the women. 

TigerBlog wants to talk about that, how both teams won and what the coming Ivy League tournament might look like.

First, though, he will share with you the feature story that he put up yesterday on goprincetontigers.com. It's title tells a great deal about it: Of Love, Sorrow And Cancer. 

You can read it HERE.

The piece tells the story of three women's soccer players — Esme Rudell, Ally Murphy and Summer Pierson — who have had someone hugely important to them have to deal with cancer. This became pretty personal for both women's soccer head coach Sean Driscoll, who lost his mother Patricia six years ago, and TB himself, whose mother passed away 30 years ago this December. 

Once the story was published, TB began to hear from people who also had been affected by cancer. As Sean says in the story: "Everyone knows someone who has gone through this."

The piece stretches through 4,500 words, and yet it is one of the pictures that was sent to TB that really hits home. Summer's best friend in high school outside of Boston was dealing with bone cancer, and the chemo caused her to lose her hair quickly. 

To show her love and support, Summer shaved her head as well. This is the picture after it happened:

If that doesn't touch your heart, what will? 

TB spoke to the three women before the Tigers played Dartmouth last weekend on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. 

This was the second-to-last game of the regular season. The last game of the regular season comes up this Saturday in New York City, where Princeton will play Columbia at 2.

The Tigers needed to take down Dartmouth to set up what is now a huge game this coming week. Columbia rallied past Yale to win 3-2 Saturday, leaving the Lions at 5-0-1 in the league for 16 points. 

Princeton and Dartmouth were scoreless at the half. A loss to the Big Green with the Columbia win would mean that the Lions would have clinched the league. 

Instead, Pietra Tordin scored twice and Brooke Dawahare and Drew Coomans scored once each after the break, and the Tigers sprinted away 4-0. Princeton is now 5-1-0, for 15 points. 

Both teams have clinched their Ivy League tournament spots. What's at stake Saturday? A Princeton win and the Tigers win the Ivy title and host the tournament. A Columbia win or a tie, and both of those go to Lions.

Who will be the other two teams? One will definitely be Brown, who has also clinched a spot. The fourth team will either be Harvard (if it beats Yale), Yale (if it beats Harvard) or Cornell (if it wins and Harvard and Yale tie). 

The Ivy League field hockey tournament will be in Princeton. Will the women's soccer tournament be there as well? They're both on Nov. 8-10.

The men's soccer tournament is a week later. That one too can be in Princeton. What will it take? 

Princeton defeated Yale 1-0 in the second game on Myslik Field Saturday, scoring the only goal it would need on a Jack Jasinski free kick midway through the first half. The win leaves Princeton at 4-1-0 with 12 points in the league and assured of a spot in the Ivy tournament.

Like the women, Princeton's men can win the league championship and host the tournament by winning out. In this case, Princeton's men have two games left — at Dartmouth Saturday and then home against Penn Nov. 9. 

The only team ahead of Princeton right now is Penn, who has 15 points at 5-0-0. The Quakers are at Yale Saturday.

Penn and Princeton are the only teams to have clinched ILT spots so far. It's possible that the game against Penn will be a winner-take-all game like the women's game this weekend is. 

Dartmouth comes into the game in fourth place with seven points, two behind Cornell and one ahead of Harvard in the race for the other two spots. 

Princeton, by the way, hosts Seton Hall tonight at 7 in its final non-league game. 

It's an exciting time for Ivy League soccer, and Princeton's two teams are right in the middle of it all. 

Before the games, though, check out the feature story. It was very personal for TB to write it — and it's likely that it's personal for most of the people who read it.

An Even More Perfect Senior Day

The game had long since been won. The Ivy title was clinched. The Ivy League field hockey tournament was headed to Princeton.

And yet this was Senior Day, and so in the end Lily Webb and Clare Brennan took a perfect day and made it better. 

Princeton defeated Dartmouth 5-1 yesterday on Bedford Field, and with that win came all sorts of prizes. TigerBlog will get back to those in a moment.

Before that, there was the fact that Princeton's first four goals all came from juniors — three from Beth Yeager and one from Talia Schenck. Had the game ended that way, the celebration still would have a happy one. 

And then the last 20 seconds or so happened. 

Brennan and Webb are both seniors. Brennan took a long pass with 20 seconds to play and brought the ball down the left side and then stopped, pivoted and sent a long pass into the circle to Webb. As time wound down, Webb trapped the ball, made one move to her right and slapped it into the cage.

The clock showed eight seconds remaining.

The perfect end to Senior Day!!! Lily from Ceebs, and the Tigers win 5-1. Ivy title No. 28!!! Ivy tournament to Princeton. pic.twitter.com/fUhbqeixCl

— Princeton FH (@TigerFH) October 27, 2024

If you look closely at the video as Brennan gets the ball, check out the Princeton bench. You can see the excitement begin to build. 

Of course it would. On Senior Day, who wouldn't want to see two seniors combine for a goal to wrap things up?

Meanwhile, back at the prizes Princeton won, as TB alluded to those in the beginning. First, the win ensured Princeton will have no worse than a share of the Ivy League championship. 

For Princeton field hockey, that's Ivy title No. 28. The next-best league total? That's seven. 

More than that, no other Ivy League women's team in any sport has ever won as many (Princeton field hockey began this year tied with Harvard women's squash, with no other team in any sport all that close). 

Princeton also clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy League tournament, as well as the right to host the event, which will be held Nov. 8 and 10 on Bedford Field. 

It was a big weekend for Princeton, who defeated RPI No. 5 Maryland Friday 2-1, with both goals from Yeager. Princeton already had defeated Harvard, RPI No. 10 last week 2-1 in Cambridge, and Harvard then took down No. 4 St. Joe's yesterday 2-1 in OT, a decision that helps Princeton's RPI and therefore its chances at an NCAA at-large bid if it should not win the Ivy tournament. 

The Tigers are now 6-0 in the league, followed by 5-1 Harvard, who has clinched the No. 2 seed. Who else will be in the field? That will come from two of the following five: Yale, Brown, Penn, Cornell and Columbia. 

There is one Ivy game left in the regular season, and the odds that there will be a five-way tie for third place is not that outrageous now. For their part, Princeton plays Yale this coming Saturday, where a win would be the outright league championship.

In other words, there is a long way to go in this season. Princeton is 11-4 overall right now, with five straight wins and two of its losses to No. 1 Northwestern (3-2) and No. 2 North Carolina (2-0). 

No matter where it goes, though, Senior Day 2024 will always be really special. It began before the game in the team room at Class of 1952 Stadium, an hour before warmups. There were funny videos, heartfelt speeches, laughter, tears, hugs — and everything else that team sports bring out in those who compete together. The bond that is created is very strong. 

At one point head coach Carla Tagliente stood in front of the room and talked about what it is that they will all remember about each other — and it's not going to be the specific details of specific games. 

TigerBlog has heard this before. He's heard it in moments like that, when the players might not yet have considered what the next few decades would bring. 

He's also heard it from those decades later. They remember the friendships, the relationships, the times away from the field. The moments in the games? They're usually lost to time.

Not all of them, though. Not the one that came at the end of the game yesterday for Tiger field hockey. 

It was an even more perfect end to Senior Day.

Princeton At Harvard

How much celebrating did the people who run Major League Baseball do when their World Series ended up being the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers?

It couldn't have worked out better. Remember last year's World Series? If you're a Princeton fan you do. That was the all-Princeton World Series, as Texas (with GM Chris Young) defeated Arizona (with GM Mike Hazen).

Princetonians remember it with great fondness. Non-Princetonians probably don't remember it at all.

The Yankees-Dodgers? That's Major League Baseball gold.

It's the most-played World Series ever, with this the 11th meeting between the two. It is two huge market teams. It's Aaron Judge against Shohei Otani. a

What could be better? 

TigerBlog remembers another Yankees-Dodgers Series, back when he was a high school sophomore. His English teacher (who taught TB one of the two most important things he learned in school — grammar; the other was typing) that year made a deal with each student in the class, which was primarily American Literature. 

Here was your option: You could take the Dodgers or the Yankees or not play at all. If you did opt in, though, your next test would add or subtract the number of points that would be the difference between the number of games your team won and the other team won.

TigerBlog took the Dodgers. The Yankees won in six, or four games to two, so TB's next test score was docked two points. 

It was a genius move by the teacher in 1978. Would it get him fired today? 

Can you imagine if those two points had kept TB out of Penn? Phew. Then he'd really, really hate Reggie Jackson.

Game 1 of the World Series is tonight. TB is rooting for the Dodgers, solely because of Otani. If he had a big test coming up, he'd go with the Dodgers and hope not to lose points. 

Now imagine if college football tests could work the same way. If you were Bob Surace and you had a big test at Harvard tomorrow, would you be willing to risk four points for a chance to win four points? TB knows which team Surace is rooting for, and it's not the one with Ohtani.

Princeton heads to Harvard, with kickoff at Harvard Stadium set for 3 tomorrow. Every point figures to matter.

Last week, Princeton faced a team nicknamed "Bears" for the second straight game. This time, Princeton faces a former Surace offensive coordinator for the second straight week. 

Princeton knocked off Brown and head coach James Perry 29-17 last week, squaring its league record at 1-1. This week will be the first matchup between Surace and new Harvard head coach Andrew Aurich, someone else whom Princeton fans find difficult to root against, though they certainly will figure out a way to do so. 

Harvard is 1-1 in the league, having lost to Brown and then having defeated Cornell. Each Ivy team has played two games, and now each is looking at five straight weeks of league games to end the season.

The standings right now are symmetrical, with two 2-0 teams, four 1-1 teams and two 0-2 teams. 

At the end of the weekend, there will definitely be only one 3-0 team and one 0-3 team. The unbeatens are Dartmouth and Columbia, and they meet in New York City tomorrow. The winless teams are Yale and Penn, and they meet in Philadelphia tonight in the ESPNU game.

It was that ESPNU game last week that saw Princeton sprint out 19-0 and then hold off a Brown rally before closing the game out. As TB wrote earlier in the week, the key was turnovers — Princeton committed two, while Brown committed five. Even worse for the Bears was the fact that all five were in Princeton territory.

That sort of thievery would come in very handy tomorrow. Harvard is second in the league in time of possession, which is often an overrated stat. In this case, though, the Crimson have the ball on average six minutes more per game than the Tigers. Brown had a similar edge in possession time last week, but the turnovers neutralized that. 

Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig has thrown 13 touchdown passes and one interception. Princeton is the top passing defense team in the league. 

The forecast in Cambridge for Saturday at 3 is for 64 degrees and zero chance of rain. 

It would be well worth your time to be there. If not, watch it on ESPN+.

The five-week football sprint is about to begin. 

A Soccer Doubleheader In Perfect Weather

So where does TigerBlog go to arrange to have the weather in Princeton be like this year-round? 

Is there an app for that? Are there forms he can fill out?

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It's a big weekend for Princeton soccer, both the men and the women. There will be a doubleheader Saturday on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, with the women against Dartmouth at 1 and the men against Yale at 4. 

The weather will be perfect. 

The field for the Ivy League women's tournament is officially half set, with spots clinched by Princeton and Columbia. There are two weekends left in the regular season, and there are all kinds of possibilities for the other two spots and the host role for the No. 1 seed.

Right now, Princeton trails Columbia by a single point in the standings, with the Lions at 4-0-1 for 13 points and the Tigers at 4-1-0 for 12. Oh, and Princeton ends the regular season at Columbia Nov. 2 (kickoff at 2).

The next three in the standings have Brown with eight points, Yale with seven and Cornell with six. The remaining games this weekend are Cornell at Brown, Columbia at Yale (the team who defeated the Tigers) and Harvard at Penn.

Should Princeton win out, it would have an outright Ivy title and would host the tournament. The same is true for Columbia. 

In addition to the implications for the women's tournament and championship, the game Saturday for Princeton will be Senior Day and Alumni Day.

Princeton leads the Ivy League in goals scored and fewest goals allowed, which is a pretty good combination. In fact, Princeton's 29 goals are six more than any other league team, and the nine allowed are five fewer than the next-best Ivy team. 

Princeton's RPI is 53, which is the best in the league. Columbia is next at 63.

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The Princeton men's soccer team also starts the weekend in second place in the league, though on the men's side, there are still three Ivy games to be played. 

Right now, Penn is in first place in the league at 4-0-0 for 12 points, followed by Princeton at 3-1-0 for nine points (with a loss to Cornell). Just as the women, the regular season for the men ends with a game against the team currently ahead of it in the standings, which also means that the men would be the host for the Ivy tournament by winning out, as would Penn.

No other team in the league can say that. 

In addition to the game against Yale this weekend and the home game against Penn Nov. 9, Princeton also has a game Nov. 2 at Dartmouth. The Big Green can't host by winning out, but they do have games remaining against the two teams they trail in the standings, beginning at Penn this Saturday night.

The Big Green have seven points, followed by Cornell with six, Columbia with four and the remaining three with three each. 

When it comes to RPI, Penn is the highest-ranked Ivy at 12, followed by Cornell at 18 and then Princeton at 66. 

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The new-look NCAA tennis world will have its individual singles and doubles championships in the fall, with direct qualification through the 13 ITA Regionals. Princeton's men competed in theirs last weekend at Penn and came away with qualifiers in both draws. 

On the single side, junior Fnu Nidunjianzan earned his spot by reaching the regional final. On the doubles side, Filippos Astreinidis and Paul Inchauspe won the championship, which also vaults them into the NCAA tournament. 

The Ivy League individual championships will be held this weekend, with the women at Penn and the men at Yale. 

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The women's hockey team has its first two ECAC games this weekend, as it travels to Yale tomorrow and Brown Saturday. Princeton is 2-0 after 7-1 and 11-1 wins over Robert Morris last weekend. 

The men's hockey team has a scrimmage Saturday night at 7 at Hobey Baker Rink against Waterloo. The opener for the men is still two weeks away, with home games against Harvard and Dartmouth Nov. 7 and 8.

The complete Princeton schedule for the weekend is HERE.