Poll Position

TigerBlog spent Sunday afternoon at the rooftop pool at Miss TigerBlog's building in Washington, D.C.

As settings go, this one was pretty near perfect. The roof is about 20 stories up, and the view from the pool has Arlington to the right, the Washington Monument to the left and the rest of the Mall in between. 

As you may know, this past Sunday was the Freedom 250 Indy Car race through the Mall. Prior to the start, there were a series of flyovers above the course. 

Of course, the flyovers don't suddenly end when the course is flown over. In this case, the planes continued on a path that took them essentially over the rooftop pool, something that was just amazing to see. And hear. Especially hear. 

The highlight was when two F-35s pulled out of a formation and peeled off on their own, one of which did a vertical climb through the clouds while the other made a 180-degree turn. 

All of this happened so close to MTB's pool that it felt like the pilots were waving. It also obviously drew the attention of everyone at the pool, and in about 15 seconds the entire group had moved to the fence to watch and listen. 

Oh, and they all had their phones out to record — everyone but TigerBlog. His instinct was to record, but then he was too mesmerized in the moment to do so. It was like the old times, being in the moment instead of trying to capture the moment for a video that would hardly ever be played. 

Ultimately, he didn't pay any attention the race itself. For today, he would like to talk about "poll" position, not "pole position."

He'll start with tennis. The ITA released its preseason individual rankings, and Princeton senior Paul Inchauspe was ranked second in Division I in singles, tying the highest ranking in program history, along with Matija Pecotic, who reached No. 2 in December 2012. 

The No. 1 player in the preseason is Dylan Dietrich of UVa. The NCAA individual championships are in the fall now, if you recall. Inchauspe was a semifinalist a year ago.  

Princeton's other ranked men's players were Landon Ardila, who along with Inchauspe start out at No. 13 in doubles, and Aleksandar Mitric and freshman Simeon Stankovic, who ranked No. 74 in doubles. That's not bad for a player who has yet to hit a ball on a college court; then again, Stankovic was also ranked as the No. 9 incoming player and No. 92 in singles. 

Alice Ferlito was ranked 73rd in singles on the women's side. 

In other rankings, the Ivy League has released several of its preseason media polls. Princeton was ranked No. 1 in men's soccer, women's soccer and women's volleyball, all of whom won their Ivy titles a year ago. 

Remember, the women's soccer team is home tonight at 7 against West Virginia and Sunday at 11 am against James Madison. The men open their season at home tomorrow at 7 against Villanova, with Portland here Monday at 7. The women's volleyball season opens with three matches next weekend at Colgate. 

Of all the polls, though, TB's favorites are in field hockey, and not just because it's one of the teams he covers. No, it has to do with the Princeton-Harvard rivalry. 

If you remember, these two have dominated Ivy field hockey for the last decade. Since 2016, in fact, Princeton and Harvard are a combined 107-1 against the rest of the Ivy League schools. Can any rivalry in any other sport say that? 

The teams met three times last year. Harvard won the regular season matchup and, with it, the Ivy title, since the teams were both 6-0 against everyone else. Princeton then won the Ivy League tournament championship, defeating, of course, Harvard in the final. 

Round 3 came in the NCAA semifinals, where Princeton won 2-0 before falling 2-1 in double overtime to Northwestern in the championship game. 

To start 2026, Harvard is the preseason No. 1 in the Ivy poll, followed by No. 2 Princeton ... but then there is the NFHCA Division I coaches poll, also released this week. In that one, it goes Northwestern, North Carolina, Princeton and then Harvard as the top four. 

Princeton starts its season next weekend with games against Old Dominion and North Carolina, both in Chapel Hill. 

Goodbye Dolly

In this day and age where it's hard to find any common ground, TigerBlog is pretty sure there is one thing almost all Americans could agree on. 

Everyone loved Dolly Parton. 

The famed country singer passed away yesterday at the age of 80. The news was startling to TB — and probably to almost everyone when it was first seen. 

If you think that she wasn't as universally beloved as one can be these days, then consider these two headlines: 

"Dolly Parton, Country Music Queen and Humanitarian, Dead at 80."

"Dolly Parton, Beloved Singer and Global Icon, Dead at 80."

The first is from CNN. The second is from Fox News. Since when do they agree on anything? Dolly Parton united them.

Her first album, entitled "Hello I'm Dolly," was released in 1967. She'd record 49 more in nearly 60 years after that debut — and she wrote the often-redone song "I Will Always Love You."

This is from her obituary: 

Referred to as the "Queen of Country", Parton was one of the most-honored female country performers in history and received various accolades, including 11 Grammy Awards and three Emmy Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, including a humanitarian honorary Oscar win in 2025, six Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Parton sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling musical artists of all time. 

This was from her family yesterday: 

A message from the family of Dolly Parton. pic.twitter.com/9DNRgRx0uH

— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) August 25, 2026

TigerBlog didn't intend to start today with a Dolly tribute, but it seemed necessary for someone who writes every day. Rest in peace, Dolly.  

As near as TB can tell, Dolly never performed in Princeton. Maybe the closest was a 1982 Triangle Club spoof that included "Five to Nine," a take-off of the movie "Nine to Five." 

Is there a Princeton Athletics segue in there? 

Princeton head men's lacrosse coach Matt Madalon recently came back from a family vacation in Dollywood, located in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. It is annually the most attended tourist attraction in the state. Madalon said the news was "so sad." 

The news of Dolly's passing reached TB when he was at Monmouth yesterday for the field hockey scrimmage. Tiger head coach Carla Tagliente said that she liked Dolly Parton very much, for the movie "Steel Magnolias" as much as for any song. Clem Houlden, one of the Tiger captains, had her mouth drop open at the news while saying that she liked the song "Nine To Five" very much. 

Athletic trainer Lauren Roethlisberger, who yes is a cousin of the former quarterback, was probably the most shaken by the news. She's more than 50 years younger than Parton was, and she also loved her, showing how many generations were touched by Dolly's music and persona. 

The scrimmage did provide TB the chance to break in his new camera, though that does seem an unfortunate word choice. Armed with one 45-minute lesson, TB did his best and did manage to capture a few shots that he liked. 

He got these two, for instance, though neither of them scored a goal:

He also got this one of Ella Cashman, who did score:

TB gives himself a B for his first time shooting with the new camera. He'll have plenty of chances to practice moving forward. And if he can sneak in dog pictures, so much the better. 

The scrimmage itself was a good first look at the team that went to double overtime in the NCAA final a year ago. As TB watched it on the hot summer turf at Monmouth, he thought that it was a long way from there to Louisville, the site of this season's Final Four. 

The preseason Ivy League poll and the national coaches preseason poll were both released yesterday. TB originally was going to write about those, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow. 

For today, it had to be Dolly. Her passing had to touch even the coldest of hearts. 

She was certainly loved.  

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Does anyone ever get too old to appreciate a good rainbow? 

TigerBlog still hasn't. He saw this one Sunday afternoon and realized he had to snap the photo, even though he was driving. Don't tell anyone. And, rest assured, he was obeying the posted sign as far as speed was concerned. 

Rainbows are fun, right? You can make your own simply by spraying water in the air in the direction of the sun, whether it's from a squirt bottle or, if you're sitting at field hockey practice, from a water cannon. 

Do people under, say, 40 know what this is from and like it? 

With women's soccer season underway, the rest of the fall schedule can't be all that far behind. Today, in fact, is photo day for football, women's rugby and women's cross country. That will bring many thousands of new photos for those teams, just like the other fall teams have had. 

If you want to see Princeton field hockey and want to go to the beach as well, today is your lucky day — the Tigers will scrimmage at Monmouth at 4 pm.

TigerBlog will be there. He bought a new camera (something he's wanted to for awhile) and is hoping to become at least a reasonable photographer. He took the rainbow picture with his phone, by the way, because his camera still intimidates him. 

He had a meeting yesterday with Karla Donohoe, who has taken some great Princeton Athletic photos the last few years. When she asked TB what kind of lenses he has, Karla was probably expecting an answer different than "a light one and a heavy one." 

After talking to Karla, TB is now dripping with confidence with what to do when the scrimmage starts. She showed him some settings, gave him some advice about what to look for and offered up tips about the lenses. 

You can check out the field hockey Instagram tonight to see if he learned anything from her. So far, the best picture he's taken is of a dog:

Perhaps this is the start of a new sidelight. TigerBlog, pet photographer. His first thought for a business motto was "Bring TB your pet and he'll shoot it for you." Yeah, no.  

Yesterday brought with it the first Office of Athletic Communications weekly meeting of this athletic year. As TB walked in from the Stadium Garage, he went past football practice on Finney/Campbell and men's soccer on White-Peff. 

Practices are fascinating to watch. They are always quite scripted, down to the minute, according to the plan. They start with warmups and go to individual drills, followed by team situations and then a warm-down. It seems like every sport follows this order. 

Football practices are the most fascinating of all. The ratio of practice to game play is the highest of any sport, TB assumes, with maybe the exception of rowing? 

With that many football players on the field, the pace is quick. It's also repetitive, running the same plays over and over so that when they're called on any given Saturday, they're ready to be executed.  

As TB watched the football practice, his mind moved ahead to November, when hopefully these drills will be part of important games. It has to all be done without thinking by then, which is why the earliest days of football practice are crucial. 

The No. 1 thing you want to avoid in preseason would be injuries, which inevitably happen. TB has seen way too many athletes who have missed entire seasons due to such injuries, after spending an entire off-season preparing and being in the best shape possible. Some athletes go four years here without a scratch; others never are able to stay out of the training room. TB presumes a great deal of that is luck. 

Also, as TB has written before, athletics and theater have much in common. The rehearsing that leads up to performance is where quality of the product is often determined (with of course the main difference that you keep score in sports). 

The curtain comes up on the men's soccer season Friday night at 7 at home against James Madison. The football team will continue with rehearsals until the opener at Bryant Sept. 19. 

Crossover Episode

So the start of the 2026-27 athletic year at Princeton was delayed by two hours. 

That's supposed to be good luck, right? 

It certainly was for Opening Night. After a two-hour rain delay Thursday night, the women's soccer team got the 2026-27 party started with a 3-0 win over Loyola (the Tigers fell by the same score at Syracuse yesterday).

TigerBlog watched the Loyola game on his computer on ESPN+, at the same time as he watched the Fever-Wings game on TV. That's mid-season form. 

Though it was just the first game for the Tigers, it's possible that one of the prettiest goals of the year was scored. It came courtesy of Isabella Garces, and it gave Princeton a 2-0 lead late in the first half. 

Isabella Garces fought her way from in between three Greyhounds to finish this one from Kayla Wong!

💻: https://t.co/8hxZ6QTfsJ pic.twitter.com/85HIQPOCuq

— Princeton WSoccer (@PrincetonWSoc) August 21, 2026

Pretty sweet, right? 

The goal got TigerBlog thinking back to photo day, when the field hockey team was finishing up and the women's soccer team was about to start. It led to a few nice inter-team shots, sort of like one of those Law & Order crossover episodes. 

There was this one, for instance:

 

TB is pretty sure that the women's soccer player here will outscore the field hockey player here for the season. In fact, she already has. That's Garces with field hockey goalie Olivia Caponiti.  

And there's this one as well:  

Going left to right, that's seniors Cecilia Cerone, Garces, Ottilie Sykes, Olivia Caponiti, Rebecca Shelly, Esme Rudell and Kayla Wong. 

It's nice to see friendships that go from one team to another. Tigers supporting Tigers, as it were. 

It's also interesting when you consider that the seven women in the picture came to D-level of Jadwin Gym for pictures from five different states and one foreign country, the distance between their hometowns a span of around 7,000 miles. 

If you're wondering, the picture, again left to right, goes Texas, California, England, Connecticut, California, California, New Jersey. By the way, Wong is from Manalapan, New Jersey, TigerBlog's hometown as well. 

This is another awesome part of Princeton Athletics. They come from all over, and they all become Tigers. They start out as strangers from wildly different places and end up as friends forever. That's something that transcends the wins and losses, no matter how many of the former there are.

That picture includes two field hockey players, who in their first three years have won an Ivy League championship and an Ivy League tournament championship, have played in two NCAA tournaments and reached double overtime of the most recent NCAA final. The five women's soccer players have been part of two Ivy League championships, one Ivy League tournament championship and two NCAA tournaments. 

The women's soccer team was picked first in the league's preseason poll; the field hockey poll has not yet been announced, though the Tigers will be either first or second. 

The women's soccer team will be home again Thursday night against West Virginia (7) and then Sunday morning against James Madison (11). 

The field hockey season starts a week from Friday against Old Dominion and a week from Sunday against North Carolina in the Conference Crossover, which this year will be played at UNC and also includes Penn. The Tigers do scrimmage tomorrow at Monmouth and home Saturday against the University of British Columbia.  

Happy Friday

Happy Birthday to BrotherBlog!!!

Exclamation points and everything.  

Consider this your card from your brother. He really did mean to get you one. These things happen. 

How old is BB? As TB told his brother, age is just a number. It's just that his number is higher than TB's. 

BrotherBlog lives in Seattle, where he does a bunch of stuff in the law school at the University of Washington. And by "a bunch of stuff," TB means his brother "is the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and an Associate Teaching Professor. He has taught law courses for more than 20 years including Family Law, Administrative Law, Mental Health and Law, Beginning of Life: Rights and Choices, Legal Issues at the End of Life, HIV and Law, and Constitutional Law: Equal Protection. Additionally, he designed and implemented the two online courses for LL.M. bar exam takers: Professional Responsibility and Constitutional Law: Structures of Government."

Yes, but can he type as fast as his brother? No way. 

In other Happy Friday news ...  

*

The Stanley Cup made its way to the Princeton campus yesterday, courtesy of Eric Robinson, Class of 2018. 

Robinson won the Cup this past season with the Carolina Hurricanes. Following a tradition similar to wishing a sibling Happy Birthday, each team member gets to spend a day in the off-season with the famous trophy. To celebrate his day, Robinson brought the Cup to the Princeton area.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Princeton Men's Hockey (@princetonhockey)

If you're wondering who the kids are, they're Charlotte and Will, whose mother is Emily Dorman, the head of athletic training at Princeton. Their father? Chas Dorman? The name rings a bell (he oversees Princeton Athletic Communications). 

When TB went to Robinson's Instagram page, he saw a few other pictures that he wanted to share: 

For the top picture, who doesn't like to see "Take Your Dogs To Work" Day pictures? 

For the second, if you think the guy on the far left was smiling at media day in September 2017, you should have seen him six months later, when he scored the game-winning goal in overtime to give Princeton the 2018 ECAC championship. His name is Max Becker, as you recall. 

The bottom picture, by the way, will make every one of those guys smile every time they look at it, from now until the end of time. It's something TB considers each time he watches the current media days, with the thousands of photos of smiling faces. 

Those are memories that will last forever.

*

Back at BrotherBlog, he told TB that he and Joe, the official Brother-in-Law of TigerBlog, were going to Victoria to celebrate. TB assumed they meant the one in Australia.

Turns out they opened another one in British Columbia, which borders Washington State. 

*

Mega-congrats go out to Cara Holdsclaw, Princeton Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Relations, on the recent induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame of her wife Chamique Holdsclaw. Playing for the legendary coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee, Holdsclaw won three NCAA championships and then a gold medal for Team USA at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. 

If you think women's basketball started with Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, it didn't. It started long ago, long before what it is now. According to history.com (one of TB's favorite websites): 

On March 22, 1893, the first women's college basketball game is played at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. With each made basket counting as one point and the game lasting two 15-minute halves, a sophomore class team prevails over a freshmen team, 5-4. Men are not permitted inside the gym at the all-women college, but a crowd of fascinated women cheer on their fellow classmates from the running track of the campus gymnasium. The winning team earns a gold and white banner.

The first intercollegiate women's basketball game? You wouldn't be surprised to know it was in 1896; you might be surprised to know that it was between Stanford and Cal. 

Cara, by the way, finished her own college playing career with 927 points, scoring 810 of them at Dayton after transferring from Arkansas after her sophomore year. Interestingly, she never attempted a three-point shot in any of her four years. 

*

Have a happy weekend.  

Final Jeopardy, Opening Day

Okay, here is your Princeton Athletics "Final Jeopardy" category: 

"No. 42"

And the Final Jeopardy answer is: 

"He was the last Princeton athlete to wear the No. 42 in any sport."

Cue the music. 

Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah. Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah, Dit, Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah. 

While that is stuck in your head, consider what today is: OPENING DAY!!!!

The women's soccer team will be home tonight at 7 against Loyola. That's a real game, by the way, not a scrimmage. 

TigerBlog wrote this back on July 9, when he mentioned that it was six weeks out from the first Princeton Athletic event of the 2026-27 year: 

Enjoy the rest of the summer. It'll be six weeks from now in no time.  

He was right. And here you are, on Opening Day.

The women's soccer season will get off to a flying start, with four games between now and the end of August alone. The Tigers will be at Syracuse Sunday and then home again a week from today against West Virginia and a week from Sunday against James Madison. There are three more games in the first 10 days of September. 

To give you a sense of how the college athletic calendar gradually shifts, the first women's soccer game 10 years ago was on Aug. 26. If you go back 20 years, it was on Sept. 2. 

And keep in mind, the rest of Division I starts a week earlier than the Ivy League. They've been practicing since July, hoping to play into December — the middle of December at that. All of these teams that are playing in mid-August? The NCAA Women's College Cup will be Dec. 10 and 13 in Cary, N.C.

That's a long way off. 

In fact, the women's and men's semifinals and finals will both be that weekend at the same site, with the men's games one day behind the women's. Is this a first? Is TB reading the dates wrong? 

Also, can you tell TB who the defending champions are, by the way? Florida State on the women's side and Washington on the men's side. 

Remember, by the way, that there is no admission fee for all regular season fall teams at Princeton other than football. And those other fall teams will be underway soon as well. 

The men's soccer team will play two home games in August, opening a week from Friday against Villanova and then the 31st against Portland. Fast forward to Friday, Sept. 2 (that's two weeks from tomorrow by the way), and you have the openers for men's and women's cross country, women's volleyball, men's water polo and field hockey. 

Opening Day for any sport is always exciting. Even the New York Jets can be excited on their opening day. 

At Princeton, this is more than just one soccer game. It's the start of a run that will go all the way into June, with 38 varsity teams and 1,000 varsity athletes. There will be (hopefully, knock wood) championships won, individual honors accrued, records set. There will be great games. There will be tough losses. 

And the best part is that there is no way to know which sports and athletes and events those will all be. 

Oh, and back at Final Jeopardy: 

The question: Who is Greg Seaman?

He wore No. 42 for the men's lacrosse team until he graduated in 2009. Today he is the head of the men's lacrosse Friends' Group.  

Here he is at the dinner to retire the No. 42 back in 2009, along with John McPhee and Princeton athletic legends (and No. 42 wearers) Bill Bradley and Dick Kazmaier:

Lastly when TB was in the newspaper business, he used to go to a welcome back luncheon at what was then Trenton State College and is now The College of New Jersey. Each year, the college president would always say the same thing: "I predict that all of our teams will go undefeated this year." 

TigerBlog won't go that far. He's pretty sure there will be some losses mixed in. As he thinks back to those luncheons, though, he always goes back to his mindset at the time. He was in his mid-20s and wondering if he could make this his entire career. He always figured he'd do it for one more academic year and then figure out what his "real" job would be. 

And then, come the start of the next year, he'd feel recharged and excited about what might happen during the coming months. He figured when he lost that, then he'd know it was time to try something different. 

He still thinks that way. That's why he's still doing this all these decades later. 

Go Tigers. Here's to another great year.  

Whose Number Is It Anyway?

 TigerBlog can't begin to guess how many "media day" photos were taken last week on Jadwin Gym's D level.

There were five teams who went through the four stations: men's soccer, women's soccer, field hockey, women's volleyball and men's water polo. That's nearly 100 athletes. 

Total photos taken? Maybe close to 100,000? 

And that doesn't even count the teams still to come — football, women's rugby and men's and women's cross country — who will be taking their turns this coming week. That's a lot of shooting, editing, posting and everything else. 

If you follow any of these teams and athletes on Instagram, then you've seen several hundred of the finished products. If you follow teams from other schools, you can see how huge a part of college athletics this has become. It's another item on the "didn't exist all that long ago and now would be unfathomable not to do" list. 

TB is, of course, biased towards field hockey, so he says this with that disclaimer. Of all those photos that were taken, these were his two favorites.

If you're wondering, by the way, that's Molly Nye of the field hockey team, a junior who was a key part of last year's run to double overtime of the NCAA championship game. Fun fact: Nye's family home is within walking distance of the field at Harvard where Princeton won the Ivy League tournament last year. 

Anyway, which do you like better, facing the camera of facing the Tiger? TB went through this after the NCAA men's lacrosse championship last spring, when he had these two pictures taken with Miss TigerBlog ’22:

He's still not sure. He's just glad he has that conundrum in his life. You know. The championship and all. 

Oh, and a belated Happy Birthday to MTB. For those who remember her from her Little Miss TigerBlog days, she's 26 now. Yeah. 

MTB is actually four months older than Washington Commanders' quarterback Jayden Daniels, who is still 25. Or is that five? 

Daniels, you might recall, had his legal representatives tell LSU that they no longer had the right to use his name, image and likeness because the football program gave his No. 5 jersey to a different player. He called this "profoundly disrespectful."

Clearly Daniels has never done stats at an LSU football game. With rosters of more than 100 players, not having the ability to use all available ones makes it even more problematic for the statkeepers.

 Besides, it's college football, not the NFL. FBS rosters completely turn over every four five six seven eight years (or, moving forward, perhaps only five). 

Princeton has retired exactly one number, and it's across all 38 sports. That's the number 42, the one worn by both Dick Kazmaier and Bill Bradley, worn by nobody in either of their sports since they did and nobody at Princeton on any team since 2009. 

TB wrote this as he watched the field hockey team practice yesterday afternoon on Bedford Field. Opening day for the Tigers is a little more than two weeks away. 

As with every year and with every team, you have players who graduated and freshmen who are coming into the program. There are six freshmen on this team, four of whom are wearing a uniform number that belonged to someone who graduated last year and the other two of whom are wearing one that nobody wore last year but was worn for the previous four years by someone else. 

It's just how it is. In fact it's a fun part of Princeton Athletics, following the legacy of uniform numbers, something that can be traced back more than 100 years for certain teams.  

In the case of field hockey 2026, on its most simplistic level, you have the No. 14. It belonged for the last four years to Ella Hampson, an Englishwoman with a very big personality whose default was laughter. Now that number has been passed on to Savannah Faulkner, a freshman from Louisville. To see the No. 14 on the field without hearing Hampson's running commentary takes a little adjustment, but it's also something TB loves to see. 

It's the literal marching forward of each team's lineage. That's an ultimate sign of respect. 

Seeing Straight

TigerBlog's first text yesterday went to Julie Shackford, the longtime Princeton women's soccer head coach who is now at her alma mater, William & Mary. 

Here's the transcript:

TB: "Do you play Wordle?"
JS: "Sometimes."
TB: "You should play it today."

About three minutes later, she texted back one word: "Hah."

As he has mentioned before, TigerBlog is a huge fan of doing the daily puzzles. He starts out each morning with Wordle, and he uses a different starting word each day. Ideally, he'll find one that has some connection to the day to come. 

Yesterday's start word for him was "SIGHT." Why that particular word? It's because TB had to take FatherBlog yesterday to get cataract surgery. You'll be happy to know that it went well. Hey, the man is almost 91.  

When he went to take him home, TB asked the discharge nurse if he could let his father drive. She said "absolutely not;" TB still isn't sure if she realized he was kidding. Also, what does your average almost-91 year old say immediately after his surgery? Here was what FB said: 

"I'm starving. Can we stop at the diner?" 

As for the Wordle word yesterday, starting with "SIGHT," it took TB five total guesses to get the answer. If you haven't played the word yet, TB will save it until the end. 

In the meantime, Shackford's Tribe team has already opened its season this past Wednesday with a 1-1 tie against Loyola. As you may be aware, the Princeton women open their season Thursday at home against that same Loyola team. 

Who has the advantage, Loyola for having already played or Princeton for not playing its third game in eight days? Ah, what was Loyola's other game? 

The Greyhounds had its second game already, another 1-1 tie against No. 10 Arkansas. Both of Loyola's games have been played in Baltimore. Why was Arkansas willing to come to Baltimore, for a single game at that? It wasn't a return game. There wasn't another game during the same road trip. 

This got TB to thinking that Arkansas might have a player from the Baltimore area, so he went to the team's website. Turns out that the Razorbacks 1) have players from 13 different states, 2) they have no players from Maryland, 3) they beat Dartmouth in the first round of the NCAA tournament a year ago and 4) they also lost 4-1 to Baylor in their first game this season. 

Loyola has no players from Arkansas. The team has more players from Florida and Texas than any other state. 

What Loyola will bring to Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium Thursday will be three Patriot League Players of the Week, two of whom are internationals (a French-Canadian midfielder from Quebec and a goalkeeper from Germany) and one of whom is from Maryland. 

Princeton? This, from TB's friend and colleague Andrew Borders' preview story, tells you a lot:

Princeton enters 2026 coming off back-to-back Ivy League titles for the first time in program history after winning the 2024 Ivy League regular-season and tournament titles and following with the 2025 Ivy League regular-season title. The Tigers went 8-6-3 overall and 5-2 in Ivy League play last season, closing the regular season with five straight wins to claim the Ivy title before defeating Brown in the Ivy League Tournament semifinal and falling 1-0 to Dartmouth in the final. Princeton returns the scorers of 21 of the team's 24 goals from 2025 and nine of the 12 players who scored a goal last season, as well as all eight players who scored more than one goal last season. 

You can read Andrew's entire preview HERE. If TB is doing the math correctly, this is the 21st year that Andrew has been the women's soccer contact, by the way. That's a lot of institutional knowledge. 

If you don't want to read it, Princeton plays Thursday night at home and then Sunday afternoon at Syracuse in its second game as the season gets off to a fast start. 

By the way, the Wordle from yesterday? Use your imagination. Why would TB have asked Shackford if she'd done it? 

The word was "TRIBE." 

Has it ever been "TIGER?" 

And The Double Jeopardy Questions Are ...

Just like that, it's the first Princeton Athletics Game Week for 2026-27. 

As TigerBlog has been reminding you, the women's soccer team will be home Thursday night at 7 against Loyola. And yes, that's a real game. 

There will be nearly 700 events between the game Thursday and the NCAA track and field championships in June. What is in store for the 2026-27 Tigers?  

In the meantime, TB hopes you enjoyed Friday's Princeton Athletics "Double Jeopardy" round. Coming soon will be "Final Jeopardy."

For today, here are the "Double Jeopardy" questions:  

JOHN MACK

$400 - John Mack is the first Princeton Director of Athletics to have competed in this sport as an undergraduate.

What is track and field?  

$800 - Before becoming Princeton's Ford Family Director of Athletics, John Mack worked in this profession.

What is law? 

$1200 - He grew up in New Haven, the one in this state, not the one with all those Bulldogs.

What is Michigan? 

$1600 - He shared the 2000 Roper Trophy with squash player Peter Yik and this Hall of Fame lacrosse player. 

Who is Josh Sims?  

$2000 - John Mack's first job after graduation was in Princeton's Department of Athletics. His second job was at this Big Ten school. 

What is Northwestern?  

PRO TIGERS

$400 - He has 141 career points in nine NHL seasons; for a hint, his name was recently engraved on the Stanley Cup. 

Who is Eric Robinson?  

$800 - He was the winning pitcher in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series, when he won the first of his two rings (the other came as a general manager). 

Who is Chris Young?  

$1200 - Winning seems to follow this Princeton women's basketball alum wherever she goes, including in this, her second year in the WNBA.

Who is Kaitlyn Chen?  

$1600 - He is the only player ever to win the Most Valuable Player Award in both Major League Lacrosse and the Premier Lacrosse League. 

Who is Tom Schreiber? 

$2000 - He has two Super Bowl rings after helping build the Giants' teams that took down Tom Brady. 

Who is Marc Ross?  

OLYMPIC TIGERS

$400 - Princeton had two gold medalists at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics — swimmer Jed Graef and this other alum.

Who is Bill Bradley?  

$800 - She was the first Princeton woman to win an Olympic medal, a bronze in rowing in 1976.

Who is Carol Brown?  

$1200 - This fencer won an individual NCAA championship and Olympic gold medal.

Who is Maia Weintraub?  

$1600 - This sport has produced more Princeton Olympic medalists than any other. 

What is rowing?  

$2000 - This member of the Class of 1897 won four medals (two gold, two silver) at the first modern Olympics.

Who is Robert Garrett Jr.?  

ROPER TROPHY WINNERS

$400 - The 2005 Roper Trophy was shared between fencer Soren Thompson (who would become an Olympian) and this two-sport athlete who is currently the front-runner for a major Major League award. 

Who is Will Venable?  

$800 - Football quarterbacks Chad Kanoff (2018) and John Lovett (2019) were back-to-back Roper winners. This player was the most recent quarterback to win the award prior to that after he led the team to an Ivy League championship. 

Who is Jeff Terrell?  

$1200 - The 1988 Roper Trophy was shared by two-time Olympic medal-winning rower Doug Burden and this super football player. 

Who is Dean Cain?  

$1600 - This 1952 Roper Trophy winner did not win the Heisman Trophy; his classmate Dick Kazmaier did but didn't win the Roper. 

Who is John Emery?  

$2000 - This very first Roper winner back in 1936 was also part of the only father-son duo ever to win the award.

Who is Hugh A. MacMillan?

VON KIENBUSCH WINNERS

$400 - A two-sport athlete, she was the 1991 von Kienbusch winner; she came back to work at Princeton later on. 

Who is Mollie Marcoux Samaan? 

$800 - This sport has produced more winners of the award than any other, including the most recent winner. 

What is field hockey?  

$1200 - The long and the short of it: The 2008 von Kienbusch Award was shared by 6-1 women's basketball player Meagan Cowher and this 5-0 tall women's soccer player who went on to win two Olympic bronze medals. 

Who is Diana Matheson?  

$1600 - The first two von Kienbusch Award winners were also the first two women to compete in varsity athletics for Princeton. The first winner was Helena Novakova in 1972; she was the second winner a year later. 

Who is Margie Gengler?  

$2000 - The most recent Princeton woman athlete to letter in three sports and take the von Kiensbusch Award was this 1989 winner. 

Who is Demer Holleran? 

CHAMP STAMP

$400 - The men's lacrosse team won the 2026 national championship, giving it this many NCAA titles in program history. 

What is seven?  

$800 - The 2017 Princeton men's basketball team went 14-0 during the Ivy season and then won both games in the first Ivy tournament, and that team remains the only Ivy men's basketball team to go 16-0; he was the first Ivy League tournament Most Outstanding Player. 

Who is Myles Stephens?  

$1200 - Julia Ratcliffe, a future Olympian for New Zealand, was the 2014 NCAA champion in this track and field event. 

What is the hammer throw?  

$1600 - The women's open rowing team won the first varsity 8 NCAA championship in 2006 and again in 2011, with a combined four future Olympic medalists in those two boats, including this rower who won Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012. 

Who is Caroline Lind?  

$2000 - This Princeton alum is the only four-time men's intercollegiate squash national individual champion. 

Who is Yasser El Halaby?  

Double Jeopardy

What better way is there to celebrate a summer Friday than with Princeton Athletics Double Jeopardy. 

You remember the Jeopardy round from two weeks ago? No? It was inspired by Kyle Brandt's appearance on ESPN's Jeopardy. 

You can find that HERE.

As with the Jeopardy round, TigerBlog will follow up Monday with the questions. For now, here are the categories: 

JOHN MACK

$400 - John Mack is the first Princeton Director of Athletics to have competed in this sport as an undergraduate.

$800 - Before becoming Princeton's Ford Family Director of Athletics, John Mack worked in this profession.

$1200 - He grew up in New Haven, the one in this state, not the one with all those Bulldogs.

$1600 - He shared the 2000 Roper Trophy with squash player Peter Yik and this Hall of Fame lacrosse player. 

$2000 - John Mack's first job after graduation was in Princeton's Department of Athletics. His second job was at this Big Ten school. 

PRO TIGERS

$400 - He has 141 career points in nine NHL seasons; for a hint, his name was recently engraved on the Stanley Cup. 

$800 - He was the winning pitcher in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series, when he won the first of his two rings (the other came as a general manager). 

$1200 - Winning seems to follow this Princeton women's basketball alum wherever she goes, including in this, her second year in the WNBA.

$1600 - He is the only player ever to win the Most Valuable Player Award in both Major League Lacrosse and the Premier Lacrosse League. 

$2000 - He has two Super Bowl rings after helping build the Giants' teams that took down Tom Brady. 

OLYMPIC TIGERS

$400 - Princeton had two gold medalists at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics — swimmer Jed Graef and this other alum.

$800 - She was the first Princeton woman to win an Olympic medal, a bronze in rowing in 1976.

$1200 - This fencer won an individual NCAA championship and Olympic gold medal.

$1600 - This sport has produced more Princeton Olympic medalists than any other. 

$2000 - This member of the Class of 1897 won four medals (two gold, two silver) at the first modern Olympics.

ROPER TROPHY WINNERS

$400 - The 2005 Roper Trophy was shared between fencer Soren Thompson (who would become an Olympian) and this two-sport athlete who is currently the front-runner for a major Major League award. 

$800 - Football quarterbacks Chad Kanoff (2018) and John Lovett (2019) were back-to-back Roper winners. This player was the most recent quarterback to win the award prior to that after he led the team to an Ivy League championship. 

$1200 - The 1988 Roper Trophy was shared by two-time Olympic medal-winning rower Doug Burden and this super football player. 

$1600 - This 1952 Roper Trophy winner did not win the Heisman Trophy; his classmate Dick Kazmaier did but didn't win the Roper. 

$2000 - This very first Roper winner back in 1936 was also part of the only father-son duo ever to win the award.

VON KIENBUSCH WINNERS

$400 - A two-sport athlete, she was the 1991 von Kienbusch winner; she came back to work at Princeton later on. 

$800 - This sport has produced more winners of the award than any other, including the most recent winner. 

$1200 - The long and the short of it: The 2008 von Kienbusch Award was shared by 6-1 women's basketball player Meagan Cowher and this 5-0 tall women's soccer player who went on to win two Olympic bronze medals. 

$1600 - The first two von Kienbusch Award winners were also the first two women to compete in varsity athletics for Princeton. The first winner was Helena Novakova in 1972; she was the second winner a year later. 

$2000 - The most recent Princeton woman athlete to letter in three sports and take the von Kiensbusch Award was this 1989 winner. 

CHAMP STAMP

$400 - The men's lacrosse team won the 2026 national championship, giving it this many NCAA titles in program history. 

$800 - The 2017 Princeton men's basketball team went 14-0 during the Ivy season and then won both games in the first Ivy tournament, and that team remains the only Ivy men's basketball team to go 16-0; he was the first Ivy League tournament Most Outstanding Player. 

$1200 - Julia Ratcliffe, a future Olympian for New Zealand, was the 2014 NCAA champion in this track and field event. 

$1600 - The women's open rowing team won the first varsity 8 NCAA championship in 2006 and again in 2011, with a combined four future Olympic medalists in those two boats, including this rower who won Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012. 

$2000 - This Princeton alum is the only four-time men's intercollegiate squash national individual champion.