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.