Oh MacDonalds

One of TigerBlog's very favorite families in Princeton Athletics history is the MacDonald Family of Georgetown, Ont. 

As TB has written before, he's played a card game with the MacDonalds in the past that revealed them to be ultra, ultra competitive. It didn't help that TB won, by the way. 

Steve and Linda MacDonald, the patriarch and matriarch of the family, nearly came to blows. Well, not really. There was some mention of divorce after decades and decades of marital bliss, though TB is pretty sure it was in jest. Yes, they're still together. 

Given all of this, TB can only imagine what's going between Mikey MacDonald, Princeton Class of 2015, and his younger sister Jami, a current Tiger senior. You remember Mikey MacDonald, right? He was the 2015 Roper Trophy winner as the top senior male athlete in his class. 

Mikey MacDonald was a lacrosse player. So is Jami. 

Here are two little facts that make TB chuckle:

* Mikey finished his Princeton career with 208 career points, which at the time was the fifth-highest total in program history and which is now seventh. Can you name the two players who've passed him, by the way? 

Jami? She enters tomorrow's game at Virginia with, wait for it, 207 career points. Can you imagine the trash talk? 

* There's also the fact that Jami was named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week yesterday after having four goals and four assists in Princeton's 19-13 win in its Ivy League opener at Harvard Saturday. It's the second time in her career Jami has been honored with the award. 

Ah, but here's a little fact that probably has not escaped the notice of someone in their house. Mikey was a three-time Ivy League Player of the Week. 

Of course, all of this got TB to thinking if Princeton has had another brother/sister combination where both have been Ivy Player of the Week. His first thought was of the Behnkes, where three soccer-playing siblings combined for six first-team All-Ivy League selections. Here's another trivia question: What were their names? 

TB knows for a fact that the sister was an Ivy Player of the Week. He figures one of the brothers, or probably both, were also honored. 

Is he overlooking anyone obvious? 

The answer to the two questions, by the way, are this: 1) both Michael Sowers and Coulter Mackesy have passed MacDonald and in fact are 1-2 all-time for the Princeton men and 2) you had Griff, Matt and Emily Behncke.

There have to be others, right? TB always overlooks some obvious answers when he asks questions like this. 

While the subject is Ivy League lacrosse Player of the Week awards, or at least tangentially related to that, TB would also like to mention Jack Stahl, the Ivy League men's Defensive Player of the Week. For all of the men's lacrosse players TB has known at Princeton, it's possible that Stahl is the quietest, or at least the one who least needs a spotlight. 

Here is what TB wrote for the story on goprincetontigers.com: 

It's possible that the Princeton men's lacrosse program has never had a player who shuns the spotlight more than Jack Stahl. Unfortunately for him with the way he is playing, that spotlight is going to find him.  

Stahl was honored for Princeton's 20-9 win over Rutgers Saturday. The junior defenseman once again was given the other team's best offensive player to guard, and once again he did exactly what he was supposed to do. 

This time, his assignment was Colin Kurlyda, an All-American who came in with 14 goals on the season. Stahl held Kurlyda to one goal, which came when the Tigers were ahead 19-5.

This came one week after Stahl held two other All-Americans, Syracuse's Joey Spallina and UNC's Owen Duffy, to a combined one goal. If you add those three performances together, Stahl allowed two goals on 20 shots, with five caused turnovers of his own. 

Stahl would have been TB's nominee for Ivy Defensive Player of the Week after that, except that goalie Ryan Croddick had a weekend for the ages. As such, TB was happy to see that he got the recognition he did this time around — even if it probably made him roll his eyes or something. 

Hey, play like he has been, and yes, this is what happens.  

Outright Champs

Forget your birthday.

Forget Christmas. Forget Thanksgiving — and Valentines' Day, your anniversary, your kids' birthdays. Forget all of that. 

Everybody's favorite day was yesterday. It was, after all, the first day of Daylight Savings Time.

Still light out after 7? Knowing that it's only going to keep staying light out longer and longer for the next few months? Who could be against that? 

Throw in how warm it was, at least in the Northeast, and it was a great day, right?  

By the way, remember that pesky rodent named Punxsutawney Phil? He was the one who said six more weeks of winter, as opposed to an early spring — and that was only 37 days ago. TigerBlog won't get into his big problem with that whole scam again. Actually, yes he will:

There are supposedly only two possible outcomes for when Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his slumber: either an early spring or six more weeks of winter. This is dependent on whether or not said groundhog sees his shadow. TB's problem with this is that six weeks from now is March 16. Spring doesn't begin until five days later. Presumably an early spring would mean warmer weather would arrive before spring actually does, and both outcomes are saying the same thing. It should say "eight more weeks of winter."

There was more to celebrate yesterday than just springing ahead for the women's hockey team. The NCAA tournament bids came out yesterday, and the Tigers — who dropped a tough overtime ECAC semifinal game to Quinnipiac Friday night — found themselves on the right side of the bubble. 

Princeton will be playing UConn Thursday night at 7 at Penn State, and the winner of that gets the host Nittany Lions (coached by former Princeton head coach Jeff Kampersal) Saturday. 

TB will have much more on hockey, both men's and women's, as the week goes along. As a reminder, though, the Princeton men will host Union in a best-of-three ECAC quarterfinal series Friday through Sunday, with the first two games at 7 and Sunday, if necessary, at 4. 

Meanwhile, back on Saturday, there was quite a bit of drama in the afternoon in Jadwin Gym. 

The final day of the Ivy League women's basketball season saw Princeton and Columbia both at 11-2, with Harvard confirmed as the No. 3 seed and Brown as the No. 4 in the upcoming Ivy League tournament. The No. 1 seed, and the league champion or champions, were still to be determined. 

As far as the championship, if both teams won, they would be co-champs. If one team won and the other didn't, the winner would be the outright champ. Columbia had the edge to the No. 1 seed with its season sweep of the Tigers. 

Both teams were playing at home — Princeton against Yale and Columbia against Harvard. Yale got out to a 16-2 lead. Columbia led by 12 at the half and by 16 in the second half. 

So what happened? 

First, Princeton came back to take an eight-point halftime lead for what became a 78-55 victory. With that, the Tigers had clinched at least a share of another championship. 

Ah, but Harvard came charging back against Columbia. Suddenly it was tied at the end of the third quarter. 

For TB's part, he was driving home after the men's lacrosse team's 20-9 win over Rutgers. As he did so, his friend and devoted Princeton Athletics fan Duncan Yin of the Class of 1982 kept him updated on the doings in Levien Gym. 

The extent to which Duncan was rooting for Harvard is hard to explain, and it wasn't due to the fact that he also has a degree from the Harvard Business School. He just really, really wanted Princeton to get that outright championship. 

In the end, that's what happened. At least, that's what TB thought happened. It was hard to tell over the joyous exaltations that were coming through the phone. 

Yes, it was true. The final was Harvard 68, Columbia 64. Princeton, 12-2, was the outright Ivy League champion. 

It got TB to wondering — exactly how many times has Carla Berube cut nets down, with all her championships at UConn, Tufts and Princeton? 

That can wait a few days. First, there is Ivy Madness at Cornell. 

Princeton is the No. 1 seed and will play Brown at 4:30 Friday, followed by Columbia and Harvard. The winners play at 5:30 Saturday for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, somewhere Princeton figures to be no matter the outcome this weekend. 

In the meantime, congrats to the Tigers on another Ivy championship.  

So Good, So Good, So Good

It's too bad you weren't at the Princeton Department of Athletics staff meeting yesterday. 

You missed out on hearing Deputy Director of Athletics Anthony Archbald's rendition of "Sweet Caroline."

It was part of what Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack calls "Forced Family Fun." These are the small games that he loves to bring out to start meetings, games that are designed to promote staff bonding, make things a little lighter and just generally remind everyone that there's a time to be serious and a time to laugh. 

Yesterday's game was "Grab the Mic," which saw two teams of five players randomly chosen (TigerBlog wasn't among them). The basic premise is that each team would put up one player at a time to go head-to-head with a player from the other team. A word would then flash up on the big screen in the front of the room, and the first player to "grab the mic" and sing a line or two from a song that had that lyric in it would earn a point for that team. 

One of the words, by the way, was "Family," as in the obvious "We are family." TB has been trying to think of another. 

Anthony's big performance was when the word "Sweet" came up. How was his singing? 

So good. So good. So good.

*

The Princeton women's team is in Lake Placid today for the ECAC semifinals, where the second-seeded Tigers will take on third-seeded Quinnipiac at 7. The day begins at 4, with top-seeded Yale against fourth-seeded Cornell. 

The winners will play Saturday at 5 for the championship, which will bring with it an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. It's almost a certainty that three of the four teams — and maybe all four — in Lake Placid will have their seasons continue on past this weekend. 

Princeton is currently ninth in the NPI ratings, which determine NCAA spots in hockey. There will be 11 teams in the NCAA field, with one automatic bid to a team that will not be in the top 11 of the ratings. 

Going back to the regular season, Princeton won both of its meetings against Quinnipiac, 4-3 in Princeton and 2-0 in Hamden. When were those games played? Nov. 20 and 22. 

Yes, the hockey season is a long one. And yes, it would be great to see it go even longer for the Tigers. 

*

In addition to Forced Family Fun, one of the other features of the department staff meetings would be the awarding of mini-Gargoyles to head coaches of championship-winning teams. The one yesterday saw five of them given out: men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's indoor track and field and women's squash.

Those five brought the number of Ivy titles for the academic year to 10, a figure that doesn't include the ECAC regular season championship for women's hockey or the NWPC championship for men's water polo in the fall. 

There's another championship up for grabs this weekend, and that's in women's basketball. As the regular season enters its final game, Princeton and Columbia are tied for first at 11-2. 

The Ivy tournament will be next weekend at Cornell, and the teams are already set. The Tigers and Lions will be joined by Harvard and Brown, though the order is still to be determined. 

As for the Ivy League title, Princeton would clinch at least a share of it with a win tomorrow at 2 at home against Yale. Princeton would win the outright championship, and the tournament's top seed, with a win and a Columbia loss to Harvard; the Lions will be the No. 1 seed with a win over Harvard, regardless of the outcome of the Princeton game. 

*

Are you interested in watching a fascinating men's tennis match? There's one at the Si Qin Family Indoor Tennis Center today at 2, when 28th ranked Princeton takes on 27th ranked Pepperdine. 

It seems like this is going to be fairly competitive, no? 

You can add to that the fact that Pepperdine has spent the entire week in the East and has already lost to Columbia and beaten Harvard and Yale. Also, Pepperdine will head to Middle Tennessee State for a match Sunday; Princeton's most recent match was at MTSU.

Perhaps Pepperdine should be admitted into the Ivy League? If you've ever been to its campus, you know that attending games there would be well worth it.  

*

Lastly, TigerBlog would like to congratulate his longtime colleague and friend Mike Mahoney, the 2026 recipient of the College Sports Communicators' Arch Wade Award, given annually to a current College Sports Communicators member who has made outstanding contributions to the field of college athletics communications, and who by his or her activities, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession. 

Who was Arch Ward? And what does Pete Carril have to do with this? TB will get back to that in a moment. 

Mike has worked at the University of Pennsylvania for the last 20 years, with six years each at Dartmouth (his alma mater) and Northwestern before that. He goes way back with a whole bunch of Princetonians, including John Mack and Bill Carmody from his time with the Wildcats and Office of Athletic Communications head Chas Dorman when Chas worked at Penn. 

TigerBlog knows Mike well enough to know that the people who chose this award definitely got it correct. Dignity and prestige? Those are defining characteristics of the job that he has always done, in all the years that TB has known him. 

There are some people who are just universally liked, and there are some people who always perk you right up when you see them. Mike Mahoney is one of those. 

Back to Arch Wade and Pete Carril, this is what the CSC website says about the namesake of this award: Arch Ward was sports editor of the Chicago Tribune from 1930 until he died in 1955. He is credited with inventing the concept of an all-star contest. All-star games began in 1933 with the first baseball all-star game. The following year, Ward initiated the College All-Star football game. 

It reminds TB of many of men's basketball banquet, when Carril used to award the team's B.F. Bunn Trophy. Who was B.F. Bunn, he'd ask? It doesn't matter. If a person like that year's winner was being honored with an award in Bunn's name, then that automatically made Bunn someone special. 

The same has to be true of Arch Ward. 

Congrats Michael. 

 

The Great Karen Malec

There was seismic news within the Princeton Department of Athletics this week.

You probably didn't hear about it, which is why TigerBlog is talking about it here.

It has nothing to do with the championships Princeton won last weekend, or any of the other big wins or individual honors that defined the last few days. Nope. Nothing. 

Or maybe, the more TB thinks about it, maybe those things are in fact related. 

The news was the announcement earlier this week from Karen Malec that she will be retiring at the end of the academic year. Karen is Princeton's Senior Associate AD for Event Operations; when she finally leaves Jadwin Gym, it'll be the end of a 36-year tenure with the athletic department. 

Where can TB start to talk about his longtime colleague and great friend? How about with the basics: You won't ever meet a better person than Karen Malec.  

She's funny and friendly and defaults to a smile. She multi-tasks with the best of them. If she's stressed, she doesn't show it. If you're stressed, she knows just what to say.  

And when she says it? She does so in that high-pitched voice of hers, a voice that brings much-needed energy and compassion to any conversation.  

She is a great family woman, with her husband Maleci, himself a longtime public safety officer at Princeton, and son Kyle. 

She's a great friend, especially within her Princeton Athletics foursome with Kim Meszaros, Nancy Donigan and Sandee Moore (who retired herself a year ago). How many concerts have they gone to? How many nights out have they shared? 

That's the four of them, doing what they do — having fun. Of course, they all know when it's time to have fun and when it's time to be serious. It's a defining characteristic of Karen's, actually. 

And that's where the connection comes in.

The number of areas where Karen influences Princeton University — not just the athletic department — is staggering. Pretty much any event that comes up in any athletic facility has her fingerprints all over it. 

Think about how many events that is. Then think about what goes into every event. Then you have a sense of what Karen has done all these years. 

The sheer number of details that go into every event is overwhelming. It's not something that you even notice when you're at one of them, which is exactly how it should be. 

It's also something that Princeton's coaches and athletes don't have to worry about either. They get to focus on training and competing, instead of worrying that something may or may not have been done away from the game itself. 

TB would like to think that at least a small part of Princeton's athletic success is related to that — and that's a credit to the work that Karen Malec has done. 

Karen grew up in Mercer County. She graduated from Curry College in Massachusetts. Her first job at Princeton was as the Dillon Gym manager. 

This is from her bio: 

In her current position of Associate Athletic Director of Event Operations, Karen coordinates the operations of the home athletic contests for our 38 sports teams.  This includes event security, parking, dining services, custodial needs, officials, clock operators and all event personnel. Over the years Karen has played an integral role in hosting the numerous championship events held at Princeton since 1998 including NCAA, Ivy League, ECAC, WNIT, NIT, ITA, EIWA, and ECAC HOCKEY Championships held on campus.  In addition, Karen has contributed to the success of the many university events during her time such as:  2005 US Secretary of the US, Condoleezza Rice speech, The Governor’s Ball in 2006, 2014 National Special Olympics, the 2014 visit by The Dalai Lama, 2012 & 2018 She Roars Conference, facilitating COVID vaccination spaces & events, as well as the annual Alumni Day and Prom events. 

That's quite a record. 

She's earned the right to step away. TigerBlog will miss her, for sure. So will Kim, Sandee and Nancy. TigerBlog asked them all for their thoughts. Here is what they came up with: 

"I think there will be a time referred to 'before Karen' and 'after Karen' here as she has left an indelible mark on Princeton and the Department of Athletics. She is one of the hardest working people I’ve ever known who can smile and keep positive through it all. I’ll miss seeing her every day but know that our friendship and many adventures await." — Kim Meszaros

"Karen is the hardest worker I know. She has poured her heart and soul into her position here. Her years of dedication to the Athletic department will surely be missed by all. I will cherish our friendship forever. I am wishing her endless joy, happiness, relaxation, long fun-filled weekend adventures and good health in her new journey." — Nancy Donigan

Lastly, Sandee decided to speak directly to her friend: 

Karen,

I realized early on that you were a force to be reckoned with in athletics! If I ever needed answers or to get things done, you were my first call! Our friendship is one of the greatest gifts I received from my time at Princeton and I am so grateful for all the wonderful memories we've shared and for all that is yet to come! You leave incredibly large shoes to fill, but an even larger legacy of all Princeton athletics stands for. I wish you so much love, health and happiness in this next chapter, you deserve it!!! Congratulations!!  

What else needs to be said, other than Karen's legacy at Princeton, as someone who cared about every event on campus and embodied the very best of what the department hopes for from those who represent it, is secure forever. 

 

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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.  

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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. 

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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.

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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.  

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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. 

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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.