Virginia Is For Tigers

TigerBlog is a fan of diet peach Snapple.

Way back when, he used to drink a lot of soda. And eat a lot of cookies. He's drawn the line with both of those.

Now, his snack of choice is apples and grapes. Still, he does drink the Snapple. The diet kind, anyway.

It probably isn't any better for him than diet soda, so maybe he should just go back to that. Or maybe not.

Anyway, if you've ever had Snapple, you know that there are little fun facts under the cap. This is always an exciting part of drinking one.

Last week, TigerBlog had one that said that 1,111,111,111 times 1,111,111,111 equals 12345678987654321. Or something like that. Whatever, it's pretty interesting.

He got his favorite one ever yesterday though.

He popped open the bottle, and there it was. Tigers, it said, have orange and black stripes on their skin, not just their fur.

That's pretty cool. Any cap that mentions Tigers and orange and black seems to be trying to get the attention of Princeton Athletics. Maybe it's a sign. All Princeton teams will win every game until TigerBlog gets another sign from the Snapple cap?

That might be asking a lot.

Anyway, it makes TB think of FieldTurf fields. Tigers have their stripes sewn on, not painted on.

The Snapple cap was one of two highlights of yesterday. The other was when TigerBlog got to the event meeting yesterday morning and saw that there, on the new TV in the conference room, was a classic of American culture, led by an iconic figure in American character acting.

It was Bugs Bunny. The one where he gets drafted into the Army.

How can you beat that? If the Snapple cap was a sign of the coming of good fortune for the Tigers, what's that a sign of?

TB has no answer to that.

It was at the event meeting that Brendan Van Ackeren, who is a mainstay in the business office and the husband of softball coach Lisa Van Ackeren, said that the women's and men's tennis teams would both be heading to Virginia for the NCAA tournament.

Given that the men didn't have an automatic bid, it was hardly a certainty.

Then, several hours later, that's exactly what happened.

It'll be the Ivy League champion Princeton women in Virginia to take on South Carolina in the opening round. That match will be Saturday at 9 a.m., which, when TigerBlog was a kid (and probably adult) was always prime Bugs Bunny time.

The men will also be in Charlottesville, they to take on Minnesota Friday at 10 a.m.

If the women win, they play the winner of Virginia-VCU Sunday at noon. If they men win, they would take on the winner of Virginia-St. John's Saturday at 3.

The women are looking for a repeat of last year, when they won the first round match against Arizona State and then scared second-ranked Alabama before falling short.

As for the men, it's their first NCAA appearance since 1998. 

It was a good night for Ivy League tennis, as Dartmouth got an at-large bid to the women's tournament and three teams were in the men's draw - Princeton, Harvard and Columbia.

Princeton is the only school in the league in both tournaments.

TigerBlog jumped on the women's tennis bandwagon when he saw the Tigers win at Dartmouth. He also went to the match against Cornell at home, where Princeton closed out an outright championship and cemented the automatic bid.

As for the men, TB hasn't seen any of their matches this year. He has played squash against Billy Pate, who likes to pass himself off as a nice guy but who turns ultra-competitive when competition begins.

Actually, he is a really nice guy. He just also happens to be super-competitive. It's a good combination for a coach.

Last night was a big night for Princeton tennis, both teams.

TB doesn't really think all of Princeton's teams will win all of their games until he gets another sign from the Snapple cap.

Hey, he can still root for it to happen.

Hopefully that magic can work this weekend in Virginia. For both teams.