April Snow Showers

Apparently TigerBlog isn't the only one who feels that the best word to describe Peter Farrell is "beloved."

Friday's TigerBlog, a tribute to the retiring Princeton women's track and field coach, has become the single most read entry in the eight-year history of doing this.

Maybe it's because of the fact that there are so many track and field alums, or maybe it's because Peter is a well-liked, well-respected man. Either way, thousands of people read the blog Friday, and over the weekend.

If you missed it, you can find it HERE. 

So now what? Was it just a bunch of Peter Farrell fans who had the link forwarded to them, or are you all still out there, back for more? Hmmm. What should TigerBlog talk about in that case?

Politics? Noooooooooo.

TV shows? Did you see Season 4 of "House of Cards?" It was pretty good, something to watch while waiting for the new season of "Gilmore Girls."

Actually, "House of Cards" counts as politics.

How about a joke? Hmmm. What did the bilingual dog say? Meow. Get it? Meow?

No?

Did you hear about the cyclops teacher? Only had one pupil. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

No? 

What else?


Actually,

How about the weather?

The weather around here officially makes no sense. Let's review your last few months in Central Jersey.

October was like summer. November was like late summer. December was like what autumn used to be around here. January was okay, except for the blizzard that dumped 33 inches of snow here in one day.

Don't worry. It didn't last. Late January and early February were warm for the most part, and the snow was gone by Valentine's Day. The first few lacrosse games were played on sunny days, with temps near the 60s.

March was okay. Nice for the most part. Cold here and there. Nothing brutal.

April, though. Well, that's been a different story. It's been frozen for most of April.

This past Saturday, when the average temperature in Princeton is 60 degrees, it was 33 at gametime for lacrosse. And a cold, dreary rain fell in the area, with some sleet and flurries mixed in.

Of course, that was nothing compared to what was going on just south of here, in Philadelphia. It was a few degrees colder there, which meant that it was snowing.

Hard. Like a blizzard.

TigerBlog watched two lacrosse games on the computer as they were being played in Philly, and it might as well have been New Year's Day in Alaska. And this was April 9.

The weather didn't slow down the Princeton women's lacrosse team. The Tigers sprinted away from Yale Saturday afternoon 16-5, outshooting the Bulldogs 50-25.

The weather this week is supposed to warm up at least. Rain or shine, though, nice or messy, it will be big week for the women's lacrosse team. Actually make that a huge week.

Princeton has three home games in eight days, each with a rather important subplot.

First up will be Maryland Wednesday night. That's unbeaten, unanimous No. 1 Maryland, the defending NCAA champ.

Princeton will welcome the 12-0 Terps to Sherrerd Field first. Then a 9-1 team comes in Saturday for a game that has more immediate significance.

It will be Cornell at Princeton Saturday at noon (the opening game of a doubleheader, with the men against Dartmouth at 3). Princeton and Cornell are the only remaining unbeatens in Ivy League women's lacrosse.

Cornell has one loss on its record now - to Maryland, 17-9, two weeks ago. The Big Red are also at Penn State Wednesday before the game at Princeton.

The winner of the women's game Saturday will have the inside track to the Ivy title and to hosting the Ivy League tournament.

The women's lacrosse standings right now have Cornell at 4-0, Princeton at 3-0 and Penn and Harvard with one loss each. Yale is next at 2-2.

Cornell still has Princeton, Harvard and Penn on its schedule. Princeton already has a win over Harvard and then the game against Cornell Saturday.

And is there a time to recover after that game? Nope.

That's because the next game after that is the following Wednesday, when Penn comes to Sherrerd Field. Penn's Ivy loss was against Dartmouth, who is 1-3 in the league.

Penn and Princeton are the only two teams to host the Ivy League tournament, in the six-year history of the event.

It's not an easy run for the Tigers. When it's over, Princeton will have only Columbia and Brown left on the Ivy schedule. Neither of those two has won a league game yet.

So, to recap, it's the No. 1 team in the country (the defending champ to boot), the only other unbeaten Ivy team and then the team that has traditionally been the biggest rival. In eight days. All at home.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Judging by how it's gone lately, that's anyone's guess.