World Beaters

TigerBlog was going to start today in Israel.

Instead, he'll make a stop in England first.

When TigerBlog went to Israel, he didn't go non-stop. Instead, it was overnight from JFK to Paris and then from there to Tel Aviv.

It's the only time TB has ever been in France. BrotherBlog? He loves France. He's been there a bunch of times and is planning to go back. Hey, he's even studying French these days.

It all led to a rather interesting exchange between brothers recently:

BB: "Question from French class - when did they last teach grammar in school? Did we have grammar in high school? Wasn't that the beginning of your love affair with gerunds?"
TB: "Yes. 10th grade. And to this day, still love a good gerund."
BB: "My running makes me so happy. :-) We just did that en francais. En courant, je suis heureux."
TB: "Fromage."

Gerunds, by the way, are in the category of "verbals," of which there are three: gerunds, infinitives and participles. Verbals are words that normally are verbs but are used as nouns or adjectives. Gerunds, for instance, are words that are usually verbs but are used as nouns, and they are always, always, always supposed to be preceded by possessive case, as in the example BrotherBlog used.

Oh, and fromage? It means cheese. TigerBlog uses it to represent any and all French words.

TigerBlog has been lucky in his life. He's made six trips to Europe, visiting 16 total European countries in all. He's been to Lichtenstein. He's been to Austria. Portugal. Finland. Sweden. Turkey. He's been to Belgium. Ireland. He's even been to Russia. That's half the list.

You know where he hasn't been?

England. He hasn't been to France or Italy either, unless you count his short time in the airport in Paris and Rome on layovers (the time in Rome was from Turkey to Greece). TB doesn't count them. If you do, then he's been in 18 countries.

But not even a stopover in England. Your average American who has made six trips to Europe has to have been to England at least once, right? Or, of every American who has been to 16 European countries, what percentage have not been to England, France or Rome?

Of course, TB has lived basically his entire life in either New Jersey or Pennsylvania but has never been to Pittsburgh.

TB would love to get to all four of those places at some point - England, France, Rome and Pittsburgh. And some others.

The World Cup for women's lacrosse, which is essentially the World Championship, ended this past weekend in England, in Surrey, to be exact, which is in the southern part of the country. The U.S. defeated Canada 10-5 in the final, but it Saturday morning it felt like the real winner was the home team.

England defeated Australia 11-10 in overtime in the third-place game Saturday. The Player of the Match was Princeton alum Olivia Hompe, who scored three goals, all in the second half, as England came from four goals down to force overtime. Megan Whittle, who will be a senior at Maryland, scored the game-winner in the OT.

England had not medaled in the last two World Cups. Australia? This marked the first time that the Aussies didn't finish in the top three.

A huge reason why England was back on the medal stand was Hompe, who afterwards said of the bronze medal match that “this was the game of the whole tournament.”

Hompe, who graduated last month as the all-time leading scorer in Princeton lacrosse history, led England in the tournament with 12 goals and six assists. Yeah, she certainly wasn't intimidated by playing on the international stage.

By the way, Kerrin Maurer, Princeton's new assistant women's lacrosse coach, finished second in the tournament in scoring, with 21 goals and 20 assists for Italy. 

Hompe is not the only Princeton athlete who earned a medal in a major summer international competition. Princeton also did really well at the Maccabiah Games in Israel.

Josh Haberman, like Hompe a member of the Class of 2017, and rising sophomore Benjamin Issroff won gold with the U.S. in men's soccer, and recent grad Claire Klausner pitched the U.S. softball team to gold as well.

Princeton assistant softball coach Nicole Arias was the head coach for the U.S. team after winning gold medals as a player in 2009 and 2013. David Goldstein, another 2017 grad, was an assistant coach for the U.S. soccer team.

Sivan Krems, who also just graduated, won two silver medals in tennis.

About 1,000 miles to the northwest from Israel, the World U23 rowing championships were held the last four days in Bulgaria. Princeton brought home four medals.

Claire Collins, who will be a junior this year, won a silver with the U.S. women's eights. The other three Princetonians all won bronze.

Emily Kallfelz, who will also be a junior, won hers by herself, in the women's singles. Matthew Benstead, who graduated this past year, and David Bewicke-Copley, a rising sophomore, won bronze together in the British eight, edging out the U.S. boat for the medal.

It's the Olivia Hompe idea all over again. It's okay to root for the non-American team if it has Princeton people on it.

Oh, and speaking of Americans winning medals in international competition, Bella Alarie is playing with the U.S. under-19 team at the current World Championships in Italy. The U.S. team is 2-0 after a 91-51 win over China yesterday in which Alarie had 10 points and eight rebounds, along with three steals, in just 15 minutes, after opening the tournament with seven points and eight rebounds against Mali.

Alarie will come back with a medal. The championship game will be this coming Sunday.