And That's Four For The Fall

With everything that happened during the very busy weekend at Princeton, TigerBlog wasn't 100 percent sure where to start today.

So, he figured he'd start with two TV commercials that constantly play.

The one where Aaron Rodgers' dog growls at Clay Matthews after he smashes the truck in which Rodgers and the dog had so many great moments? That one is great.

The one where they're breaking Grandma out of the old-folks home to take her to Belize? That doesn't make sense. Are old folks homes prisons?

Okay, with that out of the way, where else to start?

How about with another Ivy League championship, which brings the number this fall to four.

Princeton had already won Ivy titles this season in women's soccer, field hockey and men's cross country. All three of those teams competed in the postseason this weekend, and all three did so really well.

TB will get to that shortly.

The women's volleyball team won its third straight Ivy title, tying Yale for the championship and forcing a playoff Saturday night in New Haven for the league's NCAA tournament automatic bid. Princeton and Yale had entered the weekend tied for first and then both split matches this weekend, leaving the teams tied again.

Princeton defeated Yale in four games in New Haven. Yale defeated Princeton in three games in Princeton. That's what put the teams at Yale Saturday, and that puts TigerBlog Jr. as the PA announcer for the deciding match. As he put it when he found out there'd be a playoff: "more money for me."

The winner of the match Saturday gets to the NCAA tournament. The other three fall Ivy champs were already there.

By the way, the Ivy League has seven official sports in the fall. Princeton won four of the seven championships. That's not too bad a start to the school year.

The first to the postseason was the men's cross country team, which followed up its win at Ivy Heps two weeks ago by storming to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional championship by placing all of its top five in the top 25 to beat second-place Navy by 52 points.

This is the second time Princeton has won the regional. The other time was in 2010.

Up next for Princeton is the NCAA championship race, Friday in Louisville. Women's Heps champ Gabi Forrest was third in the women's race, probably earning her own spot in Kentucky.

The field hockey team was in Virginia hoping for a return trip to the NCAA Final Four, and the Tigers would play two thrilling games. The first was Saturday, when Ryan McCarthy scored in OT to give the Tigers a 3-2 win in the first round. Princeton would then be on the wrong end of that score yesterday, when North Carolina held on three corners after time had expired to eliminate the Tigers.

If you're keeping score in the first two years of head coach Carla Tagliente, that adds up to two NCAA appearances, three NCAA tournament wins, one Final Four and another quarterfinal.

The field hockey team opened and closed its season against North Carolina. For the women's soccer team, an opening round NCAA tournament loss would have meant something similar, only substituting Monmouth for North Carolina.

The Tigers opened their season with a 3-0 win over Monmouth on Aug. 25. The temperature that day was in the low 80s.

For the rematch, in the opening round of the NCAA tournament Friday night, the temperature had dipped about 65 degrees or so, but that didn't stop the Tigers, who were dominant in a 4-0 win. If TB is correct, Princeton has now played 20 NCAA tournament games in its history, with a record of 9-11. That record breaks down as 8-2 all-time at Princeton and 1-9 away from Princeton.

The Tigers get a chance to turn that around this weekend, when they play North Carolina State in North Carolina. Princeton defeated NC State 2-0 back on Sept. 2.

That's not a bad postseason for the fall teams. That's NCAA wins for women's soccer and field hockey, a regional championship in men's cross country and an individual woman runner who qualified for the finals.

There was a lot more to the weekend in Princeton Athletics.

Among other things, there was hockey and basketball. And football, including one pass that broke two school records that between them had existed for 68 years.

There's also plenty of time to talk about them later in the week. 

Some days there isn't much to talk about. Some days there's just too much to cover.