Hosting The Orange

Okay, who put the snowflake on the weather app on TigerBlog's phone for a week from tomorrow?

Seriously. A week from tomorrow is April 6. Is it really going to snow in Princeton?

It's enough with the snow already. And the cold.  

On the other hand, is that app ever really right? TigerBlog is going to make a chart to see if that little icons ever match up with what actually plays out a week later.

The other thing about the weather app is that it has its clouds-and-rain icon for any day where there might be a little bit of rain, though it comes across as steady rain all day. TB needs a new weather app.

Of course it's the end of March, which in recent years has meant that the weather is generally like what it used to be like in mid-February. It's been a rough March, with three snowstorms and temps about 10-15 degrees below normal pretty much the whole month.

It's actually been that way for the last few weeks. And it's all the fault of that stupid app. Every time TB has looked at the app in the last month, he's hoped to see 50s at least, or maybe 60s. But no such luck.

This is why TB doesn't quite understand the whole thing about the groundhog. If there'd been six more weeks of winter from then, it'd long be over by now. 

And remember, there's already been days in the 70s, multiple days for that matter. But that was back in the summery month known as February.

Now it's almost April, and there might be more snow?

TB is saying no way on the snow. He's predicting sunshine and at least 50 next Friday.

The weather should be cooperating tonight, when Princeton hosts Syracuse in women's lacrosse. Actually, make that this afternoon and tonight, since the game starts at 5.

Princeton is ranked 19th so far this season, with a lot of year left to go. Syracuse is ranked 13th, with a 6-4 record that includes losses to Notre Dame and Northwestern most recently.

The Orange, of course, are coached by Gary Gait, who is quite likely the greatest men's lacrosse player of all time. He's also the father of Princeton men's lacrosse senior middie Braedan Gait.

This is only the second meeting between the teams. Princeton and Syracuse played last year, actually exactly one year ago, and the Tigers won 16-11.

Princeton is coming off a loss to Dartmouth last Saturday. The Ivy League standings have two unbeaten teams (Penn and Dartmouth) and three with one loss (Princeton, Cornell, Yale), with, as TB said before, a lot of season to be played.

The Tigers are 4-3 overall on the year, with two home games and five road games to date. That means that there haven't been too many chances to see Kyla Sears, the freshman, play on Sherrerd Field.

Sears, who leads Princeton with 24 goals and 32 points, was recently added to the Tewaaraton Trophy watchlist. She already has more goals than the 22 that Olivia Hompe had her entire freshman year, before Hompe exploded to become the all-time leader in points and goals at Princeton (195 goals, 282 points).

Sears, who was the No. 1 incoming player in Division I this year, has certainly lived up to that billing. In fact she has more goals and more points than the next two players on the team combined, and she does all this while shooting .571, which is second-best on the team, behind Annie Cory, who is 8 for 13, for .692.

As TigerBlog said, there haven't been too many home games so far for the women's lacrosse team. That's going to change, though not just yet.

Princeton is home tonight, obviously, but then back on the road, for games at Delaware Saturday and Harvard a week from Saturday. After that is the run of home games, four of them in a 16-day span.

It starts with Maryland Tuesday, April 10, in an ESPNU game. After that are games against Yale, Cornell and Penn, before a regular-season-ending trip to Columbia.

Unlike on the men's side, the Ivy League women's lacrosse tournament will be on the home field of the No. 1 seed. For the first time, the men's tournament will be at a predetermined neutral site, in this case Columbia, which does not have a men's team.

The women's teams are still playing for the right to host the tournament, for an Ivy title and to get to the NCAA tournament. Princeton will be very much in the mix for all of those, TB believes.

None of that is in play tonight, when the Orange and Black host the Orange. Nope. It's just a good game with two good teams, both with legendary coaches.

And at home.

And, for once, on a nice evening.