That New Car Smell

TigerBlog likes his new car very much.

Well, it's not new. It's preowned. Can you call that new? It's new to him, even if it had 28,000 miles on it when he bought it.

It's very comfortable. It rides well. Unlike the car it replaced, it moves when he puts his foot on the gas.

TB puts a lot of miles on his cars, so he'll presumably spend a lot of time in it over the next few years.

If he has one complaint, it's that he can't get satellite radio. That, though, might not be a terrible thing, since if he had it, he'd probably spent a lot of time flipping through the stations, which could get distracting.

TigerBlog has never had a car with a lot of frills to it. This car doesn't have many either.

It has a sunroof, which he's opened once. Maybe he'll use it more in the fall?

It also has Bluetooth, something that none of TB's previous cars had. The previous owner of the car - or the guy who leased it - was named Rodger, since when TB first used the Bluetooth, it came up with the option to use "Rodger's iPhone."

Somewhat annoyingly, it already has its first scratch. Somebody either brushed against his car or possibly hit it with a shopping cart of something like that. Either way, there's a very small scratch on it.

This is why TB doesn't necessarily want to have a brand-new car. Scratches and dents happen all the time, and he would be even more annoyed if it had happened to a brand-new car.

That's the trade-off. No new car smell, but it's not that big a deal that it has a small scratch on the side.

The 2018-19 athletic year at Princeton still has that new car smell to it.

This past weekend saw the first home events of the year, with a pair of women's soccer games that saw the 20th-ranked Tigers split, defeating St. Joe's 3-0 and then losing to No. 13 North Carolina State 3-1 in a game that was 1-1 late in the second half.

TigerBlog was at both games. They were entertaining, and the Tigers are very good. Mimi Asom scored three of Princeton's four goals for the weekend, including one that ended up on SportsCenter:

It's uh-SAHM, but she - and this goal worthy of a @PrincetonPhys study - are "awesome" too. Look who made #SCTop10 last night on @SportsCenter! pic.twitter.com/MnHl6bv9ci

— Princeton WSoccer (@PrincetonWSoc) September 1, 2018

The men's soccer team was in Illinois for a pair of games this weekend to start the season, falling to USI-Edwardsville 1-0 and Bradley 2-1. Princeton did outshoot the two by a combined 20-18.

The Princeton goal was a sweet one, coming from junior Danny Hampton for the first of his career:

Check out Danny Hampton's goal vs Bradley, his first career goal pic.twitter.com/DAfx9yD6NR

— PrincetonMensSoccer (@TigerMensSoccer) September 3, 2018

The most emotional event of the weekend had to be the men's water polo game against Navy Sunday morning, a 15-9 win over the Midshipmen, who are in their first season under longtime Princeton head coach Luis Nicolao.

That win finished off a weekend sweep for Princeton, who is now 3-0 under first-year head coach Dusty Litvak.

The women's volleyball team also had a three-match sweep to start its season,  with 3-0 wins over Northwestern, Stephen F. Austin and Colgate at Colgate's tournament. Princeton has won three straight Ivy titles, and they are the preseason favorites again this year.

There's a long way to go until you can see the Tigers at home. There are nine more matches in fact on the road - including tournaments at Towson and Temple - before the Tigers first play in Dillon Gym, on Sept. 28.

The field hockey team got off to a really good start, dropping a 1-0 decision to No. 2 North Carolina Friday and then thumping No. 14 Wake Forest 4-0 Sunday.

There are a bunch of events this week and weekend, most of which are on the road. The men's golf team tees off for the first time this year, and the teams that have already played are back at it again.

You can see the complete schedule HERE.

The football team was out in force at both women's soccer games this past weekend. It'll be their turn soon enough.

And of course, there is still one more week after that until the football team opens its season in Indianapolis against Butler, who defeated Youngstown State 23-21 Saturday. Butler plays Taylor this week before the game against Princeton.

Like the smell of a new car, the newness of another athletic year won't last very long.