Top 10, Again

Oh, one more thing from the Princeton-Butler football game.

You know who else was staying in the same hotel as the Tigers in Indianapolis? Taylor Swift. How about that.

TigerBlog is guessing that Swift didn't go down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast or anything.

What do you do when you see someone famous? Ask for an autograph or to take a picture? Or just ignore them?

TigerBlog's old friend Mark Eckel spent more than 30 years writing for the Trenton Times. No, Mark isn't the celebrity in this story by the way.

He spent a lot of time covering Princeton stuff, but his main beat was the Philadelphia Eagles. Way back when the newspaper was at its most vibrant, he covered every Super Bowl, and he told TB the story of one time when he was on the media bus with none other than O.J. Simpson. This of course was well before the events of 1994.

Mark said that people kept coming up to Simpson and telling him he was great in this game or great in that game. Mark? He told him he was great in "Capricorn One."

If you don't get the reference, read THIS.

For his part, when TigerBlog meets someone who is relatively famous, he usually asks them for their name. This really, really bothers famous people, who always give a look that says, "But don't you know who I am? How can you not know my name."

Ah, TB cracks himself up sometimes.

You know who is achieving some fame these days? The Princeton field hockey team.

The Tigers have now done what might be a first. They have made two appearances on SportsCenter's top 10 plays of the day. That's pretty impressive, no?

In fact, field hockey on the countdown at all is a rarity. To have one team now have done it twice in the same season is even rarer. TigerBlog wonders if that's happened before, or how many times field hockey has been on SportsCenter at all this year. A lot? Not a lot?

The main point, of course, is that both Princeton goals that were featured were spectacular.

The first time was with MaryKate Neff's bat-the-ball-up, bat-it-in-the-goal in the win over Duke 10 days ago. Then there was the game against Monmouth this past Friday.

This time it was Emma Street's turn, with her assist to Sophia Tornetta:

Hope you caught @Sportscenter last night ... Another week with an #SCTop10 play! #TigerUp pic.twitter.com/Yq1bCbNYSv

— Princeton FH (@TigerFH) September 15, 2018

TigerBlog was at the game and didn't even notice that the pass was something of a no-look, backwards, between the legs feed. It's even more impressive when you look at the slow motion version, and it didn't hurt that Tornetta's goal was a backhanded rocket.

Princeton won that game 4-1 Friday and then came back Sunday to defeat Delaware 4-2. The Blue Hens were ranked 13th, and they also are two years removed from winning the NCAA championship.

Princeton is off to a 5-2 start, which is even more impressive considering that six of the seven games have come against ranked teams. Princeton owns wins over Top 10 teams Duke and Penn State, to go along with the wins over Wake Forest and Delaware.

The challenges continue for the Tigers, who host Maryland tonight on Bedford Field (game starts at 6). Princeton is currently ranked fifth, while the Terps are ranked third.

Princeton and Maryland have met every year since 1997. The Terps lead the series 22-9-1, but one of the Tiger wins came a year ago, 2-1 in College Park.

Maryland has outscored its opponents 34-11 en route to an 8-0 start. Linnea Gonzalez and Nike Lorenz have combined for 15 of those goals, meaning they've outscored the Terps opponents by themselves.

The teams have two common opponents - Duke and Delaware. Maryland also has a 3-1 win over Harvard, who is currently 5-1.

The game against Maryland is the last before the start of the Ivy season, which begins against Dartmouth at home Saturday at noon and then continues at Yale a week from Friday.

Princeton has reached the NCAA Final Four and quarterfinals in Carla Tagliente's first two years as head coach. This team has already shown that it is capable of making another such run.

And of coming up with the spectacular finish.

Just ask the folks at the SportsCenter assignment desk.