A Very Big Friday

Welcome to a rather big Friday in Princeton women's athletics.

There are three huge events today, two of which are on campus and one of which is available for free on your laptop or phone or tablet or even wristwatch if you have the right kind.

TigerBlog will take you through these chronologically.

First, at 3:45 from Wake Forest, it's Game 2 of the NCAA field hockey Final Four. The opener matches North Carolina and Boston College, and then the second game will feature Princeton and Virginia.

The winners will meet Sunday at 1 for the NCAA championship.

Princeton is back in the Final Four after dominating Syracuse and second-seeded UConn last weekend in Connecticut, winning those two games by a combined 7-1. Princeton is making its ninth appearance in the Final Four and is hoping to make its fourth NCAA final.

Princeton has won one NCAA title in program history, back in 2012.

You can watch the game right HERE.

The full pregame preview is HERE.

Princeton is 15-4 and the winner of 12 straight. The Tigers have not lost a game this year by more than a goal, and three of their four losses came early in the season to teams that ended up seeded in the top four. The result of playing the normal brutal schedule was seen last weekend in Storrs.

Princeton has been down this road before, with three Final Fours now in the four years that Carla Tagliente has been head coach.

Is there anything different about this year? Well, for starters, Tagliente has her team in the Final Four despite giving birth during the season.

After you watch that game, then you can head to Hobey Baker Rink to see the "Black Out Baker" game between Princeton and Clarkson. That's a pair of top 10 teams who are going head -to-head, with the eighth-ranked Tigers and fifth-ranked Golden Knights.

Clarkson, by the way, has won two of the last three and three of the last six NCAA titles.

You can read the preview HERE.

The puck drops on that game at 6. An hour later, Princeton and Yale meet in a one-match playoff at Dillon Gym to see who will be getting the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Princeton and Yale tied for the Ivy title, having split their matches with one other loss each, Princeton to Cornell and Yale to Harvard. The Tigers get to host by virtue of having won more sets in the two matches - with a 3-0 earlier this year at Dillon win and a 3-2 loss last weekend in New Haven.

Princeton has won 18 Ivy women's volleyball titles. Yale has won 11. One or the other (or both) has been the Ivy League champion every year this decade.

The preview for women's volleyball is HERE.

By the way, Princeton's last NCAA tournament trip was two years ago, when the Tigers first had to defeat Yale in a playoff match to get the automatic bid when the teams tied for the league championship.

So that's your big Friday in women's athletics at Princeton.

There is also the football season finale tomorrow at Penn. While TB is giving you links to previews, HERE is that one.

Princeton goes into the game needing three things to happen to get a share of the Ivy title. Of those three things, the only one Princeton controls is the game at Penn. Should the Quakers win, then Princeton and Penn will finish tied for third.

Should Princeton win, though, then that would be one hurdle down. The other two would be the need to have Harvard beat Yale and Brown to beat Dartmouth.

This will be the 111th meeting between Princeton and Penn in a series that dates to 1876. This will also be the 100th game as Princeton head coach for Bob Surace.

Kickoff at Penn is at 1.

Of course there are all kinds of other events this weekend as well.

The schedule can be seen HERE.