All Over The Place

TigerBlog was very interested in seeing where Princeton would be in the FCS polls when they were released yesterday after the 27-10 loss to Dartmouth that ended the Tigers' 17-game winning streak.

As it turns out, Princeton is ranked 18th in the coaches' poll and 19th in the media poll. That's probably the right spot. TB really hoped that Princeton didn't fall out of the top 20.

Up next for Princeton is Yale, who comes to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium Saturday. It'll be the second straight week that Princeton plays an opponent who has the same record.

After the 7-0 vs. 7-0 matchup last weekend, this weekend will be 7-1 vs. 7-1.

Amazingly, there are only two games left in the season. After Yale will be a trip to Penn for the season finale a week from Saturday.

Then it'll be Thanksgiving Week. Then it'll be December and then Christmas and New Years, and it'll all happen really quickly.

As for now, it's sort of the middle of November, so of course the high temperature yesterday in Princeton was 61.

And of course there's a chance of snow today. That's how it works around here this time of year.

As he thinks about it, TigerBlog would say it's probably better the other way. Chance of snow yesterday. High of 61 today.

That's the weather for crossover season, apparently.

As such, in addition to weather that bounces all over the place, you have teams in points of their season that are all over the place as well.

For instance:

* Natalie Grossi of the women's soccer team was named the last Ivy League Player of the Week for the 2019 season. Grossi recorded a shutout against Penn in her final career game, and she'll graduate with the Ivy League record of 31 shutouts.

* Carlie Littlefield was named the first Ivy League women's basketball Player of the Week after helping Princeton to two straight wins to start the season. Littlefield was particularly amazing against George Washington, with 22 points, 10 steals and eight rebounds - which left her two boards away from a triple double, which has only been done once in program history (by Leslie Robinson). The 10 steals tied a program record, set back in 1976 by C.B. Tomasiewicz. That's 43 years ago by the way.

* Speaking of Players of the Week, senior women's volleyball player Jessie Harris was named the Ivy League (and goprincetontigers.com) winner. This was a huge weekend for Princeton, who swept Dartmouth and Harvard to move to 11-1 in the league with one weekend to play. An even bigger weekend now awaits, with a trip to Brown and Yale (10-2) for the final two regular season matches.

There are all kinds of scenarios at play with those two matches, plus Yale's match at home Friday against Penn. Should Princeton beat Yale, then no matter what else, the Tigers would be the outright Ivy champs and NCAA tournament bound. Should Yale beat Princeton, on the other hand, then the Bulldogs could still get either an outright or shared title and either the automatic bid or a playoff for the NCAA spot.

Cornell, at 9-3 in the league, is still mathematically alive. Things will get a bit clearer with Friday's results, when a win by either Princeton or Yale would eliminate the Big Red.

* The men's basketball team and the men's hockey team both have their home openers this week. The men's basketball team, off of losses to Duquesne and San Francisco, is home against Lafayette tomorrow. The men's hockey team has two home games this weekend, against RPI Friday and Union Saturday. By the way, the women's basketball team is at Seton Hall Friday night and then home against Florida Gulf Coast Sunday afternoon.

* And then there's the field hockey team, which makes its 25th NCAA tournament appearance after completing a 7-0 Ivy season with a 3-1 win over Penn Saturday. The Tigers, winners of 10 straight, will open the tournament at UConn against Syracuse Friday at 2:30.

UConn will play the winner of the play-in game between American and Fairfield. The quarterfinal game will be Sunday in Storrs. Princeton has been to the Final Four two  of the last three years.