Dr. Hartofilis

TigerBlog talked yesterday about some of the efforts that Princetonians have been making in the Coronavirus fight.

He should have included Liza Hartofilis in that discussion.

Liza Hartofilis was Liza Hillenbrand when she was part of two NCAA championship women's lacrosse teams at Princeton. In fact, she was part of three teams that reached the NCAA finals, winning in 2002 and 2003 and falling in 2004.

This was Liza Hillenbrand then:

Wait, that was 16 years ago already?

Liza's married name should be familiar to Princeton lacrosse fans. Her husband is Sean Hartofilis, who ranks fourth in Tiger men's lacrosse history with 126 career goals, of which 27 came in NCAA tournament games, trailing only Jesse Hubbard and Chris Massey in that category.

There are actually a large number of former Princeton women's lacrosse players who married former Princeton men's lacrosse players. Princeton women's head coach Chris Sailer named eight other such marriages off the top of her head.

It got TB to wondering how many college athletes have married other athletes who played the same sport at their school and both won NCAA championships.

Anyway, that's not the point here.

These days, Liza Hartofilis is an emergency medicine doctor in New York City, which has put her exhaustingly at the forefront of the COVID-19 battle, doing way more than her part in this fight. Here is what she looks like these days:

It's tough to get this all in on twitter, but I'm eternally grateful to @TigerLacrosse @CascadeLacrosse @TyvekConstruct @NespressoUSA and others for their generous support of my wife and her colleagues during our collective time of need. More here: https://t.co/mMRwpoxSnC pic.twitter.com/XFM1vb3LmN

— Sean Hartofilis (@BeachPillows) April 3, 2020

 
That was obviously a tweet from Sean Hartofilis.

Again, TigerBlog wishes he could bring you the stories of every current or former Princeton athlete who is making these kinds of important contributions during these times. They are amazing people who are doing amazing things when they're needed most.

As April winds down, spring sports would have been at their peak, with Ivy League title races about to reach their conclusions and other championships up for grabs.

Today would have been Day 1 of the Penn Relays, which began in 1895 and which have been contested every year since - 125 years worth - until this year. That means that it went on through wars, other diseases, economic depression and everything else that came along.

TB went to the Penn Relays once, when he was in college. He knows people who think it's the best annual sporting event on the calendar and swear by it.

In many ways that's always been one of the very best parts of working at a place like Princeton. There is such a wide variety of sports, and each one has its own culture and its own group for whom that particular sport is the best.

If you asked the question about what the best event each year is, you'd get any number of responses - and they'd all be the correct answer.

TigerBlog's colleagues continue to produce content even without having had any events in nearly six weeks now. It's been an all-around creative challenge, and it's led to some great pieces that have come out.

It's been a year since the men's volleyball team defeated Penn State in five dramatic sets to win the EIVA championship and advance to the NCAA tournament. In the first edition of "Tiger Throwbacks," men's volleyball head coach Sam Shweisky and three of the seniors from that team talk about the match as they watch it back.

You can see that piece HERE.

It's really good. It's great insight into the match, and it shows the personalities of the players so well. There are so many times during the video where you just find yourself smiling and chuckling and feeling really good that these guys got to have this experience.

And Sam does a great job in keeping the discussion going.

Another video that was out this week was the one "TigTalks" episode that featured Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan. Mollie speaks pretty openly about a lot of the issues that were thrown at her in the last six weeks and how those issues have affected her and so many others.

Again, it's well worth your time. You can see that one HERE.

This has been an unprecedented time. Certainly no AD has had to deal with the things that came Mollie's way this spring. Much like Sam in the other video, Mollie's personality comes out really well in this one.

There will be other "Tiger Throwbacks" coming along. And a lot of other stuff on the website and social media.

In a spring unlike any other, it's comforting to be able to stay connected.