NCAA Updates

If things go well, it could be a big Sunday for Princeton fans in Corvallis, Oregon. 

That's part of today's thoughts, which begin with a quick happy birthday to TigerBlog's cousin Janet. He knows it's her birthday because her email ends with "1116." Well, that and he's pretty good at remembering birthdays.

So while TB hopes Janet has a great day, the rest of today's musings will be about NCAA championship competition. 

To start with, while TigerBlog knows this may sound like sour grapes, he'll say it anyway. 

The Princeton field hockey team is, figuratively at least, millimeters away from still playing. The Tigers didn't reach the NCAA tournament this year, but no team has ever come closer to having a huge season without actually doing so.

Princeton lost seven games, of which five were to teams in the top 10. Two of those losses were in overtime to top five teams, and there was also a top five win.

Beyond that, though, Princeton and Harvard played a game that would decide the Ivy League title and battled through 60 minutes of regulation and two more minutes of overtime even at 1-1, on a day when the Tigers outshot the Crimson 11-8 and outcornered them 7-3. It was only in the penalty shootout that Harvard had the edge, winning 3-0 to take a 2-1 win and the league championship.

Harvard has now reached the Final Four by defeating Louisville (Princeton lost to the Cardinals in OT) and then Michigan, who spent much of the year at No. 1. The Michigan-Harvard game was scoreless through 80 minutes, but Harvard was again perfect on both ends in the shootout, winning that one 3-0 as well. 

TB knows that Princeton could have done the same thing - and has done on many other occasions, having reached seven Final Fours, most recently in 2019. The closeness by which Princeton came to winning the league or getting an at-large bid will fuel this team – which didn't have one senior – until the 2022 season begins.

By the way, Harvard will face Northwestern in the semifinals, and of course Princeton alums Clara Roth and Maddie Bacskai are Wildcats this year. Julianna Tornetta is also in the Final Four, as a grad student at Maryland (who will play Liberty). 

Princeton finished second in the Ivy field hockey race. Here's a stat for you: Every Princeton fall team finished either first or second (or, in the case of football, will finish first or second, depending on Saturday's results). 

The men's cross country team followed up its Ivy League Heps championship by winning the NCAA regional last Friday at Lehigh. It was quite the impressive performance by the Tigers, who had five of the top 11 finishers in the meet. 

The final team score was Princeton with 40, ahead of second-place Georgetown, with 49. The win put the Tigers into the NCAA championships this Saturday, which will take place in Tallahassee, Florida, with an 11:10 start time on ESPNU. Princeton's Fiona Max earned an at-large bid into the women's race, also on ESPNU, at 10:20.

The women's soccer team, who finished in second place in the league but who nevertheless earned an NCAA bid and first-round home game, which resulted in a 2-0 win over Vermont. The Tigers will now play Texas Christian in the second round, in a game being played, where else, at Rutgers. That game will be Friday at 2.

If you don't know much about TCU women's soccer, the Horned Frogs are 1) the No. 4 seed in the tournament; 2) 18-2-2; 3) the Big 12 champion and 4) ranked 17th out of 336 Division I teams in scoring offense. They also won their NCAA opener 8-0 over Prairie View.  

Princeton for its part is 16-2-1, so the Tigers are pretty tough too. Oh, and the Tigers are the last Ivy team remaining in the field.

The men's soccer team is also NCAA tournament bound after an extraordinary run through the Ivy League at a perfect 7-0-0. How rare is a 7-0-0 run? Princeton has done it twice, with the other time in 2010, which also happens to be the most recent time its happened in the Ivy League. Going back, this is the fourth time this century and sixth time since 1983 that a team has gone 7-0-0 in men's soccer.

Princeton found out its NCAA draw yesterday afternoon. And that gets TB back to the part about Corvallis.

Princeton will play at St. John's Thursday in the opening round of the NCAA tournament (game time is at 5). It's a rematch of a Sept. 28 matchup between the two in Princeton in a game St. John's won 1-0.

Princeton has lost only once since then, back on Oct. 6 to Temple. The current Tigers take momentum into the tournament, but then again so does everyone. Certainly getting past St. John's won't be easy.

If the Tigers do, though, the second round is a matchup against the No. 1 overall seed, Oregon State. That game would be Sunday. As it happens, Princeton's men's basketball team is at Oregon State Sunday.

If you're an Oregonian Tiger, that would be a lot coming to your neighborhood.