Girls And Women In Sports

The Winter Olympics began Wednesday in style for the Princeton contingent.

Specifically, TigerBlog is speaking about the two Princetonians on the Canadian women's hockey team, Sarah Fillier and Claire Thompson. The two of them combined for eight points (four each) as Canada took down Switzerland 12-1.

Fillier scored the first two Canadian goals and added an assist by the end of the first period. Thompson, a defenseman, had three assists in the second period and then her first Olympic goal. It was quite an impressive start for the two, who were key members of the team that won the World Championship last year. 

If you are hoping to follow the six Princeton athletes in these Games, the best place to do so is HERE.

Fillier and Thompson are on their way to becoming the second and third Princeton women's hockey players to win Olympic medals, after Andrea Kilbourne, who won silver in Salt Lake City in 2002 with the U.S. team. 

The two current Tigers had their big Olympic debuts during the celebration of National Girls and Women In Sports Day.

The holiday dates back to 1987, or nearly two decades after women first started to attend Princeton University and then compete in intercollegiate athletics. As you are probably aware, TigerBlog recently finished a book on the first 50 year of women's athletics at Princeton (you can order it HERE).

By the way, TB would like to thank Bill Alden, who wrote a piece about the book for the current issue of Town Topics. You can read that HERE.

Here is one quote from Alden in the story:

By bringing to life the accomplishments of the Tiger women athletes, he has grippingly captured a special era in Princeton and sports history.

Though TB enjoyed telling every story in the book, his favorites were the women who were the pioneers, the ones who competed at Princeton before there was a National Girls and Women In Sports Day. Those pioneering days have turned into the modern era, where Princeton's women's teams have experiences that the earliest Tiger women could never have imagined.

At the same time, there's always some new mountain to climb, which means there will always be new pioneers. Such was the case last weekend, when Princeton's Chloe Ayres and Columbia's Caitlyn Walker had an exhibition match before the Tigers and Lions met. Here is a great video about women's wrestling:

First time ever!! A wrestling match between women of the the Ivy League. Chloe Ayres of Princeton/NJRTC vs Caitlyn Walker of Columbia/ NYCRTC. Tomorrow 12:45 prior to the Columbia vs Princeton match. A big day for women’s wrestling!!! The start of something beautiful. pic.twitter.com/72uJRCJh8f

— NJRTC (@TheNJRTC) January 22, 2022

By the way, this is a huge weekend for Princeton wrestling, as the Tigers host Cornell tomorrow at 1 in Jadwin. Back in 2020, Princeton ended Cornell's 17-year run as Ivy champion by defeating the Big Red in Jadwin and winning the championship. 

This time, both are again nationally ranked, and both lineups are stocked with nationally ranked wrestlers. The match in 2020 was one of the most dramatic events TB has seen in Jadwin, and this year's version figures to match that.

The wrestling match is the opener of a Jadwin doubleheader, followed at 5 by the women's basketball game against Columbia. That game is a matchup of teams that enter tonight's games (Princeton at home against Cornell, Columbia at Penn) who are both 6-0 in the Ivy League. 

Once again it will be a big challenge for the Tiger defense, which is among the best in the country and is the best in the Ivy League. Opponents have scored 52.7 points per game against the Tigers, while Columbia comes in averaging 71.2 per game.

In Princeton's six Ivy League games, opponents have scored 50, 41, 39, 50, 35 and 49 points. In its six Ivy games, Columbia has scored fewer than 60 points only once, in its 57-46 win over Cornell. 

Not that Columbia isn't a good defensive team. The Lions have only allowed more than 56 points once in those six games, in a 72-64 win over Harvard.

It should be a pretty good game, the first of two, or three, between the teams who are a combined 29-7 on the season.

Tonight's game is the women's basketball team's Pride Game. The game tomorrow night will be National Girls and Women In Sports Day, and the first 100 fans will get a copy of a certain book that was just published about the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton.

Hey, you don't want to miss out on that.