Catching Up Again

TigerBlog received an email yesterday that included this: "Can you do another one of those blogs where you talk about a bunch of different things?"

To that, TB responds: Sure. Here goes.

* The women's hockey team is looking to extend its history-making run in the ECAC playoffs.

Last weekend in Cambridge, the Tigers defeated Harvard in the best-of-three quarterfinals to become the first eighth seed ever to knock off a top seed. Now Princeton is hoping to become the first eight seed to reach the finals.

The semifinals match Princeton and Yale and Quinnipiac and Colgate tomorrow in New Haven. The Princeton-Yale game faces off at 3.

To give you a sense of how long a hockey season is, the first Princeton-Yale game was 125 days ago, back on Oct. 29 – before Halloween. Princeton won that game 2-0 and then lost 3-0 to the Bulldogs Feb. 19.

* Of the six stories that were scrolling on goprincetontigers.com yesterday, two were Coach of the Year stories. One of those honored was Zoltan Dudas, who was named the Ivy women's fencing Coach of the Year for the fourth time in seven years. Dudas has led the women to a 30-0 record this year, including a 6-0 run through the Ivy League. Princeton will compete in the NCAA regionals next weekend.

The other coach honored was Fred Samara, the men's indoor track and field Coach of the Year. They might as well just name the award for him.

TB was asked yesterday morning how many Ivy League Heps titles Samara has won. The answer is 48 as head coach and a total of 66 for the track and field and cross country programs since he showed up.

As for the upcoming NCAA championships in Birmingham next weekend, you can read HERE about the eight Tiger men who will be there. 

* If you're not following @split2ndphoto on Twitter, stop what you're doing and do so. That's the account of Princeton photographer Shelley Szwast, and she always has great stuff on there about the Tigers.

* TigerBlog watched some of the Villanova-Brown men's lacrosse game Tuesday afternoon and had one thought: Would there still be snow on the side of the field when Princeton is there on April 2?

That game is less than a month away and yet seems like it's about 100 years in the future. Between now and then, Princeton has four other games, all against highly ranked teams. TB figures Brown will be ranked as well by the time the Tigers take on the Bears.

Just in case you haven't been paying attention, Princeton's next game is at No. 3 Georgetown (who has been as impressive as any team in the country so far) Saturday at noon. If you're in the DC area, you will find two things: 1) temperatures around 60 and 2) free admission.

After that? Home against No. 4 Rutgers. After that? Home against No. 5 Penn. 

Adding in last week's game at No. 1 Maryland and that's four top five teams in four weeks. The week after that is a game at No. 12 Yale, and then there 's the trip to Brown. 

* The women's lacrosse team opens its Ivy League season Saturday at 1 on Sherrerd Field against Cornell. After that, it's a trip to California for Spring Break, with games against USC Tuesday and San Diego State next Saturday. 

It's a trip home for Tiger goalie Sam Fish, a Southern California native. Fish was the National Defensive Player of the Week two weeks ago.

Kyla Sears was the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week this past week after her six-goal, two-assist performance against Temple in the 14-10 win. Sears is currently sixth all-time in program history with 217 career points; with five more she'd vault all the way into third by passing Lisa Rebane and Lindsey Biles and the tying Erin McMunn. At that point, she'd trail only Olivia Hompe (285) and Christa Samaraas (270).

* The women's lacrosse team won't be the only Princeton team in California next week, and Southern California for that matter.

The softball team will play eight games there next week. The women's tennis team has three matches scheduled there too, against San Diego State, San Diego and No. 2 Pepperdine.

The baseball team will play five games in Virginia before heading to Starkville, Miss., for a three-game  series next weekend against Mississippi State, the defending NCAA champion.