The Players Of The Year

Want to see something impressive? 

Check out what Marge Donovan of the women's lacrosse team did Tuesday night in the Tigers' 18-13 win at USC in Los Angeles.

5:00 (2nd) Defense ⏩ Offense

Swarming Defense... Marge Dononvan One-Woman Clear... Kari Buonanno Goal.

8-2, Tigers! pic.twitter.com/jRKXYdDMOk

— Princeton Women's Lax (@princetonwlax) March 8, 2022

How far did she run? The goals in women's lacrosse are 100 yards apart, and it's 30 yards from the goal to the restraining line. Figure Donovan ran, what, 70, 75 yards? With the ball, by the way. 

TigerBlog timed her three times. It took her somewhere around 9.5 seconds, whatever distance she ran. That's crazy.

McKenzie Blake scored five goals in the game for the Tigers. Ellie Mueller, a sophomore playing in her first college season, had four assists, this after she had three goals and an assist in the 13-12 win over Cornell this past Saturday. Mueller had one goal for the season prior to that. 

If the last name is familiar, it should be. For that matter, a Princeton player named "Mueller" who has a bunch of assists should be very familiar. Her father is Kit Mueller, the former men's basketball great who was the 1990 and 1991 Ivy League Player of the Year. 

Princeton added to its Ivy basketball Player of the Year totals with two more recipients this week. In the last few weeks, TigerBlog has in this space compared Tosan Evbuomwan to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Abby Meyers to Jimmy Chitwood. He acknowledges that one of those people isn't real, by the way.

Now you can compare Evbuomwan and Meyers to each other. And why not, now that they both have been named the Ivy League Player of the Year. 

Beyond that, they were both the unanimous Ivy League Player of the Year, which is how it should have been. 

They have more in common than their awards. They're both great players to watch play, with uncommon skills and the ability to do something spectacular any time they touch the ball. They both make their whole team better, and they both seem completely unflappable on the court. 

In case you're wondering, this is the sixth time in Ivy League basketball history that one school has had both players of the year. It's also the second time in Princeton history. Here's the list:

2013 - Niveen Rasheed/Ian Hummer (Princeton)
2009 - Brittney Smith/Alex Barnett (Dartmouth)
2008 - Jeomi Maduka/Louis Dale (Cornell)
2000 - Diana Caramanico/Michael Jordan (Penn)
1981 - Gail Koziara and Ann Deacon/Larry Lawrence (Dartmouth)

The Ivy League Player of the Year award on the men's side dates back to 1974-75. On the women's side, it was first awarded in the 1979-80 season.

On the men's side, Princeton's first Players of the Year were Armond Hill in 1976 and Frank Sowinski in 1977. Craig Robinson won in 1982 and 1983, followed by Bob Scrabis in 1989 and then Mueller's two wins. From there, it goes Sean Jackson in 1992, Sydney Johnson in 1997, Steve Goodrich in 1998, Brian Earl in 1999, Hummer in 2013 and Spencer Weisz in 2017. 

As for the women, Addie Micir was Princeton's first Player of the Year, in 2011. Rasheed won in 2012 and 2013, followed by Blake Dietrick in 2015. Bella Alarie won in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

To that list, you now add Evbuomwan and Meyers. They are both overwhelmingly deserving.

Princeton is the Ivy League outright champion on both the men's and women's side. They both had two first-team selections, with Evbuomwan and Jaelin Llewellyn for the men and Meyers and Julia Cunningham for the women. 

TB spoke with Cunningham on this week's "Conversations With Carla" podcast. He asked her about the growth of her defensive game, and her answers were pretty fascinating. 

Speaking of defensive games, Cunningham's teammate Ellie Mitchell won the league's Defensive Player of the Year award. That, too, is not shocking news.

Next up for both teams is the Ivy League tournament, which begins tomorrow at 4:30 for the women against Harvard and Saturday at 11 for the men against Cornell (coached by Earl). The other semifinals are Columbia-Yale for the women and Penn-Yale for the men, and the finals will be Saturday at 5 for the women and Sunday at noon for the men.

Remember - Princeton will be the 2022 Ivy League champion for the men and women regardless of the tournament. The events this weekend determine the league's automatic bids to the NCAA tournament.