A Weekend With Some Firsts

When TigerBlog wrote about the senior thesis yesterday, he mentioned how Mollie Marcoux Samaan wrote hers on women's golf. 

Today, she's the commissioner of the LPGA.

Her predecessor, Gary Walters, who wrote his on this: "Stereotyping by College Students Re-Examined: A Replication and Extension of the Katz and Braly (1932) and Gilbert (1950) Investigations." During his 20 years as the Director of Athletics, there were few issues closer to his heart and that he advocated more passionately about than stereotyping.

Interesting. It's also interesting to TigerBlog that yesterday's entry was really well-received. What is it about the thesis that really appeals to Princetonians? Well, that might be a bit self-explanatory. A better statement is that Princetonians really love Princetonian traditions.

As for this weekend in Princeton Athletics, it's a really busy one, as all weekends in April are. By the way, HERE is the full schedule.

It's also a weekend with some firsts.

One of those firsts involves the baseball and softball games. Both teams are home, with two games tomorrow and one game Sunday against Cornell. 

What's the first? With the temporary relocation of the softball field, this is the first time that both teams will be playing home games at the same time in essentially the same location. You can go almost pitch-by-pitch between the two fields if you like. 

If you stand down the rightfield line at softball, you can probably see both fields at once, since you'll essentially be in foul territory on the leftfield side of baseball. 

The eight Ivy baseball and softball teams play three games against each of the other seven teams. After those 21 games are over, the top two teams play a best-of-three for the NCAA tournament bid.

Right now the Princeton softball team is tied for first at 6-3 with Harvard, a team from whom Princeton took two of three, which would give the Tigers the home field should they remain tied at the end of the season.

The race is hardly a runaway, though, as really no team is out of it at this point. Cornell, at 2-4, is playing to put itself right back into the hunt this weekend.

The baseball team is still looking for its first Ivy win, but this is a team that has had all kinds of bad luck, with injuries and close losses. In fact, Princeton has eight one-run losses this year, including against defending NCAA champion Mississippi State.

The other first for this weekend is the first meeting ever between Princeton and Boston University in men's lacrosse. That game faces-off at 1 tomorrow on Sherrerd Field.

The Tigers come into the game at 7-2 overall and ranked either third or fourth in every poll. The Terriers are currently ranked 13th.

Both teams won league games last week by a 17-9 score (Princeton against Brown, BU against Navy). They also both played Tuesday with much different results, as the Tigers defeated Marist 18-7 while BU lost to Yale 22-15.

Princeton played Stony Brook for five straight seasons (2015-19) on the weekend it did not have an Ivy League game. Now it's a game against Boston University, who will become the sixth ranked team Princeton will play in its first 10 (and seventh team who has been ranked at some point this year).

This game matches the No. 1 scoring offense in the Patriot League (and eighth in Division I) against the No. 1 scoring offense in the Ivy League (and second in Division I). BU also leads the nation in caused turnovers per game and is second in the country in ground balls per game. Princeton? The Tigers are fourth in the country in ground balls per game.

This figures to be a really good matchup. After this, it's three straight Ivy League games to end the regular season - home against Dartmouth, at Harvard, home against Cornell. Princeton is 2-1 in the league.

As for the women's lacrosse team, the Tigers will be ending an 11-day break with a game at Brown tomorrow at 1. Hopefully the team enjoyed that break.

Princeton will have played exactly two games in 21 days. In the next 22 days? Princeton will have seven games, with six league games and a game this Wednesday at home against Maryland. Each of the next three weeks will see Princeton play Saturday/Wednesday.

The Tigers are 1-0 in the league. Yale, at 3-0, is the only other unbeaten. Brown comes in as one of three teams at 2-1, along with Harvard and Cornell.