No Jacket Required

So TigerBlog came to campus Sunday to watch some of the Princeton teams who were playing and refused to bring his winter coat.

He knew it was cold and blustery. So what? It was April. Springtime. To wear the winter coat would be to admit it was still wintery.

And, predictably, he was freezing the whole time. So was everyone else he ran into, many of whom were wearing shorts, t-shirts, light jackets - anything springish.

TB wrote about senior thesis topics last week. He's guessing someone could write a great thesis on the psychology of knowingly wearing clothes that won't keep you warm enough just because of the time of year. The corollary to this is refusing to put the air conditioning on in your house when it gets to be 85 degrees in late April because it's not summer yet.

The first 10 days or so of April are very trying. It's supposed to be warm, and it never is. In fact, it's still really cold, forcing people to pretend it isn't because they want the cold weather to be past.

Fortunately, it warmed up yesterday. In fact, reached the 70s here in Princeton. Today's forecast would be the first 80-degree day of the year. 

Springtime. Hopefully it stays springy and doesn't go back to winter or jump too quickly ahead to summer. The temperatures for the rest of this week look great, and then it dips back a bit but only into the 50s next week.

It'll be nearly perfect tonight at 7 for the opening draw of the Princeton-Maryland women's lacrosse game, with the forecast for 75 degrees with no chance of rain. It's the final non-league game of the regular season for the Tigers, and it matches two ranked teams: Princeton is No. 12, and Maryland is No. 9.

Maryland holds a 32-8 edge in the series, including 14 straight for the Terps. The teams have met every season since 1993 other than the last two Covid-affected years. Princeton's first NCAA title came with a 10-7 win over Maryland in 1994, and three of Princeton's eight wins have come in NCAA games. 

Princeton hadn't played in 11 days prior to its game last Saturday at Brown. In addition, the Tigers had played only two games in 21 days before taking on the Bears.

Was the team rusty? It didn't seem like it. Princeton scored four times in the first five minutes and led 7-0 after the first quarter en route to an 18-6 victory. 

Kyla Sears scored seven goals in the game as she became the third Princeton women's lacrosse player to reach 250 career points, trailing only Olivia Hompe (285) and Crista Samaras (270). Sears was 4 for 4 on free-position chances against Brown; you could write your thesis on her ability to draw free position chances and then cash them in.

The four free-position goals gave her 56 for her career, or 21 more than the second-best total in program history (by Hompe). With four more free-position goals on the year, Sears would have the first, second and third best single-season totals in program history.

The game against Brown started a sprint to the regular-season finish that will see the Tigers play Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday. That's seven games in 22 days after two in 21.

The final five games after tonight are all Ivy League games, beginning Saturday with a game against Dartmouth. Each of the next three Saturday's are doubleheaders with the men and women, with both at Harvard on April 23 and then both home for their Senior Days April 30 in games that could both decide an Ivy League championship (women vs. Yale, men vs. Cornell).

Princeton is currently 2-0 in the Ivy League. Yale is 4-0. Nobody else is unbeaten.

As for tonight, in Maryland you have the No. 2 scoring defense team in the country at 7.33 goals per game, trailing only Stony Brook at 7.27. Stony Brook defeated Princeton 16-8 in the last game before the long break, in a game after the Tigers had battled through non-Covid illness that forced a postponement of the Columbia game, which adds to the busy stretch.

Maryland's Emily Sterling leads Division I in goals-against average at 7.23 and save percentage (.560). That's a good combination. It gets more interesting when you add in Aurora Cordingley, who leads Division I in points per game at 6.33. You have one player who scores almost as many as the goalie allows. How is this team, with a record of 11-1 (its only loss is to James Madison), ranked ninth? 

You can see for yourself tonight. 

The opening draw is at 7. And best of all, no jacket required.