Perfect Start

TigerBlog got this text message from Zack DiGregorio yesterday after TB wrote about driving Pete Carril's old car:

Your blog today reminded me that, when Coach sold my dad the silver 1997 Mercedes, there were two things he left in the car: the scent of cigars that, even years and years later, never totally left, and a cassette tape of the “Sounds of Greece”

That sounds right. 

TB wanted to share that with you to get started today. He also is reminded now of a different quote that he used to hear a lot at this time of year, back when he was a sportswriter. 

He's told you this before, but you probably don't remember. When it was still Trenton State College (as opposed to The College of New Jersey), the athletic program had a kickoff luncheon before the first athletic events of the year. 

Each year that TB attended, the college president said the same thing: "I predict that every Trenton State team will go undefeated this year."

That, of course, drew laughs and smiles. Not shockingly, it never came true, but hey, dream big, right? 

To that end, every Princeton team is currently undefeated for the 2022-23 academic year. Will it stay that way? Um, probably not. 

On the other hand, for right now, there is a "0" in the cumulative loss column. There's a "2" in the cumulative win column, courtesy of the women's soccer team, who opened its season with a 4-2 win over Colgate and a 2-0 win over Fairfield this past weekend.

The two wins gave Princeton a sweep of the first Ivy League Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week awards. Heather McNabb was the former, after she had three goals and an assist against Colgate, and Kelsey Wozniak was the latter, who had her first collegiate goal and first two collegiate assists on the weekend. 

Princeton puts its perfect cumulative record on the line this week with 13 events in five days, beginning Thursday with the women's soccer game at Rhode Island. A day later, there will be three more teams in the mix. 

The first 12 of those 13 events will be on the road. The home game will be Monday at 4, when the men's soccer team hosts Vermont, an NCAA team a year ago who defeated Princeton during the regular season in Burlington.

Before that the men's soccer team will be at Rutgers Friday at 7 in a great matchup for this time of year. Princeton went 7-0-0 in the Ivy League a year ago, but the Tigers fell 1-0 to the Scarlet Knights before the league season began. Rutgers is 1-1 after a win over Nebraska-Omaha and a loss to Creighton to start its season last week.

The field hockey team also plays Friday, at second-ranked North Carolina. The Tar Heels are 2-0, with wins over Michigan and Iowa, ranked third and fifth. Princeton, ranked 13th in the preseason, will also play No. 9 Louisville in Chapel Hill Sunday. Princeton went 10-7 last year against the same kind of brutal schedule that this year's team will face, and that team did not graduate a single player.

The women's volleyball team will be playing in Towson's tournament, starting Friday with matches against Morgan State and Towson. The next day marks the varsity debut for the women's rugby team, which plays at Sacred Heart. 

The men's water polo team will playing over the weekend at Navy, which means visiting former Princeton coach Luis Nicalao (an all-time TB favorite). The home debut is the following Saturday, when the Tigers host Army. You'll have four chances to see the Tigers play at home, and if you've never seen rugby, it's well worth the time.

If you look at the composite schedule, you'll see it still shows that this is August. As such, there are mostly empty boxes on the calendar, which means there are no Princeton events on those days.

If you flip to September, you'll see far fewer blank boxes. That means that Princeton teams will be off and running.

They're perfect now through one weekend. It won't stay that way, of course, but it doesn't mean that they won't be trying.