Monday, November 21, 2022

Sports Drama

The football game had just ended Saturday, and now TigerBlog sat down in front of his computer to write the story for goprincetontigers.com.

Where to start? What to say? As he sat there, he just figured he'd go with what he was thinking in the moment, and so he began:

"Sometimes, sports can be brutal."

If ever that happened to be true, it was Saturday for the Princeton football team. The Tigers, needing a win to get a share of the Ivy League championship, instead fell 20-19 to Penn on a touchdown on a fourth-down play with five seconds left.

It was harsh, for sure. TB's next sentence was this: "Sometimes you find yourself on the wrong end of the drama."

There was all kinds of drama at the end. Penn's winning drive lasted 17 plays and included two huge fourth-down conversions before the touchdown, which made it three successful fourth downs. When that happens, you have to tip your hat to the other team, but it doesn't make it any easier to digest if your team is the one that lost.

TB, of course, is always an optimist who likes to look on the bright side. And so for him, the disappointment spoke volumes about where the program is right now. To go 8-2 and come within a few seconds of another Ivy title and feel the sting? 

Your program has to be a really good place fort that to be the case.

A loss like that will also be a motivator for the players who come back. Every lifting session. Every workout. Every rep. They'll all be done with the memory of how the 2022 season ended.

The seniors who were introduced on Powers Field before the game Saturday finish their Princeton careers with a record of 33-5, as well as Ivy titles in 2018 and 2021. TB was struck by this tweet from senior offensive lineman Henry Byrd after the game:

It's impressive that a young man whose Princeton career ended in such heartbreaking fashion had the composure and maturity to post that.

The day began with the possibility of a four-way tie for the championship, but that ended when Yale closed out Harvard 19-14 in Cambridge about an hour before the Tigers and Quakers finished up. As Penn was driving at the end, TB was hoping that the score would stay the way it was, and that Princeton, like Yale, would celebrate a championship off a 19-14 win.

Obviously, as TB said, sometimes you're on the wrong side of the drama. 

Yesterday, one day after the football game, the men's water polo team found itself on the right side of the drama. The Tigers, who were the heavy favorites, defeated St. Francis (N.Y.) 13-8 yesterday at Brown to win the Northeast Water Polo Conference title.

The championship was the second straight for Princeton, marking the first time in program history the men's water polo team has won back-to-back titles. It's also now three championships out of the last four seasons for the Tigers.

Princeton also won its 26th game of the year, equaling last year's program record for wins.

The NCAA selections were announced late last night. Princeton will return to the NCAA tournament.

The men's water polo team is the fourth Princeton team this fall to win a league championship, after men's cross country, field hockey and women's volleyball all won Ivy titles. The field hockey team did so after their own Ivy title hopes of 2021 ended in similarly heartbreaking fashion as the football team this year. 

It's the nature of sports. It's what makes it great. It's also what makes being a player or coach — or even just a fan — so emotional sometimes. 

You hope you'll be on the right side of the drama, but it doesn't always break in your favor. When it does, there's nothing better. 

When it doesn't, it can be brutal. Saturday afternoon on Powers Field was an example of that. 

When you've built what Princeton football has of late, though, you take a little time and then you focus on the task ahead. These Tigers will be back.

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