Postseason Success

TigerBlog will keep this right here all week as the Ivy League basketball tournaments come to Jadwin Gym:

Friday
Women's semifinal - No. 1 Princeton vs. No. 4 Penn, 4:30
Women's semifinal - No. 2 Columbia vs. No. 3 Harvard, 7

Saturday
Men's semifinal - No. 1 Yale vs. No. 4 Cornell, 11 a.m.
Men's semifinal - No. 2 Princeton vs. No. 3 Penn, approximately 1:30 (30 minutes after the end of the first game)
Women's final - Princeton/Penn winner vs. Columbia/Harvard winner, 5

Sunday
Men's final - Yale/Cornell winner vs. Princeton/Penn winner, noon

For tournament ticket information, click HERE.

As TigerBlog wrote yesterday, the weekend in Ivy basketball was pretty wild. 

He also wrote yesterday that there was also a tough situation for Princeton fans, whether to root for Brown to beat Yale (which would give Princeton the outright Ivy title) or to root for Yale over Brown (which would mean a co-championship but would get Brian Earl and Cornell into the tournament). TB got this response:

Brian Earl is one of our all-time Tiger greats, a member of the family whose career I will always cheer on. I wouldn't root for Princeton to share a championship with Yale if Brian Earl cured cancer and ended the war in Ukraine.

It was sort of a start to the postseason as much as anything. There were, however, some interesting postseason moments beyond the basketball from this past weekend.

Princeton finished the regular season with a 3-1 loss at Union and then six days later was back on the same ice for the single-game first round ECAC playoff matchup. Princeton in fact had scored three goals in two games against Union, including a 2-0 win at Baker Rink in December.

So what happened in the playoff game? Princeton scored twice as many goals as it had in the two earlier games combined, winning 6-4.

It was more than just a win. It was a really, really tough playoff win.

Princeton led 4-1 in the second period before Union scored three straight, tying it at 4-4 midway through the third. With the home crowd now into it, Princeton righted things, getting two goals from Spencer Kersten, first with 4:03 to play and then 1:20 left, to get the win.

The victory advances Princeton to this coming weekend's quarterfinal round at Harvard, where this time it will be a best-of-three with games Friday, Saturday and if necessary Sunday. Harvard, the No. 2 seed, swept Princeton in two very close games, winning 4-2 after Princeton led 2-1 in the third period and then 4-3 in overtime after Princeton had a 3-0 lead in the game at Baker Rink. 

Of course, the first game was back on Oct. 29, and the second was on Jan. 6. In other words, it's been awhile.

Elsewhere in the postseason, the wrestling team qualified three automatically to the NCAA Championships and now awaits word of possible at-large bids. The automatic bids were earned at the Palestra, where the EIWA Championships were held this weekend.

For the third time, @patrick_glory_ is an @EIWAwrestling champion!

Pat defeats Cornell's Brett Ungar 2-0 in the final at 125!

💻: https://t.co/tK5T2zTDiR pic.twitter.com/eNEq8BjdoU

— Princeton Wrestling (@tigerwrestling) March 5, 2023

Patrick Glory became Princeton's first four-time EIWA finalist and fifth three-time champion when he defeated Cornell's Brett Ungar 2-0 in the 125-pound final. The other four three-time Princeton EIWA champs are: Jacob Frantz, Richard Harding, Bob Eberle and Matthew Kolodzik.

If you're wondering how long the EIWA event has existed, Frantz won in 1911, 1912 and 1913. Princeton's first champion was John Dickson — in 1905. Also, you could say that Princeton had three three-time champs in 114 years and have had two in the last six years.

Glory, a national runner-up a year ago, will be making the trip to this year's NCAAs, which are being held March 16-18 in Tulsa. Who else will be there with him?

Quincy Monday, another NCAA runner-up last year, qualified automatically with a second-place finish at 165, where he lost in the final 6-5 to Cornell's Julian Ramirez. Princeton's other automatic qualifier was Luke Stout, who will be making his second trip in his first two years at 197, after he came back to finish third at the EIWAs.

Princeton will find out today if any wrestlers get at-large bids.