8,000 Miles Away

So next week is the first Game Week for Princeton Athletics in the 2024-25 academic/athletic year. 

The first athletic event comes up in eight days, when the women's soccer team hosts Miami (Fla.) at 7 a week from tomorrow. Between now and then, athletes from pretty much every other fall team will be back on campus.

The sleepy summer stillness that defines the Princeton University will be over.  

The Miami women's soccer team actually opened its season yesterday, when it took on North Florida. That was a real game. In fact, pretty much all of Division I women's soccer opens its season this weekend.

Miami has already scrimmaged Florida-Gulf Coast and Central Florida and follows up last night's game by taking on Florida Atlantic Sunday before heading to New Jersey. The Hurricanes will be playing only a single game on their trip north.

In what is probably more normal than not normal these days among Power 4 teams, Miami's roster features nine returning players, eight freshmen and nine transfers. 

Miami went 3-10-4 a year ago. Princeton and Miami have played only once before, in 2005, when Miami won 3-0 in Florida. 

Also, the game last night featured a student promotion that $6 vouchers for Cold Stone Creamery ice cream for students. Now that should drive attendance. 

The women's soccer game next Saturday figures to bring out the other Princeton fall teams who will be on campus, even without free ice cream. It's one of the best parts of early season women's soccer games, with the support and spirit that comes out.

There are two Princeton spring athletes who will be nowhere near campus for the game. They'll be 8,000 miles away, and it's quite likely that one of them will be celebrating a World Championship.

Jami MacDonald and Haven Dora, teammates on the women's lacrosse team, will be opponents at the World U-20 Women's Lacrosse Championships. The tournament is currently underway in Hong Kong.

MacDonald is a member of the Canadian team. Dora is a member of the United States team.

This tournament is the eighth edition of the event. In how many of the first seven did the United States meet Canada in the final?

TigerBlog was a bit surprised to see that it's only been twice, though it has been the last two. In fact, the first five championship games matched the United States and ... Australia.

Contrast that with the men's U19 tournament, where Canada and the United States have met in the last six finals and seven of the nine that have been played. The only other two finals were Australia and the United States. 

Dora and MacDonald combined for 63 goals and 61 assists last year as sophomores, as Princeton returned to the NCAA tournament.

Will it be a third-straight USA-Canada final, also a week from today? 

Both teams play their first games today, with Dora and the Americans against Germany and MacDonald and the Canadians against Wales. Those games start at 8 pm Hong Kong time, which TB is pretty sure is 8 am Eastern time.

The tournament format is a bit different than it has been for other world lacrosse events. Instead of how it usually is at the World Championships, where the top teams are in the top group and then the next ranked teams are in the next one and so on, this time the teams have been placed into four groups based on world ranking.

The United States is the top ranked team and is in Group A. The Canadians are ranked second are in Group B. The Australians are ranked third and are in Group C. The highest ranked team in Group D is England.

After each team plays a round-robin, the top two from each of the four groups reach the quarterfinals. Expect a lot of blowouts along the way. 

You can get more information, including how to watch, at the tournament site HERE.

Enjoy your summer weekend. There aren't that many left for 2024.