Goals And More Goals

TigerBlog is a regular Wordle player.

It was, by the way, former women's basketball assistant coach Milena Flores who first introduced him to the game a few years back. Since then, TB is pretty sure he's played every single day.

You know what causes him a lot of stress? His current Wordle streak. He entered today having gotten 197 straight puzzles correct. Can he get to 200? 300? 365? 

Somewhere former men's basketball coach Bill Carmody is shaking his head, mumbling about "The Whammy." 

It took TB all six tries yesterday. He is part of a group of five who play the game every day, all using a different starting word that changes each time and is chosen by whoever had the lowest score the day before. TB's longtime friend and colleague Dan Day is one of the people on the group, and he selected "noble" as the word to start yesterday, in honor of Princeton's latest Nobel Prize winner, John Hopfield.

As it turned out, the Wordle word was "Mommy." That's a rough one, with three of the same letter. TB was really sweating it out as he came home with "foggy" and "woozy" before getting "mommy." 

Ironically, the one member of the group who failed is, herself, a mommy of two named Tanya. TB couldn't help but scold her for that, especially since she chose "kooky" as her last try. 

Today's starting word for the group, by the way, is "pixel."

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In more important news about games, the men's water polo team will be heading to California for fall break, beginning with a game Sunday at UCLA, who defeated Princeton 17-16 in overtime earlier this year.

The Bruins are currently the No. 1 ranked team in the country. By the time this trip ends, Princeton will have also played No. 2 USC, No. 4 Pepperdine, No. 5 Pacific and No. 6 Cal. 

How's that for a challenge? It's quite likely that no Princeton team has ever had to go through a gauntlet quite like that one.

The Tigers, for their part, are currently ranked ninth. 

Something else that is likely by the end of the trip is that there will be a new leader in career goals scored at Princeton for men's water polo. Right now, the leader is John Stover, who scored 254 before graduating in 2005. 

Current senior Roko Pozaric is in second place, with 247 in his career, obviously seven away from tying Stover. 

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When TB saw that Stover had scored 254 goals, it got him wondering if anyone has ever scored more goals in any sport at Princeton. His guess was that if anyone did, it would have had to come in women's water polo, since it's unlikely that any other sport that has goals scored would come close to 254.

The record is lacrosse, for instance, is 209, by Kyla Sears. The men's record is 163, by Jesse Hubbard, though Coulter Mackesy is only 40 away from tying that as he starts his senior year (and he had 55 two years ago and 40 last year).

Soccer, ice hockey and field hockey would get nowhere near 200. As TB looked, the highest total for any of those sports is 121, the number scored by Kelly O'Dell, who graduated in 1984, in women's hockey. That is, by the way, one more goal than the second place person. Any guesses who that is?

So that only left women's water polo. And guess what? TB should have been able to guess.

The answer is Adele McCarthy-Beauvais, who scored an astonishing 325 in her career before earning a share of the 2003 von Kienbusch Award. TB has played in pickup basketball games with McCarthy-Beauvais and can vouch for the fact that she is an incredible all-around athlete. 

There are actually three other women's water polo players who have more than Stover's 254 — Elyse Colgan (272), Katelyn Rigler (265) and Cassie Nichols (255).  

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Speaking of goals scored, the field hockey career record is 107, held by Kat Sharkey. Her husband, men's lacrosse great Tom Schreiber, scored 106.

Think she's ever pointed that out to him?

Schreiber, by the way, also had 94 assists, to 31 for Sharkey. 

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The men's soccer team will on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium Saturday at 4 against Cornell. Princeton is 2-0-0 in the league, with wins over Harvard and Brown. 

Cornell is 1-1-0, with a win over Dartmouth and a loss to Yale. Cornell is also ranked No. 18 in the most recent RPI, behind only No. 15 Penn in the league. 

Princeton is the next-highest ranked Ivy team at No. 38. Big game Saturday? Yes, it is.

Cornell, by the way, is the highest-scoring team in the league. Princeton has allowed the third fewest goals. 

Admission is free. 

 

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The field hockey team is home this weekend, with a game at 4 tomorrow against Brown and then at 1 Sunday against Delaware. Princeton has played 10 games this year, only two of which have been at home. 

Harvard and Dartmouth come to Dillon Gym for women's volleyball this weekend.

The complete schedule for all events can be found HERE.