Talking Tournaments

You can't make too many betters saves than Princeton men's soccer goalkeeper Andrew Samuels did last night against Akron in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. 

Only one snuck by Samuels, and only one was good enough for Akron, who defeated Princeton 1-0 on a night that featured snow flurries in Ohio.

Still, Samuels was amazing. he turned away shot after shot from the powerful Akron offense, robbing the Zips time and again. The shots came mostly from within a five-yard radius or so, and they came with great velocity. And frequency. 

Samuels, a sophomore, did not play in any games last year. He played in 12 this season, starting eight — and he'd never made more six in a game. In fact, he made 26 in those 12 games, an average of 2.2 per game. 

Last night? He made nine. And not one of them was routine.

If you can make a better save than the ones Samuels did, though, it's possible that Giuliano Fravolini Whitchurch had in the second half to keep it a one-goal game. Samuels first got his hand on a shot, but the rebound seemed like it had about a 100 percent chance of heading into the net. 

Instead, Whitchurch, the Princeton defender, changed direction and doubled back to the goal, just in time to somehow, pretty much miraculously, keep the ball in play. The play was reviewed, and the great play by Whitchurch was confirmed. 

By the way, the men's soccer game ended about 60 seconds before tip-off of the men's basketball game in Myrtle Beach against Wright State. 

Princeton's postseason run ended with the loss. So did the NCAA singles run for men's tennis player Paul Inchauspe, but not before he became the fifth Princetonian to earn All-American honors. 

Inchauspe reached the Round of 16 in the new-look NCAA singles tournament, which for the first time is being played in the fall. To get there, Inchauspe defeated the No. 1 seed, Sebastian Gornzy of Texas, in the second round before falling yesterday to Florida State's Corey Craig in three sets.

In the "small world" category, by the way, Craig and Akron's Emil Jaaskelainen, the leading scorer in the country who was shut out by Samuels, were both at the same school last year — Boston University.

Speaking of tournaments, there are two that get underway on the Princeton campus today, and both have the same prize for the ultimate winner: an NCAA tournament bid. 

The Northeast Water Polo Conference has its tournament in DeNunzio Pool beginning today and running through Sunday's final. Princeton is the top seed, and as such it has a first-round bye into tomorrow's semis.

The games today begin at 1 with fourth-seeded Iona and fifth-seeded MIT, followed by No. 2 Harvard and No. 7 Connecticut College and lastly No. 3 Brown against No. 6 LIU. Princeton will play tomorrow at noon against the Iona/MIT winner, and the other semifinal will match the other two winners, at 2. 

The championship game is at 1 Sunday. 

Princeton is ranked sixth nationally. The Tigers have had great success in California against the country's top teams and would love to get another shot in the NCAA tournament. 

Meanwhile, the Ivy League women's volleyball tournament also will be at Princeton starting today, this time in Dillon Gym. It begins at 4 with top-seeded Princeton against No. 4 Brown, followed at 7 by No. 2 Yale and No. 3 Cornell.

Just a week ago it looked like this tournament was heading to New Haven, until Cornell came back from two sets down to take down Yale 3-2. That outcome, coupled with Princeton's 10-game Ivy winning streak to end the league schedule, made the Bulldogs and Tigers co-champs and, with the tiebreaker in Princeton's favor by virtue of its sweep of third-place Cornell, brought the tournament here. 

Princeton will bring the conference Player of the Year into both tournaments, with Roko Pozaric in men's water polo and Kamryn Chaney in women's volleyball. 

There are other events going on this weekend as well, including the final football game of the season as the Tigers host Penn tomorrow at 1. 

The complete schedule is HERE.