The Same Goal

TigerBlog was sitting with Joe Greenwich inside a building adjacent to Ellen Ryan Field at Saint Joseph's University yesterday afternoon.

Who is Joe Greenwich? He's the Saint Joe's athletic communications contact for, among other sports, field hockey. He was busy putting together credentials in advance of today's opening round of the NCAA tournament, which his team is hosting.

At one point, a young man who appeared to be a student walked in and asked Greenwich what time the game started. When Greenwich said that the student was a day early, the response was something of an "oh, I didn't realize; thank you."

Greenwich then said something pretty funny: "As the PR guy, I'm not sure I like that."

Funny, right?

And, since this has been College Sports Communicators Appreciation Week, TB would like to say that he appreciated Greenwich's joke — and all the work he's done to prepare for the games today.

For the record, those would be Lafayette vs. Saint Joe's at 11 and Princeton vs. Boston College at 1:30. The winners will meet Sunday at noon for a spot in next weekend's Final Four at Michigan. Saint Joe's is the host, though the Hawks (fifth) sit one spot behind Boston College (fourth) in the current RPI ratings.

The Princeton field hockey NCAA game will be the first of three postseason games involving Princeton teams today. The other two are soccer games, with the women at Virginia at 7 in the NCAA tournament opening round and the men at Penn against Cornell at 6:30 in the second game of the Ivy League tournament (Penn plays Brown in the first game). 

If you're coming to the field hockey game, you can go get a few cheesesteaks and then head over to the men's soccer tournament with plenty of time to spare before the Tigers kick it off. Between the field hockey and women's soccer teams, the games today will bring the total number of NCAA appearances for them to a combined 42.

All three Princeton teams enter their games this weekend with the same goal. All three want to be practicing next week.

The field hockey team is back in the NCAA tournament after missing out last year. When was the last time that Princeton went back-to-back seasons without reaching the NCAAs? 

How about 1992 and 1993?

Boston College and Princeton have played only once before, in the opening round of the 1997 tournament, a game the Tigers won 3-2. BC and Princeton are both at-large teams after both fell in the championship game of their league tournament. 

The women's soccer team has an interesting matchup against a Cavaliers team that missed the tournament last year, marking the first time that UVa missed the NCAAs since 1993 (which seems to be the answer to all questions here today). 

Virginia finished in ninth place in the ACC this year and missed out on the league tournament, which only took the top six. Because of that, the Cavs have not yet played a game in the month of November.

Princeton, by the way, is 5-2-1 against ACC teams under head coach Sean Driscoll, including a 1-0 win over Miami in its opener this year. 

As for the men's team, the Ivy tournament is the first step in a postseason that hopefully will take the Tigers all the way to their second NCAA Final Four. When was the first? Duh, it was in 1993. 

This is Year 2 of the Ivy tournament and Princeton's debut in the event. The Tigers lost 1-0 to Cornell in the regular season, a result that makes the Big Red the No. 2 seed, not that it really matters other than what color uniforms the teams will wear.

Cornell is ranked 16th nationally. Penn, who defeated Princeton 1-0 a week ago in the game that determined the Ivy title and where the tournament would be, is ranked 12th.

There is, of course, much more on the Princeton Athletics calendar this weekend, including home men's basketball tonight at 7 against Loyola (the one in Illinois) and football at Yale tomorrow at noon. Princeton and Loyola have met once before; Princeton and Yale goes way back to the 19th century. The answer to neither of those dates is 1993.

For the complete schedule, click HERE.