The Weekend, Part I

So TigerBlog wrote this once, back in 2010:

When TigerBlog was a kid, there was nothing worse on TV then the dreaded "to be continued ..." It meant that the show you were watching was going to be spread out over two parts, and you'd have to wait an entire week to find out what happened.

On the TV show "Batman," all of the episodes were either Part I or Part II, so you knew going in for a Part I that it was going to end with Batman and Robin about to be ground up in a huge garbage disposal or sawed in half or something like, and even though you knew they weren't, it still was a pain to have to wait to see how they'd get out of it.

As an aside, think of how many problems the Joker or the Riddler could have saved himself by simply staying there to make sure that the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder actually did get dropped into the vat of acid when the sand ran out, rather than leaving the room and assuming it would happen as planned. The same holds true for James Bond movies, by the way.

And then there were all the shows that didn't usually have a Part I and Part II but every now and then snuck a "to be continued" in on you. Those were even worse than "Batman," because you rarely saw it coming until just before the end, when it became obvious that the story couldn't be wrapped up in time. 

Just so you know, today will be one of those days for TigerBlog. If you think he hasn't gotten done but time is running out, there will be a "To be continued" on this one. 

As you know from reading yesterday — and from generally paying attention — this weekend is insanely busy for Princeton Athletics. There's too much to cover in only one day.  

So where should TigerBlog even begin? 

He'll start with field hockey. Why? Because the Ivy League tournament starts for Princeton at 11:30 tomorrow morning, so if you read later in the day, you might realize that you be parked either at Bedford Field or in front of ESPN+ at that time.

Princeton is the Ivy League champion, having won the regular season at a perfect 7-0. Princeton is also ranked 10th in the RPI, with two top 10 wins (over Maryland and Harvard) and another top 20 win (over Rutgers). The easiest path to the NCAA tournament is to get the automatic bid that goes to the winner of the Ivy event, but the Tigers will be right on the bubble if they don't. The same is true of Harvard.

The games start at 11:30, with Princeton against fourth-seeded Columbia followed by second-seeded Harvard against No. 3 Brown. 

The Princeton-Columbia game will match the Ivy League's Offensive Player of the Year (the Tigers' Beth Yeager) against the Ivy League's Defensive Player of the Year (Columbia goalie Katie Wimmer). Neither of those awards was particularly shocking. 

Yeager had more than twice as many points as any league player except for one, Brown's Katie McCallum, and Yeager has 17 more than McCallum (39-22). Wimmer, on the other hand, made 122 saves this season, which is exactly twice as many as any other league goalie (Harvard's Tessa Shahbo made 61). Plus, Wimmer's save percentage of .824 also was the best in the league. 

Wimmer is fourth in Division I in saves per game. Yeager is fifth in points per game and seventh in goals per game in Division I. For Yeager, by the was, that's three Ivy Offensive Player of the Year awards in three seasons with the Tigers.

The championship game will be Sunday at noon. The NCAA selections will be Sunday at 10 pm.

What next? 

The men's soccer team is home Saturday at 2 against Penn. Keep in mind that the regular season for men's soccer runs a week later than it does for women's soccer and field hockey.

The season finale is a big one. Actually, it's the same situation as the one the women's team faced a week ago, other than the fact that this one is at home. 

Last Saturday the women went to Columbia needing a win to be the No. 1 seed and host for the league tournament — and got it, 1-0, on a Pietra Tordin goal. This time, the men need a win to also be the host and No. 1 seed. 

On the other hand, a tie or a Penn win sends the tournament to Philadelphia and gives the Quakers the Ivy title. Should Princeton win the game, then the two would finish as co-champions.

As far as the tournament goes, either Princeton or Penn will be the top seed and host. The one who isn't will play Cornell in the semifinals, as either the two or three seed, not that it matters much beyond what color jersey and who gets first choice of a bench.

The No. 4 seed will either be Dartmouth, Harvard or Brown. 

Penn is 6-0-0 in the league right now. Princeton is 5-1-0, with its only loss to Cornell. 

To be continued ...