What An Autumn

TigerBlog spent the weekend in Philadelphia, though it felt more like he was, hmm, in Ohio or Maine or North Carolina or something like that. 

It certainly had the feel of being somewhere much further from home that in it was. Also, how many nights do you have to stay in a hotel before you innately know which way to go to the elevator after you walk out of your room?

The occasion was the NCAA field hockey first and second rounds. By the time the weekend ended, Princeton had beaten Boston College 1-0 and lost to St. Joe's 1-0. The finality of losing a game like that, with a spot in the Final Four on the line, can be really hard to handle in the moment. 

It's only over time that you realize that you actually had a great season, one that included an Ivy League championship and return to the NCAA tournament after a year away from each. There is also the fact that the field hockey team was part of what has been just an incredible fall for Princeton Athletics. 

Consider all of this:

* field hockey Ivy title, host of Ivy tournament, NCAA quarterfinals
* women's soccer Ivy title, host of Ivy tournament, Ivy tournament champ, NCAA tournament
* men's cross country Ivy League Heps champion, NCAA regional runner-up, NCAA team qualifier
* women's cross country Ivy League Heps champion

Would that have been enough? Sure. Ah, but wait, there's more.

There's the men's water polo team, which is ranked sixth in the country and will host the conference tournament at DeNunzio Pool this coming weekend.

And then there are the two teams who had the biggest weekends.

TB starts with the women's volleyball team. It was Saturday night, after dinner in Manayunk, that TB got back to Room 415 and put on ESPN+ to see, of all things, Yale-Cornell women's volleyball. 

Why? Because Princeton had won its match earlier at Harvard, running its Ivy record to 12-2. Yale went into the match against Cornell at 12-1, so obviously the Tigers needed a Big Red win to get a share of the championship. 

It wasn't looking good when Yale won the first two sets. In fact, TB turned it off — and then had his former colleague Craig Sachson text him to let him know that Cornell had come all the way back to win. 

And so women's volleyball became Princeton's fifth Ivy League champion this fall. And, by virtue of the tiebreakers, the Ivy League tournament will be coming to Dillon Gym this weekend. 

Princeton will be the No. 1 seed and will play No. 4 Brown at 4 Friday, followed by a Yale (second seed) and Cornell (third seed) rematch at 7. The winners will meet Saturday at 6, with the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the big prize.

Meanwhile, there was the other ESPN+ game TB was watching Saturday night. That was the men's soccer team's Ivy tournament semifinal game against Cornell — which turned out to be one of the best games you'll see a Princeton team play.

Princeton went 5-2 in the league this year to finish tied with the Big Red for second in the league. The two losses were to Cornell and Penn, and after Penn (the host) took down Brown in overtime in the first semifinal, Princeton's task to win the tournament was to avenge both of those losses.

So how did it start? 

Well, Cornell scored 15 minutes into the game. And then again three minutes later. Suddenly it was 2-0 Big Red, and the Tigers' season was slipping away. Or was it? 

Princeton scored four minutes later, on a goal from Daniel Ittycheria. Cornell 2, Princeton 1 at the half. And Cornell 2, Princeton 1 deep into the second half. 

Ah, but the Tigers hadn't run out of fight. First Nico Nee volleyed in a Jack Jasinski feed perfectly into the goal, tying it with eight minutes to go. 

NICO NEE STRIKES AND WE ARE TIED HERE AT RHODES WITH 7 TO GO!!!

COME ON TIGERS!!#PrincetonSoccer #WhosNext pic.twitter.com/FAITNroj0x

— Princeton Men’s Soccer (@PrincetonMSoc) November 16, 2024

Now it was on to overtime. Princeton still needed a win to keep its season going. And a win the Tigers would get, this time Ittycheria again. As TB said before, it was one of the best games you could hope to see if you're a fan of Princeton sports. 

Would Princeton be in the NCAA tournament without a win over Penn yesterday in the final? Well, nobody will ever know. Nee started the scoring in the first half, and the Tigers added two more before Penn put one in making the final 3-1. 

You can add another Ivy tournament championship to the great fall. 

Now the men's soccer team will find out today at 1 its NCAA destination and opponent.