The Day Of "Excitingment"

Is "excitingment" a word? 

TigerBlog is pretty sure it isn't, though it also didn't come up with the red line underneath to suggest that there was some error there when he accidentally typed it. That can't be right, he thought, and so he deleted it and wrote it again and — voila — the red line underneath magically appeared. 

If ever there is  day each year for "excitingment," it's this day, the first day with an athletic event on the Princeton calendar. The 2025-26 athletic year kicks off at 5 this afternoon on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium with a women's soccer game between the Tigers and Rutgers.

The game today begins a nine-plus month journey that holds with it unpredictable storylines, from teams that will be heavily favored to win championships and play in the postseason to others for whom their preseasons will bring hope for taking the next step.  

There will be honors and awards, injuries and heartbreaks. What new names will pop up to become instant fan favorites? What returnees are ready for a big jump this time around? 

TB has told you this every year, and he'll repeat it now:

At this time of year hhe always thinks back to when he was still at the newspaper and Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey) had its kickoff luncheon. The college president at the time was named Harold Eickoff, and he started every one of those luncheons with this: "I predict this is the year that all Trenton State teams will go undefeated."

He obviously wasn't serious. He was more talking about the optimism that this time of year brings, that anything is possible. 

Princeton has 38 varsity teams with approximately 1,000 athletes. Together, they'll compete in approximately 700 events between now and early June, when it all ends with the NCAA track and field outdoor championships. 

What will be the best moment? What will be the top highlight, or the best photo taken?  

There are no answers to any of these questions. You just have to enjoy the ride and see where it takes the Tigers. 

And that ride begins tonight. Like most Princeton sporting events, this one does not require a ticket to ride. 

Rutgers has already played twice this young season and has yet to allow a goal, with a 3-0 win over NJIT and a 2-0 win over Fairfield. The Scarlet Knights have gotten one goal each from five different players so far, and two different goalkeepers have started and played all 90 minutes of their game. 

Their roster also includes 17 players from New Jersey, many from the general Princeton area. There figures to be a good amount of Scarlet in the Roberts Stadium stands. 

As for Princeton, the Tigers are the reigning Ivy League champion and Ivy League tournament champion, as well as the preseason pick to repeat this year. 

TigerBlog saw his colleague Andrew Borders earlier this week. Andrew has been the Office of Athletic Communications contact for women's soccer since 2006 or so, and TB didn't even have to ask him if he happened to be feeling the "excitingment" for the start of the new season. He is. 

This is from his game preview on goprincetontigers.com:

Princeton had seven athletic All-Ivy League honorees last season, but graduation and the pros took five of them. Pietra Tordin, the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year in 2024, opted to forgo her senior year and head to the NWSL's Portland Thorns while fellow first-teamers Lily Bryant, Heather MacNab and Tyler McCamey graduated. From the second team, Ryann Brown and Kate Toomey graduated, leaving Drew Coomans and Zoe Markesini as the Tigers' lone 2024 All-Ivy returners. Despite the losses to graduation and the pros, Princeton still returns nine of the 14 players who scored a goal last season, a group that accounted for 23 of the team's 40 goals, led by Alexandra Barry, Brooke Dawahare and Isabella Garces with four each.

You can read the rest of it HERE.

And you can see it for yourself at 5, at Roberts Stadium or on ESPN+.

Another athletic year has arrived. Is there anything better?