No. 1, Again

And Princeton is No. 1 ... again.

For, well, a lot of years in a row, Princeton has once again been ranked as the No. 1 national university in the country by US New and World Report. Actually, if TigerBlog is reading this correctly, then this would be the 15th straight year. 

That's a good starting point for today, right? 

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Even though it won't be October until next week, the field hockey game on Bedford Field tomorrow (at 5) is still a huge one. It matches eighth-ranked Princeton against No. 4 Harvard in a game that, if history is any indicator, will go a very long way towards deciding the Ivy League title and who will host the league tournament in November. 

Princeton and Harvard, in addition to both being in the top eight nationally, are a combined 85-1 against the rest of the Ivy League since the start of the 2017 season, including 1-0 each this season. The two have combined to win every Ivy title outright since 2012 (the year Princeton won the NCAA title).

Both teams are among the top Division I defenses, having allowed a combined nine goals in a combined 12 games. Princeton has allowed five in six games, of which three came in a roughly six-minute stretch against No. 2 North Carolina in the second game of the year. 

Since then, the only goal Princeton has allowed came on a penalty stroke in overtime against No. 5 Syracuse. Junior goalie Olivia Caponiti is the reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week, and yesterday she was named as the lone honorable mention selection for Division I honors by the NFHCA.

Princeton and Harvard split a pair of 2-1 games a year ago, each winning in overtime on the other's home field. Princeton won the Ivy title (its 28th), and Harvard won the Ivy tournament. Both teams reached the NCAA quarterfinals. 

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The field hockey game is one of 25 Princeton events this coming weekend. 

It's also one of three Princeton-Harvard matchups, with the other two in Cambridge, where there will be a Saturday soccer doubleheader. The women play at 1, with the men to follow at 4.

The women's team opened its Ivy League schedule last week with a 1-0 win against Penn. Harvard dropped its league opener 1-0 to Dartmouth. 

For the Crimson, this will be a remarkable eighth straight home game, after opening the season with two games on the road. 

On the men's side, this is the first weekend for league games. Princeton comes in after a very entertaining 3-1 win over Seton Hall Tuesday night. If you haven't seen the Tiger goals, check them out on the team's X page HERE.

Princeton is 5-1 on the year. Harvard is 3-1-2.  

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This week is National Equipment Managers Appreciation Week. 

Your Hard Work Lets The Tigers Roar!

From uniforms to equipment and countless requests unseen, you have a hand in how we look, feel and compete!

Sending 🧡🖤 to our amazing @PUequipment staff during #EQWeek25! pic.twitter.com/eMVKTaL0m0

— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) September 23, 2025

If you're wondering who the people who keep the Tigers looking sharp and able to compete, they are, clockwise from top left in the photo: Nicole DeNiro, Clif Perry, Mike Thibault, Brian Ackerman, Derek Griesdorn and Brendan O'Meara. 

If you are a Princeton fan, you probably don't know those names — but you can trust TigerBlog. That's a hard-working group. They deserve the recognition for this week, and really any week.

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The Ivy League women's volleyball season starts this weekend as well, with the Tigers at Penn tomorrow at 7. Princeton and Penn have the two highest non-league winning percentages in the league to date, with the Tigers at 5-3 and the Quakers at 6-4. 

The most impressive performance of the year so far, though, came in one of those three Princeton losses. That one came at Penn State, where the Tigers led 2-1 after three sets before falling 25-15, 20-25, 22-25, 25-16, 15-8. 

Is Penn State good at women's volleyball? Well, the Nittany Lions are the defending NCAA champs and currently the No. 13 team in the country. 

Princeton has won 20 Ivy League championships in women's volleyball.   

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By the way, in case you're wondering what FatherBlog looks like one day before turning 90, here is your chance. Remember: FB attributes his longevity to, in his exact words, "the fact that I'm very handsome."

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The complete schedule for the weekend can be found HERE. 

 

Happy Birthdays

TigerBlog starts out today with something quite impressive. 

Did you catch this on Instagram? It's from the Princeton Rowing teams, all of them. 

Make sure you have the sound turned up. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Princeton Heavyweight Rowing (@tigerheavies)

That's extraordinary, no? 

It's an amazing display of pride in the program, something that is obvious to anyone who has ever remotely been around the boathouse. It's also a sign of the unity that exists between the all of the teams who share that boathouse.

It is a unique dynamic, what with the sheer number of rowers all, literally and figuratively, pulling in the same direction. This is something that leaps out at you from the Insta post. 

And with that, TigerBlog segues from today's opening and follows up on yesterday's "Happy Anniversary" theme. Today? 

Happy Birthdays.  

Somewhere in that boathouse is a shell with the name "Gary Walters ’67" on it. Gary certainly deserved the honor, with everything he did during his time as the Director of Athletics to help rebuild the boathouse into the gleaming Shea Rowing Center it has become — as well as all of his other contributions to Princeton.

Gary came to Princeton in 1963 from Reading High School, where his American Government teacher was also his basketball coach — Pete Carril. Gary has talked often about his Reading roots and how proud he is of them. 

He's also talked about the day his father dropped him off at Princeton and the uncertainties he had about his place here, coming from the humble background he did. He would have had no way of knowing that day just how huge an impact he would make here. 

He was the point guard on the 1965 Final Four team. He was an assistant coach on the 1975 NIT championship team. He was the Director of Athletics for 20 years, with a staggering legacy of head coach hires, facility upgrades and advocacy for the student-athlete experience that became his signature "Education Through Athletics."

His background from a world without privilege and the work ethic that came from that beginning, coupled with the successes he carved out for himself, has always reminded TigerBlog of his own father. TB's father grew up in Brooklyn on Eastern Parkway. He graduated from Boys' High School, went into the Army, bounced around a few jobs afterwards and then finally settled into a hugely successful career in the insurance business. 

It wasn't until he got married, when he was 24 years old, that he first had an actual bed. Think about that. 

Both FatherBlog and Gary were shirt-and-tie men long after the world turned to the casual. Both of them were able to use their work successes to achieve something they'd treasure — for Gary it was his house on Cape Cod; for FatherBlog it was traveling to see the world, something he's done over and over and over again.

They will both be celebrating major milestone birthdays this weekend, as Gary will turn 80 and FatherBlog will turn 90.

When TB asked his father if he had considered why he has achieved such longevity, the response he got was somewhat typical: "I attribute it to the fact that I am very handsome," he said. 

Okay. Fair enough. 

TigerBlog did a little research to see what percentage of Americans live to be 90. The answer seems to be that, of the current population, somewhere around 0.67 percent are in their 90s. If you go by the population rate of 90 years ago, then about 1.8 percent of the people born then have made it his far. 

That is not a huge number. FatherBlog is hardly a model of physical fitness. He's never met a steak he wouldn't eat or a dessert that he passed on. 

There can be no explanation as to why some people live long lives and others do not. Why did MotherBlog pass away at the age of 55, so many years ago? Why have so many others not even made it that far in life? 

You can drive yourself crazy trying to figure it all out. 

Or you can simply smile and say Happy Birthday to Gary Walters and to FatherBlog. 

TB chooses to do the latter.  

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to TigerBlog.

Where were you 42 years ago today? 

TigerBlog knows where he was. And he presumes that one of the current Supreme Court justices owes him a thank you.

It was 42 years ago this afternoon that TigerBlog, then a pre-law student at Penn, made his way up from Philadelphia to Bryn Athyn in Bucks County. The occasion? A high school football game between the Pennington School and the Academy of the New Church. 

It wasn't much of a game. Pennington played a slow first half but then rolled to the win 22-0 (it was 6-0 at intermission), tying the school record for consecutive wins at 18. TB remembers all of that off the top of his head, by the way. 

He was there to write a story about the game for the Trenton Times. He had never before written a sports story. He can't remember what he wrote, though he would guess it wasn't very good. 

TB did know that once he saw his story in the paper the next day, he was no longer a pre-law student. He had to dig deeply into the paper to find it. The lead story that same day: Steve Carlton won his 300th game. 

His starting salary, by the way, was $15 a story and 22 cents a mile.  

Since that start, TB can't imagine how many games he's covered, how many words he's written. The answer to both is "a whole lot."

And to think his mother always told him he couldn't make a living out of sports. 

The person who got him started in the newspaper business was Jack McCaffery, who was then at the Trenton Times before moving on to the Delaware County Times. It was Jack who asked TB if he wanted to cover some high school football games, something that TB had expressed no interest in and had not applied to do.  

When TB mentioned to Jack that he would be interested but that, you know, he had no idea what he was doing when it came to writing for a newspaper, Jack said that it didn't really matter. TB had become friends with Jack, by the way, after having the same work-study job at Penn as Jack's brother, whose name is Fran. 

Perhaps you recognize the name Fran McCaffery, who is now the head men's basketball coach at Penn. 

TigerBlog has quite often thought about what his alternate life would have been had he not stumbled into what started out as a hobby and would ultimately become his career.  

Had he stayed with his original plan, he just assumes he'd be a Supreme Court Justice by now, right? That would mean that one of the nine Justices wouldn't have the job at the moment. 

He'd have to guess that he'd probably have a little more money ($15 a story and 22 cents a mile doesn't go as far as you'd think). He'd also have missed out on having so many incredible experiences and meeting so many amazing people. 

His work in this business has literally taken him around the country and the world. He's seen Princeton teams play in eight different time zones (including international trips, obviously). 

He has no doubt that he took the right path for himself. The challenge to be creative, the people he's worked with and the opportunity to be part of so many great moments  in Princeton Athletics history — these are things that he can't imagine having missed out on for all these decades. 

Even today, he still wakes up happy that this is how it's all worked out for him. 

This Friday will be a big field hockey game, between Princeton and Harvard on Bedford Field. TB remembers back to when he was covering the men's basketball team in the 1990s and there would be a big weekend ahead. 

He'd get this feeling of anticipation and excitement. He couldn't believe it was only Monday, only Tuesday. It's the same this week for the field hockey game. 

So for today's anniversary, TB would like to give a thank you to Jack McCaffery, whom he has not seen in a long time but to whom he is eternally grateful. 

Maybe Jack saw something in young TB. Maybe he just needed help covering games. 

Whatever it was, Jack told TB that day that "once you get the ink in your blood, you never get it out." 

How right he was. 

The Opener

TigerBlog watched the Princeton-San Diego football game Saturday from the press box. 

And from the end zone. And from the upper deck, in the shade. And from the end zone. And from the top of the lower section. 

Each place offered a great view of the game and a great feeling of what the atmosphere in Princeton Stadium was. And each place offered someone different to sit with while he watched. 

For instance, there was Rachel Schermick of the Ivy League and her three-year-old daughter Anja. One of them had her face painted like a princess.   

That's Anja with Coach the Dog. Does it get any cuter than that? 

Coach was a very popular guy at the game. He found himself in dozens of pictures, including one with TB. That one isn't as cute. 

Then there was Bryce Chase, fresh off his hip replacement. Brycie grew up in Princeton before playing and coaching lacrosse for Princeton since forever. He's also one of the biggest Princeton sports fans you'll see anywhere.

In fact, as TB sat with Brycie, he couldn't help but wonder how many football games his friend has seen live. It's many hundreds. And yet there he was, living and dying with the Tigers on every play. 

Upstairs he met Rick and Carol Ober, who were sitting with the ubiquitous Pattie Friend. Carol at one time was Carol Munger, the daughter of the longtime Penn football coach George Munger. 

She also was a great athlete in her own right as a Quaker as an undergrad 60 years ago. Like most women athletes of her era and the earliest days of women' athletics at Princeton, she has the same answer when you ask her what she played: "Everything."

Rick Ober is a member of the Class of 1965. Carol, Pattie and TB are all honorary members of the same class, something that Pattie recognized at one point. TB and Carol agreed that they identify much more with the Princeton Class of 1965 than with when they graduated from Penn. 

Rick, like Brycie, has also seen a ton of Princeton games, especially football. Also like Brycie, he remains a huge fan. 

As such, they were upset with the final score: San Diego 42, Princeton 35. It was a game the Tigers led 21-0 at the end of the first quarter and 35-21 at the half. 

So what to make out of it all? 

First of all, if you have a chance to go to a game at Powers Field at Princeton Stadium, do it. Definitely. It's a great place to watch a game. 

As for the game, well, there are a few things to keep in mind. Before TB points out the obvious, here are some numbers to consider: 

* 91, 70, 37, 45
* 30, 31, 27, 63

What is the point of these numbers? The first group would be the points by quarter by the eight Ivy League schools this weekend. The second group is the points by quarter by their eight opponents. 

In other words, the league came out of the gates strong. Even without Princeton's 21-0 start, that first quarter number was 70-30 for the other seven teams. 

For the first half, it was Ivy 161, Opponents 61. Take away Princeton, and you have Ivy 125, Opponents 40.  

What does this tell you? To TB, it suggests that the adrenaline of playing the first game took over. It may also suggest that the absence of film available for a team playing its first game means the defense has to react on the fly, rather than already be prepared for trends. 

Then there is the second half, especially the fourth quarter. Only one Ivy team — Dartmouth — scored more than seven fourth quarter points. 

What does this tell you? That there's a difference between "training camp shape" and "game shape." When you're playing opponents who are on their third or fourth game, they're in "game shape." 

The Ivy League teams will be there soon enough. Princeton will. 

The Tigers certainly showed a lot of positives against San Diego. Princeton's two quarterbacks — Kai Colon and Blaine Hipa — threw for 283 yards (on only 18 completions). A year ago, the highest single-game passing yardage total was 267. 

Princeton had 10 players catch at least one pass. Ethan Clark averaged 10.3 yards per carry. Marco Scarano made 18 tackles and had three pass breakups. 

There is a lot to build off of here. And there's a long way to go this season. 

Next up for Princeton is a trip to Lafayette Saturday.  

Tee It Up

TigerBlog cannot think of any team in any season that has had to deal with the injuries that the 2025 Indiana Fever have. 

Their star, and the WNBA's No. 1 draw by far, is Caitlin Clark, and she was limited to only 13 games this season. Behind her, one by one, Fever player after Fever player went out with season-ending injuries, especially in the backcourt. 

Chloe Bibby. Sydney Colson. Sophie Cunningham. Aari McDonald. All gone for the year. The loss of Cunningham — a great shooter, defender and especially presence — was especially brutal. 

Bibby had emerged as a fortunate find when Clark went out, and then in a blink she and her dead-eye three-point shooting were gone. After that, Cunningham said that the team was "cursed" this season. 

Somehow the Fever managed to stay afloat and above .500 and reach the WNBA playoffs. And somehow, they managed to take down the Atlanta Dream last night 87-85 in the third and deciding game of their opening round series, vaulting them into the Eastern Conference finals. 

That game, by the way, was enthralling, as Indiana had its first and only lead of the second half with 7.4 seconds left. 

How can anyone other than Fever coach Stephanie White be WNBA Coach of the Year? 

TigerBlog hopes that the 2025 Princeton football team doesn't have to deal with even a fraction of the impact of injuries that Indiana had to deal with this season. 

For the Tigers, they'll tee it up tomorrow at noon against San Diego. The Toreros come across the country with a 1-2 record, with a win over Southern Utah sandwiched around losses to Cal Poly and Montana State. 

San Diego's coach is Brandon Moore, whose name might be familiar. He is, after all, a longtime NFL linebacker, mostly with the 49ers. He was also one of the key players on the 2000 Oklahoma Sooners, who defeated Florida State 13-2 in the Orange Bowl in January 2001 to win the national championship. 

Moore's counterpart this week is obviously Bob Surace, who enters his 14th season as the Tiger head coach. What is he thinking about his team's first game?

You can hear his voice for yourself right HERE, on the main page for Princeton podcasts. Surace joins play-by-play man Cody Chrusciel on the First In Football podcast, episode 1 for 2025.  

Here is a sneak preview: 

It's the 1st episode of the First in Football podcast with @CoachBobSurace!

Hear what Coach Surace has to say as he talks to @CodyChrusciel as the team preps for San Diego!https://t.co/AQVDrU6VYy#JUICE 🍊🥤 pic.twitter.com/cryGYLKMn9

— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) September 18, 2025

San Diego had one of the top defenses in the FCS a year ago. It also had the most opportunistic, with six defensive touchdowns, the most of any Division I school regardless of level. 

The Toreros have allowed at least 27 points in all three games and an average of 36.3, but their schedule has been tough. The defense has yet to score, but then again, the offense hasn't allowed its opponents to have a defensive TD either. 

In fact, you know how many times San Diego has turned the ball over in its first three games? How about zero. 

No fumbles. No passes intercepted. No other FCS school can make that claim (obviously this excludes the Ivy League teams).

San Diego also averages 173 yards per game on the ground, as opposed to 134 through the air. The team has only attempted 24 passes per game, and that's even with having been behind in its two losses. 

It's a great opportunity for the Tigers on their opening day. That's what Surace said on the podcast. 

The difficult part is playing a team that is on Game 4, which means that the early-season kinks have been worked  out. The difficult part for a team playing an opponent that has yet to play is that there is no film for the season yet, no idea what new pieces will be in what places. 

The weather should be perfect. The team has had Sept. 20 circled for the entire training camp. 

The ball gets put on the tee on Powers Field tomorrow, the start of a 10-game sprint into November. What kind of season will it  be? 

Hopefully a successful one, like the Indiana Fever's. 

And, unlike the Fever, a healthy one.  

The Ivy Openers

TigerBlog would like to thank whoever is responsible for this great honor. 

In some ways, he feels it's a long time coming, actually. Still, it means a lot. 

Okay, okay. It's not really about TigerBlog. Heck, he's not even sure what it is or where it is, only that a loyal reader and friend stumbled on it and sent it his way. 

Still, it does look nice, right? 

With that out of the way, TB can get to the main point of what he wants to talk about today — and it's not honoring himself.  He'll leave that to others. 

There have been, to date, 45 Princeton Athletic events for the 2025-26 athletic year. There have been some great non-league matchups and some exciting outcomes. 

What there hasn't been is an Ivy League game. If you recall a year ago, Princeton teams combined to win 17 Ivy titles, the all-time record in the league. What does this year hold? 

It all starts tomorrow, when the first two take place. And the opponent for both is Penn.

The women's soccer team starts its league schedule at Penn, with kickoff at 6 in West Philadelphia. Princeton is the defending league champion and Ivy tournament champion.

There aren't many sports where the Ivy League is as competitive as women's soccer. Remember, it was two years ago that four teams — half the league — reached the NCAA tournament. 

There are currently two Ivy teams in the RPI top 100, with Brown at 63 and Cornell at 79. The other six are all in the 100s. 

Princeton is currently at 121, and if it's any consolation, the Tigers are the highest ranked one-win team in the country. So far this season, Princeton is 1-3-3, despite having outshot its opponents by a combined 138-81. Penn comes into the game at 4-1-2.

The teams have one common opponent, and that's Villanova, whom Princeton defeated 1-0 and who beat Penn 3-1. That, of course, means next to nothing.

Princeton has scored seven goals so far this season, and those seven have come from six different players. Only Zoe Markesini has more than one.  

The field hockey team is home tomorrow at 5 against Penn, who in many ways is also at home. The Quakers have already played two of their four games at Bedford Field after starting the season at the Tiger Invitational, and they have yet to play any games on their own home field.  

There are two Ivy teams in this week's NFHCA Top 10, with No. 5 Harvard and No. 9 Princeton. The first RPI of the season will not be released until next week. 

Princeton comes into the league schedule after splitting a pair of games last weekend, both of which were scoreless through 60 minutes of regulation. The Tigers lost last Friday to No. 4 Syracuse and then beat No. 18 Rutgers Sunday, both in OT. The Princeton game-winner came from Ella Cashman, by the way, who also had the game-winner in overtime last year in the regular season against Harvard. 

Princeton is 2-2 on the year. The other loss was by a 3-2 score to No. 2 North Carolina, who was the most recent team to score a goal against Princeton in regulation. That goal came 2:21 in the third quarter of that game, which means Princeton has not allowed a goal in its last 147:39 of regulation time. 

Penn is also 2-2. The Quakers fell behind UNC 4-0 on opening day before scoring twice in the third quarter to get back into it. The Tar Heels answered with the final two of the day for a 6-2 win. Game 2 for Penn was against Princeton's Game 1 opponent, Old Dominion, and the Quakers won that game 4-2 (Princeton defeated ODU 2-1). 

The Quakers also have a 3-1 loss to Maryland and a 2-0 win over American. 

Penn is averaging 2.25 goals per game. Princeton is 13th in Division I in goals-against average, at 1.19 per game. 

Between now and the spring, the Ivy League will crown its champions in 34 different sports. Will past performance be an indicator of future success? 

There is nothing ever promised. It has to be earned on the fields. 

And it starts tomorrow.  

Countdown To Kickoff

Robert Redford passed away early yesterday at the age of 89.

Here's a trivia question for you: Other than a lifetime achievement award, Redford won only one Academy Award. For what did he earn this award? TB will give you a few paragraphs to think about it. 

If you're below a certain age, then you probably know the name but don't appreciate the impact that he had on the history of American movies. If you're above that line, then you probably spent a least some time yesterday discussing with someone else what your favorite Redford role was. 

TigerBlog's favorites: 3) the Sundance Kid in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," 2) Roy Hobbs in "The Natural" and 1) Johnny Hooker in "The Sting." Honorable mention? His roles in "The Hot Rock," "Downhill Racer," "All The President's Men" and "Brubaker."

Redford also had a very underrated performance in a very underrated movie called "Legal Eagles." He had no role in "The Godfather," though he could have — he turned down the role of Michael Corleone. How'd that work out for everyone involved? 

One of his biggest successes came in "Out Of Africa," a movie TB still has never seen. Perhaps one day he'll watch it; he hears it's good.  

Trivia answer: Redford won the award for Best Director for "Ordinary People" in 1980. He was nominated only once for an Academy Award for acting, for Best Actor for his role as Hooker in 1973. The winner that year? 

Jack Lemmon, for "Save The Tiger."

If you've never seen that movie, Lemmon plays a quarterback who throws for hundreds of yards per game in Palmer Stadium. Just kidding. Just kidding.

There's no Princeton football in the movie. 

There is Princeton football this coming Saturday, at noon, on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. San Diego will be the opponent for the start of the season. 

Remember - Princeton is using a new ticketing system this year, so if you haven't set up your new account yet, make sure you do. This Saturday will also be the annual PVC Youth Sports Clinic, with a free introduction to Tiger sports and athletes for kids ages 5-12 on Finney/Campbell Fields before the opening kickoff.  

TB's longtime friend and former colleague Craig Sachson is as dialed in on Tiger Football as anyone. He and head coach Bob Surace bonded long ago over, among other things, Princeton and the Philadelphia 76ers. 

Craig posted his preview of the offense two days ago and then followed that with the defense and special teams yesterday. You can read them HERE and HERE.

Like every other football team in every other season, all discussions start with the quarterback position. But is that fair? 

Look at the NFL. The first two weeks of the season have seen star quarterbacks (or almost-star quarterbacks) who have gone down, some for extended periods of time. Perhaps the conversation should start with offensive lines? 

Yeah, no. That's just not how it works in the sport. 

Princeton has four captains this season, and two of them are senior quarterbacks — returning starter Blaine Hipa and Kai Colon. The offensive preview references the idea that Princeton could go back to using two-quarterbacks, sometimes even on the same play. 

If you look at last year's stats, Princeton does not have huge numbers returning. If you read Craig's previews, you'll see that there are all kinds of new names on the horizon. And depth. Lots of it. 

This time of year drips with optimism. That's how it should be heading into the first game of the year. 

This team has practiced for nearly a month now. There is no chance that the Tigers won't be swarming at the chance to play another team, and that first opportunity is right around the corner. 

Surace, for his part, has won four Ivy League titles in his first 13 seasons as the Tiger head coach. This is one of the lines Sachson wrote in his preview of the offense, way up near the top:

Determined to return to the elite level of the Ivy League, he pushed his team throughout spring and preseason, turning anything and everything into a competition.

That should have every Princeton fan as eager for kickoff as the players.   

Tiger Royalty

Patrick Schreiber was making his first-ever appearance on the Princeton campus when TigerBlog happened upon him.

As TB said hello, Patrick gave him a look that said "I don't know you and right now, I don't want to know you."

In fairness, Patrick was otherwise engaged in polishing off the last of his yogurt drink. Also, he was sitting in a car seat, facing the rear window of a car that had just pulled into the circle outside Caldwell Fieldhouse.

As such, TigerBlog was not offended at all. 

Patrick is a cute little guy. He is currently the youngest of two children, with an older sister Lillian. 

That will all change in the next few weeks, when he will move up one spot and become the middle child of three. It was certainly clear that his mother is not far away from giving birth, even while she sat in the driver's seat. 

His father was the one who said it was his first time on the campus. That was something that really resonated with TigerBlog, given who Patrick's parents are. 

His mother is Kat Sharkey, one of the greatest college field hockey players of all time. His father is Tom Schreiber, one of the greatest college lacrosse players of all time. They met as Princeton athletes, more than a decade again. 

TigerBlog was walking from the Stadium Garage parking lot yesterday when he saw the car pull up. At the time, TB was talking to BrotherBlog, until he noticed the two adults in the car were waving to him. Once he realized it was Sharkey and Schreiber, he immediately told BB he'd have to call him back and hung up quickly. 

Certain people will get you to do that. 

It was at that point that he got to meet Patrick. Will Patrick one day follow in their footsteps of being a Princeton student and Princeton athlete? Will Lillian? Will the little girl who is about to join the family? 

TB wouldn't want to put any kind of pressure on any little kids to have the kinds of successes their parents did. And of course that's all years and years away. 

There have been a lot of marriages between former Princeton athletes, as TB has been mentioning this summer. There aren't really too many that matched up athletes like Sharkey and Schreiber.

How about these facts: 

* Sharkey and Schreiber combined for eight first-team All-Ivy League selections. That's all you can get, right? 

* The two have six first-team All-American selections after both were third-team All-Americans as freshmen

* Sharkey is the all-time leading scorer at Princeton for field hockey with 107 career goals; no other player has more than 71. That's a huge gap. In reality, it's probably just as untouchable as Bill Bradley's 2,503 career points in men's basketball. 

* Schreiber had 106 goals, one fewer than his wife, but he did have a 94-31 edge in assists. 

* Sharkey was an NCAA champion and a U.S. Olympian.

* Schreiber has won three championships between Major League Lacrosse and the Premier Lacrosse League and  two World Championships with Team USA, including scoring the game-winning goal in the final second of the 2018 final and serving as team captain in 2023. He is a three-time Most Valuable Player in the professional leagues and a five-time PLL midfielder of the year. 

* They were ranked 13th (Sharkey) and 14th (Schreiber) on the Princeton Alumni Weekly's list of the top 25 athletes in Princeton history.  

So yeah, it's not unreasonable to think that there might be some athleticism in the family.

If the kids inherit that, hey, wouldn't that be awesome? The next generations of the Sharkey/Schreiber family at Princeton? 

Their parents, though, are more than just great athletes. There is no sportsmanship award that Schreiber hasn't won. They both long ago made their reputations as amazing teammates.  

Do not, though, ever confuse that for a lack of competitiveness or a lack of desire. They wouldn't have become the athletes they did without having that fury to win. 

They are both exactly the kind of people you want wearing the same gear that you are. You can't ask for more from your athletic program than to be able to claim people like this as your alums. 

It was great to see them. It always is. 

And good luck on the new addition when she arrives.  

Game Week

The inarguable highlight of the weekend in college football came in Piscataway, where A.J. Surace threw the first two touchdown passes of his career for Rutgers. 

As for the rest ,TigerBlog was watching a college football game Saturday when heard the announcer say essentially this: 

"The transfer from someplace on the carry, and the transfer from another place on the tackle."

Which game was it? All of them. Who won? The casual fan like TigerBlog didn't really care. 

Hey, that's where the sport is right now on the Power 4 level. There are graphics of quarterbacks who are on their third teams. One team (TB thinks it was Virginia) has nine transfers in its secondary alone. What happened to the guys they recruited at those positions? 

Rob Hegner is the public address announcer for Princeton field hockey. He is also a West Virginia graduate. He mentioned the other day that his alma mater had 70 transfers on the roster. 

How can anyone be a fan of such a team in this day and age? And yet you look at the crowds on TV, and they're the same as always.  

It is amazing. Nobody seems to care about anything other than winning games, and they don't care who does the winning for them. 

It's like the time when Pete Carril was asked about playing an opponent in one of those old holiday tournaments, and his response was essentially that they had a lot of big guys. When it was pointed out to him that Princeton also had some big guys, Carril, without flinching, responded: 

"Yeah, but I didn't go down to the docks to get them."

 TB hopes it's worth it to them. For him? He'll continue to root for the Surace Family. 

It's Game Week for Ivy League football. After the long grind of training camps, Game Week is here. 

Those are great words for the players on all eight teams. For Princeton, Game Week No. 1 for the 2025 season means a home game against San Diego this coming Saturday at noon.

The Ivy season actually kicks off Friday night, when Columbia is at Lafayette. The rest of the games Saturday are: Georgetown at Brown, Holy Cross at Yale, New Hampshire at Dartmouth, Penn at Stonehill, Harvard at Stetson and Cornell at Albany. 

This year, of course, will be unlike any other in Ivy League football history. The big news in the off-season was that the Ivy champion for the first time will be headed to the FCS playoffs. 

That alone will be fascinating. You know what else is fascinating? 

Princeton announced its four football captains last week, and two of them are quarterbacks. This is not an unprecedented situation; the 2017 Tiger football captains were quarterbacks John Lovett and Chad Kanoff (along with defensive lineman Kurt Holuba). 

Lovett, if you recall, missed that entire year due to an injury. It worked out well for him after that, as he came back the next year to quarterback the Tigers to a perfect 10-0 2018 season and then won a Super Bowl ring with the Kansas City Chiefs before injuries derailed a promising NFL career. 

There are four captains for this season. The two non-quarterbacks are Nasir Hill and Marco Scarano, both of whom were second-team All-Ivy League defensive selections a year ago. The two quarterbacks are Blaine Hipa and Kai Colon.  

As for the first opponent, San Diego is 1-2 on the season. The win came over No. 24 Southern Utah 30-27 in overtime.

The Toreros have given up 41 points in each of their two losses, with a 41-17 opening day loss to Cal Poly and then a 41-7 loss to No. 4 Montana State this past Saturday. The game against Montana State was the first road game for the season for San Diego, who now flies across the country to come to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. 

Kickoff is at noon. Or, if you look on San Diego's website, kickoff is at 9 am. 

Is this the only cross-country flight of the year for the Toreros? Nope. TB wouldn't have asked if it was. San Diego in fact has upcoming games at Marist (coached by former Tiger offensive coordinator Mike Willis), Davidson (North Carolina), Valpo (Indiana) and Stetson (Florida). 

That's a lot of air miles. That has to be more than some NFL teams this year, no?  

Anyway, Game Week is here.  

It'll be way better than anything you'll see on TV. 

Provincial Squeamishness

TigerBlog would like to share two humorous moments from his Thursday, both of which happened about five minutes apart.

First, he found himself stopped behind a school bus when he saw a woman jogging and pushing a stroller at the same time. As she got closer, it was clear that there was nothing in the stroller — no baby, no dog, no bag, nothing. 

TB put his window down and called out to her to say that her stroller was empty, to which she responded "I know." TB left it at that. He prefers to never find out why a woman was jogging and pushing an empty stroller, largely because he's afraid it might make sense. 

And then she was gone, rid of TB's provincial squeamishness forever. 

TB, by the way, didn't write that last part. Can you tell him what classic book that's from?  

Then, as he started to move again, he saw another woman who was walking her dog, only the dog had stopped in a series of bushes and wouldn't move, no matter how much she pulled the leash. Then the dog appeared, holding a small branch in his mouth. 

This wasn't some English Mastiff or something. This was an average-sized dog. And the branch had to be six or seven feet wide. 

Off the dog went. And the owner looked in TB's direction, saw him laughing and threw her hands up as if to say "oh well. 

And now, the weekend in Princeton sports:

*

There are 12 events on the Princeton calendar for the next three days.  

Of those 12, there are 11 that are away from home. That's a rarity. One home event. 

HERE is the full schedule.  

Maybe the highlight is the men's water polo trip to the Navy Invitational in Annapolis. Princeton went 5-0 last weekend in its own invitational, and now it heads to Maryland for three matches, the first of which is tonight at 7:30 against Salem.

Then there are two games tomorrow, the first of which is against the home team. And who is the home team coach? That would be Luis Nicolao, who spent 20 years as the Princeton head coach and won 844 games between the men's and women's teams.

The Tigers, by the way, are ranked 10th nationally. Who is ahead of them? Eight schools from California and Fordham.  

*

The lone team to be home this weekend is the field hockey team, who was almost home twice before a late schedule change. 

Princeton opened its season last weekend with a 2-1 win over Old Dominion and then a 3-2 loss to No. 2 North Carolina. The Tiger reward was to drop from 10th to 11th in the poll. Oh well. 

The college field hockey season starts with pretty much every team to play Friday and Sunday games. For this weekend, it's Princeton at home today at 5 against No. 5 Syracuse, who is 4-0 on the young year. 

Then it's off to No. 18 Rutgers Sunday at noon. That game would have been in Princeton, but the teams decided to flip flop home games between this year and next, so that the Tigers wouldn't open their season with seven straight home games. 

Interestingly, the visiting team has won the last five games between Princeton and Rutgers. 

*

If you want to watch Princeton soccer this weekend, you need to get in your car, unless you happen to live on the Main Line or West Point. 

The Princeton men, who lost a tough and physical game Wednesday night 1-0 to Hofstra on a penalty kick in the second half, are at Villanova tomorrow at 1. Princeton is 1-1-0 now with that loss and an opening 3-1 win over Rutgers, while Villanova is 2-1-2, including a 0-0 tie against Columbia and most recently a 2-0 loss to Army.

The Princeton women are at Army Sunday at 1. Army is 4-2-1, with a most recent 3-0 loss to West Virginia.   

* 

Trivia answer: It's from "The Great Gatsby." 

It's probably TB's favorite turn of a phrase in literature — possibly because Nick was giving up forever on a Yale guy. 

24 Years Later

The morning of Sept. 11, 2001, was like so many other mornings in the Northeast at that time of year. 

Until the entire world changed on a dime. 

Now it's 24 years later. How is that possible? It's nearly a quarter-century later. There are no longer Princeton athletes who had been born before that horrific Tuesday all those years ago. 

They only know what they've been told or what they've read. For those, like TigerBlog, who were there, for whom the events and the emotions of that day will never fade, today will always spark feelings of unease.

To that end, TB will again share with you what he has for the last few years about 9/11: 

He was dropping off TigerBlog Jr. at the University League Nursery School, on the far side of the parking lot outside Jadwin. It was the most perfect weather day, crystal clear, sunshine, no humidity, not a cloud to be found.

TB dropped TBJ off at the school, and the woman who was the office manager said that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.

TigerBlog walked outside, looked up, and thought "how in the world did that happen?" By the time he got to Jadwin, he found out how.

Most of that day was spent huddled around the only television around, the one in the athletic training room in Caldwell Field House. It was a day where people spoke very little, where everyone had dazed looks on their faces.

By mid-afternoon, he went back to get TBJ at the nursery school. He can still see the children, swinging on the swings, playing in a sandbox, oblivious - happily oblivious - to what had happened to the innocence of the world outside that playground.

Later that night, after it was dark, TigerBlog walked outside to the end of his driveway and looked up. There were no planes in the sky. They'd all been grounded. TB remembers it vividly, the sight of the stars, without planes, above a world of confusion, angst, uncertainty, fear.

If he had to pick one word, it would be scary.  

In fact, when TB got to Jadwin that day, the first person he saw was John Mack, now the Ford Family Director of Athletics and then in his first year of working in the department. 

There were 14 Princetonians who were killed on 9/11. There were hundreds more who were near Ground Zero when it all happened.

One of those who died was men's lacrosse player John Schroeder, known to everyone in the program as "Stinky.". TB wrote about him on the 20th anniversary. It's as emotional and heartbreaking a story as TB has ever written.

When TB went to meet with John's father Jack, he was struck by the American flag that hangs in his kitchen. The stripes are composed with the names of every person who was killed that day.

It's an overwhelming thing to see them all there and to imagine all of their stories. And, each time the anniversary roles around, there are people who mark another year without them.

By the way, here is what one of Schroeder's teammates wrote about him shortly after 9/11:

“There are two images that run through my head over and over. One is of Stinky picking off that pass. It was as if he said ‘I’ll do my job when it’s asked of me. I am part of the greatness that is this team.’ The other is an image of Stinky on Tuesday. This is how I picture it – Stinky was badly injured initially but was capable of escaping from the building. He was on his way down the stairs when he ran into some rescue personnel heading the other direction. He did the right thing and turned back to help. I imagine him carrying a worse-injured person down the stairs, making typically Schroederian sarcastic remarks on the way to help the other person out, when the building collapsed. I agree with you, T, that Stinky is in heaven, probably playing lax, with too many members of our family watching in the stands. When we do gather, Stinky will be there too, and the first and last rounds will be on him.”

Sept. 10 is the last day of innocence.

Sept. 11 is the day it all changed. It's a day that always needs remembrance, and reverence.

Nice To Meet You

TigerBlog was busy yesterday rebuilding his catalytic converter. 

And by "rebuilding," he doesn't really mean what you think he means. 

The check engine light had gone on in TB's car two weeks ago. Given that his car has 172,000 miles on it, he did the only logical thing anyone would do in that situation — ignore it and hope it went off by itself. 

When that didn't happen, he finally broke down (well, thankfully not really) and called Ron, the official car guy of TigerBlog. As he headed over there to have it checked out, he tried to figure out the number it would cost to repair such a well-worn car that would make him say "nope" and get a new one. 

He figured it was in the range of $2,500.  

Upon arrival, Ron hooked up the little machine that tells you what the problem is. At most places, they charge you money for that. Those 30 seconds that it took Ron to do this were on the house. 

And the verdict? The catalytic converter needed a cleaning additive. Total cost: $21 — which is less than $2,500, so TB will be keeping his car. He did have to go to AutoZone and get the cleaner himself. And on top of all that, he actually opened the container and poured it into his gas tank.

So yeah. He rebuilt it. 

Oh, and did you have the same experience as TB for two consecutive mornings this week? That is to say, did you turn off an NFL game and wake up the next day to see that the team you were sure would lose rallied to pull it out in the fourth quarter? 

That was the Ravens-Bills game Sunday night and the Vikings-Bears game Monday night. TB can't be the only one who did that. 

The other kind of football, the internationally recognized use of the word, has an intriguing midweek game tonight on Princeton's Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. The Princeton men will be hosting Hofstra tonight at 7 (admission is free).

Here is something TB would never have guessed: Princeton and Hofstra have never met in men's soccer before.

How is that possible? Hopefully someone affiliated with Hofstra men's soccer knows enough to leave early to get to Princeton on a weeknight. Or weekday. Or weekend. Or really any time you drive from there to here or here to there. 

Princeton and Hofstra have played dozens and dozens of times in other sports. Why not in men's soccer? TB has no idea. 

If you're wondering, Hofstra has played Columbia 24 times, and that's more than it has played the other seven Ivy schools combined.  

Princeton is playing its second game of the young season, after having defeated Rutgers 3-1 Sunday night in a very strong opening performance. The Tigers were first in the "others receiving votes" category in this week's United Soccer Coaches' Top 25. 

Hofstra comes into the game at 2-2, with wins over St. John's and Northeastern and losses to Bucknell and Binghamton.

Hofstra, by the way, has a great tradition in the sport, both over the decades and recently. In fact, the Pride have won four straight CAA championships and won five NCAA tournament games in that time, reaching the third round twice and second round once. Hofstra has also finished nationally ranked three times as well, including 23rd a year ago. 

Princeton got goals from three different players against Rutgers (Kevin Kelley, Jack Jasinski and freshman Jackson Martin). Jaskinski also had an assist, earning honorable mention weekly honors from Top Drawer Soccer. 

It is the head coaching matchup here that TB finds really intriguing. Princeton's Jim Barlow is in Year 30 as the Tiger head coach, which makes him the less experienced head coach in this one. Hofstra's Kevin Nuttall — who played for Leeds and Stoke City in the English Premier League at one point — is in his 33rd season. 

Between them they have won 574  games. And yet their teams have never faced each other? 

Oh, and this does beg a question: How many games are there where the two head coaches have both been in their job for at least 30 years? That goes for any sport.  

TigerBlog will think about that one. If you know one, let him know. 

And in the meantime, it's Princeton-Hofstra tonight at 7 on Myslik Field and on ESPN+. 

Packing Bedford

TigerBlog kept ducking his head out of the press box window at Bedford Field every few minutes Sunday afternoon to admire just how big the crowd was. 

A few hours earlier TB walked from the parking lot to the field with his umbrella, given that it was raining pretty hard. At that point, the forecast for the afternoon was iffy, and the stands were completely empty.  

The occasion was the second day of the Tiger Invitational field hockey event, a rotating early-season event that used to be the Ivy/ACC Crossover Challenge that brings four teams to Bedford Field once every four years. The first game Sunday saw Penn beat Old Dominion 4-2 in a game that started in rain, was played mostly in rain and ended with clouds.

Too bad, TB thought. Even the threat of rain usually is enough to deter a crowd. 

And yet? He couldn't have been more wrong. 

As it turned out, it was the largest crowd he'd ever seen at the facility. The stands were packed. People were outside the facility looking in through the fence. It was great to see.

They came for the second game Sunday and the fourth of the weekend, a Top 10 matchup between Princeton and North Carolina. You couldn't have asked for more from an early September game. 

Well, maybe there was one more thing Princeton could have asked for — a win. Unfortunately for the Tigers, it was UNC who came away on top by a 3-2 count. 

The biggest winner might have been the fans. They saw a great game, something even Princeton had to grudgingly admit afterwards. Are they likely to come back? Why wouldn't they? 

The game of field hockey moves quickly. The ball changes ends on a dime, as teams go from defense to offense in a blink. If you've never seen it, you should have been there Sunday. 

The good news is you have eight more chances to see Princeton play at home this year, starting Friday against Syracuse at 5. 

And what kind of team does Princeton have? There are 24 players on this year's roster, and the breakdown by class is six seniors, five juniors, seven sophomores and six freshmen. That's a great balance.  

Princeton began the weekend with a 2-1 win over ODU Friday, after UNC had beaten Penn 6-2. As TB mentioned last week, the Quakers will be back for the Ivy opener Sept. 19 and after that game will have played three games at Princeton and zero on their home field. 

The same 10 field players started both Princeton games this weekend. The breakdown of those 10 by class? 

There were two seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen. That's a young team.

Of the two juniors and three sophomores, four of them have already been All-Ivy League, with three first-team selections.  

Both senior starters are members of the US National Team program, with Beth Yeager on the senior team and Talia Schecnk on the U21 team. Both came back from South America with silver medals this summer, Yeager from the Pan Am Cup in Uruguay and Schenck from the Junior Pan Am Games in Paraguay.

Yeager, for her part, currently ranks fourth in Division I in career goals scored by active players. Her two this weekend brought her up to 46. Actually, three of the top six were in the game Sunday on Bedford, with UNC's Ryleigh Heck (47) and Charley Bruder (42). If you're wondering who the leader is, it's Makenna Webster with 48, so it's a fairly bunched group (New Hampshire's Tasmin Webster also has 47).

Yeager is the only active player in Division I who ranks in the top five in goals per game and assists per game in a career.  

The freshmen who made their debuts this weekend hardly looked like rookies. More than anything else, TB was looking to see whether they were wide-eyed or if they competed right from the opening whistle. The answer is the latter. 

And then there is the team's depth. As TB said, there's a lot to like here this coming fall. 

It's certainly worth coming out to see for yourself. 

If you have any doubts, ask someone who was there Sunday for the packing of Bedford.  

DeNunzio Offense

This weekend's award for honesty goes to Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin.

His Rebels had just held off Kentucky Saturday 30-23, and now Kiffin was being interviewed on ESPN. The question was what he thought of the way his defensive line had stopped Kentucky in the fourth quarter, and this is what he said: 

"That's why we're paying them all that money." 

It looked to TigerBlog as if Kiffin wasn't sure he should say that or not and that he briefly hesitated before he spoke. Either way, it was honest. 

It was a great weekend to watch football and tennis on TV. TigerBlog certainly did Saturday. He saw South Florida come back to beat Florida for the first time ever — helped along considerably to 30 yards in penalties on the final drive, including one for spitting. 

What the heck? Spitting? That happened in the Cowboys-Eagles game Thursday night too. Six seconds in, for that matter.

The New York Giants? Just put Jaxson Dart out there and don't look back.  

The US Open tennis championships ended. This is unfortunate, because 1) it's a great event to watch for two-plus weeks and 2) because John McEnroe will not be broadcasting anything in the near future. McEnroe and his brother Patrick should be the broadcast team on every possible football game that they can fit into their schedules. 

As for the tennis, there was the women's final Saturday, when Aryna Sabalenka defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-6. TB was rooting for Sabalenka, because she's his favorite player on the women's side and also because Anisimova's sister played at Penn. 

You do have to give Anisimova a ton of credit though. She lost the Wimbledon final 6-0, 6-0 to Iga Swiatek but then came back to beat her in the semifinal at the US Open, something that is just remarkable. Sabalenka was too much in the final, but Anisomova's day is coming. 

And the men? They should have two tournaments, one for everyone else and then a separate one where Alcaraz and Sinner play a best-of-seven. Alcaraz won yesterday's final in four sets, meaning those two split the four Majors this year. And last year. 

Meanwhile, back at Princeton, the men's water polo team started its season by going 5-0 at its own invitational at DeNunzio Pool.

The men's water polo team is one of three Princeton teams — along with the men's and women's lacrosse teams — that needs to replace its graduated all-time leading goal scorer. In the case of the men's water polo team, that means replacing Roko Pozaric, who finished his career with 281 goals, or 27 more than any other player in program history.

For good measure, Pozaric was also the 2025 Roper Trophy winner as the top senior male athlete. 

The first weekend of the new season had Princeton take on Mount St. Mary's, Cal Baptist, Santa Clara,  Bucknell and Wagner (as well as an exhibition game against European Cup champ Pro Recco). The five games against the U.S. college teams all went for Princeton, who put up big offensive numbers, even without Pozaric.

That's a really good sign, obviously. 

Princeton scored 18, 18, 12, 19 and 14 goals. The only really close game was against Santa Clara, which was a 12-11 Tiger win. Finn LeSeur scored six goals, on six shots, in that one. 

The first game of the weekend was an 18-10 win over the Mount, in which freshman Otto Stothart scored five times in his college debut. The Cal Baptist game? That was another 18-10 win, and this time Princeton had four players with three goals each.

That's how you replace your all-time leading goal scorer. 

Next up for the Tigers will be another invitational, this one at Navy. A trip to Annapolis will always be special, or at least for as long as former Princeton head coach Luis Nicolao coaches the Mids.

Ahead will be not one but two trips to California, as well as the Northeast Water Polo Conference regular season. The league tournament will be held Nov. 21-23, at Brown.

Doesn't that seem so far away right now? 

For the first weekend, it all went well for Princeton at DeNunzio. Even without Pozaric, there were still plenty of goals to go around.  

Off To The Races

The annual event known as the "Welcome Back Athletic Staff Meeting" was held yesterday morning in the Frist Campus Center. 

This was not TigerBlog's first such meeting, so he didn't have to stand up in front of the department to introduce himself, like all of the newbies in the department. Once again, TB tried to think of how it looked through their eyes. 

They came from very different backgrounds and do very different jobs now that they're at Princeton. There were coaches. There were athletic trainers. There were people in Campus Rec. 

And how did TB think it looked through those new eyes? 

He supposes it looked very welcoming, a place with very high standards of excellence and at the same time a place where it's a lot of fun to work. They had to be thinking "yes, I made a good decision to come here."

Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack certainly values both sides, the competitive excellence and the fun. Need proof? There was a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" tournament that preceded the meeting. 

It may sound a bit corny, but it wasn't. It was an exercise as much about getting all of the people in the room to become a little more acquainted with everyone else, especially those outside their daily orbit. 

To that end, it definitely succeeded. 

And with that, yesterday turns into today, with a very, very busy weekend ahead.  

Prior to today, there have been six Princeton Athletic events involving two teams for 2025-26.

The breakdown is five women's soccer games and one women's rugby game. All of that is about to grow exponentially.  

The women's soccer team, by the way, got a big 2-2 tie at Miami last night, falling behind 2-0 and then rallying with two in the second half.  

Between today and Sunday, there will be 17 more events, with seven teams who will be competing. After that, it's off to the races for the new year. 

This weekend marks the start of the seasons for the women's volleyball team, the field hockey team, the men's soccer team, the men's and women's cross country teams, the men's water polo team and the men's golf team. 

Where to start? 

The men's soccer team was last seen powering through the Ivy League tournament and into the NCAA tournament via the automatic bid. The Tigers open their season tonight at 7 at home against Rutgers, who comes in with a record of 3-0-1 (a tie with Seton Hall and wins over Providence, James Madison and William & Mary).

Princeton definitely has some star power. Consider this: Key returners Daniel Ittycheria, Jack Jasinski and Giuliano Fravolini Whitchurch begin their senior season in the Orange & Black after playing pivotal roles in the Tigers' 2024 success. All three seniors were named United Soccer Coaches Players to Watch in their respective positions.

You can read more about the game HERE. Admission is free. 

The field hockey team is hosting what used to be the ACC/Ivy Crossover Challenge, only Louisville has been replaced with Old Dominion, rendering it "The Tiger Invitational." It starts today at 3:30 with Penn and North Carolina, followed by Princeton and ODU. 

The Ivy teams switch opponents Sunday, with Penn and ODU at 11 and Princeton and UNC at 1:30. 

Here's a fun note: Penn will also be at Princeton for the Ivy opener on Sept. 19, which means the Quakers will play three games at Princeton before playing one on their home field. For more fun notes, you can click HERE.

The men's water polo team will play six games in three days at the Princeton Invitational, beginning this morning at 10 against Mount St. Mary's. Princeton's schedule includes Pro Recco, tomorrow at 5. Who is Pro Recco? That would be the the champion  of the 2025 European Aquatics Euro Cup. 

That should be exciting. 

You can clock HERE for more on the weekend at DeNunzio, including the schedule for all of the teams involved. 

The women's volleyball season opens in Harrisonburg, Va., with the LD&B Insurance Invitational at James Madison. The Tigers will play Lehigh, Bellarmine and the host team.

Princeton won the program's 20th Ivy title a year ago. No other Ivy team has more than 14. 

HERE is more on the tournament in Virginia.  

And speaking of "off to the races," the cross country teams will host the Jersey Jam at the Meadows Course today. The men's race goes off at 6 tonight, with the women to follow at 6:30.

You can learn more HERE and HERE. 

There is also men's golf on the schedule, at a fall tournament at Duke.  

Love Story

TigerBlog is something of a romantic. 

You know, he loves his musical theater and "Notting Hill" and old movies where love conquers all. He was happy when Rachel and Ross got together for good. He can run down a list of love songs that get to him every time. 

What could be better? 

Hey, TB even wrote a romance novel once and is working on a second one. You didn't know that? You can get it HERE with his shameless plug. 

He wrote yesterday about the first day of classes and the lessons that come from the four years that the athletes spend here — the "Education Through Athletics." He's written so many times about the friendships that are born on Princeton's rosters and how they last forever.

What he's left out for the most part would be the most romantic piece. It seems that he can't look on a team's Instagram without seeing a former Tiger athlete marrying another one. 

He mentioned how men's soccer alum Daniel Diaz-Bonilla married field hockey alum Sammy Popper a few weeks ago. There were a slew of volleyball-volleyball marriages this past summer as well, most recently Mary Claire Bartlett and Devin Stearns. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by PrincetonVolley (@princetonvolley)

 

And to this list you can now add the coming union of two more Princeton soccer alums — Emma Davis and Kevin O'Toole, both of the Class of 2022. 

O'Toole as you probably remember won the Roper Trophy that year as the top senior male athlete in the class. Davis was also an All-Ivy selection. 

Again, TB saw the announcement on social media. When he did, he reached out to Kevin's mother Nancy, who went to the same high school as TigerBlog, to offer congratulations. During their conversation, he mentioned a mutual friend of theirs who recently became a grandfather, to which Nancy said something along the lines of not quite being ready for that. 

She did say that her son and Emma are made for each other. They certainly looked very much perfect together in this picture that Nancy sent to TB:

That will make your heart melt, right? 

Congratulations to Emma and Kevin (and the mother of the groom). And to everyone else who has or will meet a future spouse as a Princeton athlete. 

It's another special part of what goes on here. 

*

Here is something that speaks to another part of the core mission of Princeton Athletics:

As we close the third summer of the Tigers Together Journey to Athletics, I am certain of why this work matters. It is not merely about bringing students to campus, nor only about exposure to Princeton Athletics. It is about creating a space where young people can explore athletics as a canvas for leadership, painting their own identities and perspectives through the act of self-discovery shaped by persistence, not perfection. 

That caught your attention, right? It was written by Myles Smith, Princeton Associate Athletic Director. For more, you can read his piece from goprincetontigers.com HERE. 

*

The honor of playing the first game of the new NFL season belongs to the Super Bowl champs of the previous season, and this time that is the Philadelphia Eagles, who took down the Chiefs last February. 

The opening kickoff  will be tonight at Lincoln Financial Field, where the Eagles will host the Cowboys, who violated one of the biggest rules in sports last week. And what was that? 

Never do anything that makes your biggest opponents glad. In this case, it was the trade of Micah Parsons to the Packers. The corollary to Rule 1 is something like: "the idea is to get guys like Micah Parsons, not trade them away."

Princeton is represented by four players as opening day approaches. 

The @NFL season gets underway next week!

Super proud of our #PrincetonPros!

Let’s go @Steve_OCarlson, @AndreiIosivas, @Henbyrd and @TravisWJalen! #JUICE 🍊🥤 pic.twitter.com/wjRrNH2mXs

— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) August 29, 2025

Travis and the Indianapolis Colts open Sunday against the Dolphins. Iosivas, who has 10 TD receptions in his first two years and who has established himself as a big part of one of the best offenses in the NFL, opens his season against the Browns Sunday. 

* 

And while he's talking about the NFL, how about TB's picks for the year:

AFC Championship Game: Buffalo over Cincinnati
NFC Championship Game: Detroit over Washington
Super Bowl: Buffalo over Detroit

If he's right, he'll remind you in February. If he's wrong, you'll have long since forgotten.  

Back To School

TigerBlog remembers walking down Spruce Street towards the University Museum for his first-ever class as a college student. 

It was a perfect, sunny day. The walk took about 10 minutes or so, to a large lecture hall inside the building, which sits opposite Franklin Field. Anytime he's been back on the Penn campus for a game at the ancient stadium for all these decades, he's always glanced over at the museum and remembered that day.  

You know what really stands out? There was a crew paving a driveway at the hospital, and the smell of the tar was very strong and very prevalent. That smell has always taken him back to that walk.

He must have gone to at least a few other classes, since they did eventually give him a diploma. It currently sits proudly in a box inside a plastic bin on the bottom of a closet.

He also remembers walking outside of the David Rittenhouse Lab building, which is next to the Palestra, after the last final exam he ever took. It was also a sunny day, this time in May, not September. There used to be tennis courts in front of the DRL building and the Palestra, and he walked past them as he made his way back to his dorm. 

As he did so, he first threw into the garbage can at the one of the courts the pen he'd just used and the notebook he had. He also vividly remembers thinking that he had to replace "go to Penn" with "went to Penn."   

He has absolutely no memory of his walk to any other classroom, other than the generic "oh yeah, that class was in that building" thing. That first class and that final exam? 

Those he can remember in detail — even more than 40 years later. 

Who knew on that first day of school what direction his life would take? There was no way. 

If you'd joined him on his walk down Spruce Street and asked him what his career path would be, he would have said, probably with confidence, law. How wrong he would have been, right? 

Yesterday was the first day of classes at Princeton. 

For the members of the Class of 2029, it was the first time that they would be attending any college classes. Would they come away with the same memories that TB did all those years ago? 

For the returnees, it's the time to get back into whatever routine they have for classes, studying and all of that. Are they fans of early classes? Night classes? Labs? 

Princeton's approximately 1,000 athletes obviously had their first classes of 2025-26 yesterday. TigerBlog watched a lot of college football this past weekend, and he remarked to his friend Duncan Yin during one of those games that back when they were kids, you couldn't watch a college football game without having numerous mentions of majors, academic achievements and the rest. 

There was none of that on any of the games TB saw this weekend. There were references to where this one transferred from and what league that one played in a year ago. There was also talk of just how many news players were on each roster. 

The academic piece is not completely gone from college sports. One of TB's favorite things about Princeton is that it will never be gone from here. These are athletes who are also students, in an era when the phrase "student-athlete" mostly conjures up cynicism. 

Tiger freshmen have long answered the question "why Princeton?" with "it offers the best combination of athletics and academics." That remains the case today, and TB will never tire of hearing that. 

Congrats to all of the Princeton students who are now back into their classrooms. It's a lot of work, but it's well worth it.

For the athletes, you are challenging yourself in a way that not everyone your age is. This is what you've chosen, and you did so for a lot of reasons. Between now and the day that you are handed your own diploma and the day of your last competition as a Tiger, you will learn lessons about teamwork, time management, integrity and so many of the other values that combine to make up "Education Through Athletics."

In other words, what you learn about yourself will be as important to your future as what you learn from your professors. 

Julie Frymyer, TV Star

Did you see the commercial with Patrick Mahomes, Meghan Trainor and the Kansas City Chiefs' athletic trainer? 

It's cute and clever, with its play on an actual "trainer" and the pop star "Trainor," who tries to put a knee brace on an arm and who appears to have no idea who Mahomes is or what he does. Like TigerBlog said. Cute and clever.  

The one who steals the whole show, of course, is the athletic trainer, even if she has no lines in the commercial. Is it possible that TB is biased in his review? 

The athletic trainer in the commercial is Julie Frymyer. She's the one that Mahomes has credited with allowing him to play in the Super Bowl two years ago, when the Chiefs defeated the 49ers in OT for his third championship.

If you remember, Mahomes had been injured in the AFC Championship Game and appeared like he might be done for that game and a possible Super Bowl. Instead, he played through both. 

Here's what had to say after the AFC win: 

Julie WAS the reason i was the guy i was on the field today! It takes everyone but she lead the charge all week!!! Now let’s get Super Bowl ready!! https://t.co/glPKlL9Qz3

— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) January 30, 2023

So what's the big deal about Julie Frymyer here?

Well, if you take a look at her resume, then you'll see where she worked before she went to Kansas City. And that would be ... 

... well, Princeton, obviously. 

Frymyer spent three years at Princeton as an athletic trainer. She and TB were fill-ins on the baseball team's trip to the 2016 NCAA regional in Lafayette, Louisiana. 

As TB has written many times before, that trip has been one of the highlights of his 30-plus years at Princeton. Lafayette turned out to be one of the best places you could ever hope to go for a college baseball regional, with huge crowds, the nicest people and great food. 

TB didn't see Frymyer much other than during that time, mostly saying "hello" to each other as they passed by on their way to here or there. He hasn't spoken to her since she left Princeton, even though she's still in his contacts as "Trainer Julie."

Still, he always remembers her as a very warm, friendly person who did her job very professionally. And she was a big part of the Tiger travel party for that great week in Lafayette. 

TB has even forgiven her for not following through on her promise to bake something for him for his birthday, which was a few weeks after the NCAA regional. In fairness, she didn't say which birthday, so maybe next year.  

He was happy for her when she moved on to the NFL and for when Mahomes began to give her so much credit for his success. Still, he was a bit stunned to see her on a TV commercial. And thrilled for her. 

He assumes that Mahomes was the driving force behind her appearance. The fact that Meaghan Trainor had the right last name to make it work might have been the starting point. 

After he saw the commercial, he texted "Trainer Julie." He wasn't sure she had the same number or even remembered him, but she got back to him quickly. 

He asked her what it was like to be in the commercial, and here is what she said: 

"It was a nerve wracking at first as it was out of my comfort zone, haha. But it was definitely a great experience and super fun. I'm very honored that they asked me to be a part of it. I'm privileged  and blessed to get to do what I love with such amazing people!"

As for the commercial, it starts with Frymyer's taping an ankle, while Trainor goes through her routine. It ends with a no-look fist bump between Frymyer and Mahomes. 

The connection between an athletic trainer and an athlete is a deep one, especially if the athlete is one who has to spend an unfortunate amount of time in the training room. That's a place where no athlete wants to be — but having full trust in the person whose job it is to get you back onto the playing field is essential. 

So is appreciating that effort. 

That's the best part of the commercial. Yes, it was great to see an old friend be included. 

It was even better to see who was doing the including — and why.