Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Called For Traveling

The field hockey bus home from Harvard after the Ivy League tournament championship Sunday was, as you might expect, festive. 

Except in the second seat on the right side of the bus. In that seat it was all business, at least for, oh, about four hours. 

Tiffani Semanchik is a Princeton Athletics travel coordinator, and she was doing all sorts of coordinating from her seat on the field hockey bus. She came to support the field hockey team for its trip to Harvard, but her focus had to be in more places than just Massachusetts. 

With the air travel issues of last weekend, Semanchik spent much of the weekend figuring out how to, among other things, get the women's basketball team back and forth to Atlanta for its game against Georgia Tech. It wasn't easy. 

The women's basketball team spent 14 hours in Newark Airport Saturday, with tip time at Georgia Tech set for 2 pm Sunday. Three times the Tigers got on an airplane. Three times there was another issue that prevented take-off.

By the time Princeton got to Atlanta, it was 1:45 am. Tip off was a little more than 12 hours away. 

So what happened? Princeton opened its season with a 67-61 win over its ACC opponent. Now that's impressive. 

Princeton also made its way home, despite the fact that its return flight was first delayed and then cancelled. That's why Semanchik was so busy over on the field hockey bus. 

For most of the trip back, Semanchik came up with every possible permutation and solution for how to get a team from Atlanta to Princeton. TigerBlog isn't sure how many phone calls she made and who those recipients were, but she dove in and tackled the challenge as if she was a player readying for a big game. 

In the end, the team had to bus back, stopping overnight in Raleigh. There were drivers to be found, hotel rooms needing to booked and every other detail along the way. Tiffani was all over it — all while watching the Georgia Tech game on her laptop at the same time.  

TigerBlog always like to salute his colleagues who go above and beyond with little to no recognition, and this was one of those times. Well done, Tiffani. The field hockey staff, who was seated around her the entire time, marveled at her determination and thoroughness. 

So did TB. In fact, when she was finally able to close down her computer, TigerBlog said something to her that made her know how much she was appreciated: "Hey Tiff. Did you consider putting them on the train?" 

He was joking, of course. He was as impressed as anyone else who was around her. 

The Princeton women's basketball team has to travel again today, this time a much shorter distance. This time the destination is Villanova, where the Tigers and Wildcats will play at 7 tonight. 

The fact that Princeton overcame everything it did to win at Georgia Tech is a reminder of a very fundamental tenet of Jadwin Gym: Never, ever, ever underestimate Carla Berube. 

The game also marked the return of senior Madison St. Rose, whose junior season ended after only four games due to knee injury. St. Rose was one of four Tigers in double figures in scoring against Georgia Tech, with 13 points, five rebounds and four assists. 

Fadima Tall led the team with 16 points, followed by Olivia Hutcherson's 15. Ashley Chea had 12. Not that it matters who leads the team in scoring. First, as you recall, Berube's teams are always built around defense. 

Second, this looks like a team where it'll be hard to gameplan around just one major scoring threat. That's always a good thing. 

Tall, by the way, was named the Ann Meyers Drysdale USBWA National Player of the Week. That's a great way to start off your new season, right? 

And TB supposes, maybe there's a Player of the Week award out there for Tiffani Semanchik? 

Clearly she deserves some sort of recognition.  


 

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