Monday, November 10, 2025

Just Perfect

Is it still College Sports Communicators Appreciation Week? 

No? It ended? 

Well in that case, TigerBlog would like to say that he does NOT appreciate his colleague Joanna Dwyer, not after what she said at last week's Office of Athletic Communications staff meeting.

Turns out she's leaving Princeton. What the? 

TigerBlog is kidding of course. He very much appreciates Joanna, a relative novice in this business. She graduated from Elon in 2024 and then came to Princeton to start her career. And now she's moving on to a school in the Big Ten. 

That would be USC, by the way. TigerBlog is actually happy for her, even if his colleague Andrew Borders might not be. Andrew is a UCLA grad and USC, well, it's not his favorite. 

As for Joanna, she will be spending her time at USC poolside, as her teams to cover will be water polo and swimming and diving. Here she is with the Princeton men's water polo team a year ago, after its NWPC championship. 

Joanna brought enthusiasm, energy, work ethic and passion to her year-plus at Princeton. She made every day of her time as a Tiger fun, which is a big, big plus. She's one of those people you meet that you know that everyone takes an immediate liking to when she enters their orbit.

The same is true of the other recent college grad who started at the same time as Joanna, Alex Henn. Alex is now TB's favorite of the two, largely because she is not moving across the country. 

Alex certainly wouldn't be doing that now. Not with where her beloved Princeton men's soccer team is these days. 

Princeton ended its regular season Saturday afternoon at Penn and did so in a way that can only be described with one word: Perfect. 

The Tigers made history at Penn with their 1-0 win, In doing so, Princeton completed its Ivy League schedule a perfect 7-0-0.

Okay, that's been done before. Princeton has done it three times now. What was the history? 

Princeton outscored its seven Ivy opponents by a combined 12-0. That's ZERO goals allowed in seven league games — and that's never been done before. 

And that's perfection. 

Before this, only once had a team gone through the seven Ivy games and allowed only a single goal, and that was Yale back in 1986. There were three other times that a team had allowed only two.

Think about what goes into not allowing any goals in a seven-game stretch. No corner kick that took a crazy bounce in the area. No counter in a game you were dominating. 

Princeton allowed 71 shots in seven league games. Of those, there were 24 on goal. There was one penalty kick. 

And nothing made its way into the net. Nothing. Zip. Perfect. 

Princeton's season has been something of a dream to this point. The Tigers have spent much of the year as the No. 1 team in the Division I RPI before slipping to No. 2, behind only Maryland. They are also the No. 3 team in the country in the coaches' poll. 

In many ways, though, the season is just beginning. 

Next up will be the Ivy League tournament on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, beginning Thursday with the semifinal game between Cornell and Penn and then followed by Princeton and Harvard. The winners will meet Sunday for the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Princeton doesn't need that automatic bid. Its spot in the NCAA field was cinched a few weeks back. How much of a run can Princeton make? It'll be worth being at Myslik Field for any game the Tigers play there.

Alex Henn will be. Joanna Dwyer won't. She'll be heading across the country to start her new job. 

Joanna wasn't here very long. Still, you could tell how much this place has meant to her when she made her announcement at the end of the meeting last week. 

She could barely get the words out without tearing up. Her emotions were obvious, and genuine.  

TB will miss her. And he wishes her all the best.  

 

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