A 2-1 Two For One

It was a 2-1 two-for-one.

Unfortunately for Princeton, that is. 

Actually, perhaps "unfortunately" is too harsh a word. It has too much of a negative connotation, and, short of the outcome, there was absolutely nothing negative about either of the 2-1s. 

And while it might have been the greatest Saturday for Princeton Athletics, it's important to step back and appreciate the incredible accomplishments that went into the 2-1 two-for-one.

First of all, what does TigerBlog mean by "2-1 two-for-one?"

There were two championship events for Princeton Saturday night. Both ended 2-1. Princeton, in both, had the one. 

One of the the was the ECAC men's hockey final, where Princeton lost to Dartmouth by that 2-1 score, this time in overtime. The other one was the NCAA wrestling 125-pound final, where Princeton's Marc-Anthony McGowan lost 2-1 to Penn State's No. 1 seeded Luke Lilledahl. 

That's two 2-1s. A 2-1 two-for-one.  

So that part is unfortunate. To come so close to a championship like that? It stings. Very much so. And for a very long time. 

It takes TigerBlog back to something that he heard head field hockey coach Carla Tagliente once say in a similar situation. To paraphrase: when you put that much of yourself into something and fall short, it's supposed to hurt; if it doesn't, you're not invested enough. 

Carla is 100 percent correct. Also, so this doesn't get to be too much of a downer, here's a picture of her new dog:

Say hi to "Rocky." That's a great face. 

Okay, back to today's point.

Yes, it's supposed to sting, and it definitely does. TB has been in too many of those lockerrooms through the years not to have learned that (he's fortunate to be in on the other side too).

Still, sometimes just putting yourself in position like that is worth celebrating.  

TB starts with McGowan. A sophomore from Tampa who attended prep wrestling power Blair Academy, McGowan has twice been the Ivy League champion at his weight — and in fact is the only 125-pound champ the Ivy League has ever had, since it's only been two years of the tournament. 

He reached the NCAA tournament a year ago, winning one match and losing two. This year, he entered as the No. 10 seed, which is impressive but isn't exactly the prime spot for making a long run. 

Make a run he did, however, including a quarterfinal win over No. 2 seed Eddie Ventresca of Virginia Tech. Lilledahl, also a sophomore, finished off a 25-0 season by edging out McGowan in a defensive matchup. 

That match took place about an hour after the conclusion of the ECAC men's hockey final. Princeton, picked eighth in the league's preseason poll, ended the regular season in fourth, earning a first-round bye and home ice for the league quarterfinal series, a sweep over Union. 

That advanced the Tigers to this weekend's single-elimination league final four, which began when Dartmouth blanked Clarkson 4-0 Friday in a game that started at 4. Princeton then played shortly after seven, against Cornell, the two-time defending league champion.

The Big Red scored early, as in 2:33 in, but Princeton scored twice in the second period to go up before Cornell tied it at 2-2. That set the stage for the game-winner from Joshua Karnish with 7:55 left in the third. 

Princeton then had to kill off a penalty and a pulled goalie. If you watched, you saw Tigers' flying everywhere in the defensive zone, getting bodies in front of pucks and doing everything possible to keep the Big Red from the tie. 

It was an unrelenting effort, and also a draining one. And now Princeton had to turn around to play the final at 5 Saturday — a little more than 19 hours after the semifinal ended.  

What was on the line? A Princeton would win have meant an NCAA tournament appearance, something that Dartmouth (and Cornell for that matter) already had secured. 

Did Princeton have anything left after the Cornell win? 

Princeton fell behind again, this time on a power play goal midway through the first. It would stay that way until less than nine minutes were left in the third, when again Karnish came up huge, this time to tie it. 

To overtime it went. Princeton seemed to have the best of the chances — but it was Dartmouth who snuck one in after 11 minutes. 

Just like that, it was game over, season over. 

Of course that stings. In a major way.

It's the immediacy of it that hurts the most. You go from maximum effort to having it end on a dime. Your first instinct is "no, there has to be something we can do," and then you realize there isn't. 

Well, there is. You can appreciate the magnitude of what you've done, the effort that you put out, the way there was really nothing left of you that wasn't thrown into competing. You can do all those things. 

You just can't do it in the moment. 

Congrats to McGowan and to the men's hockey team.

It was amazing to watch you.  

Madness And More

The Siena men's basketball team almost beat Duke — and almost tied Bill Carmody. 

In the end, neither happened. 

Siena, a 16-seed, led No. 1 seed Duke by as many as 14 points before the Blue Devils rallied for a 71-65 victory. The Bill Carmody part? 

Well, TigerBlog got a text from his longtime friend and former colleague John Cornell yesterday afternoon that Siena was "going all Bill Carmody on us right here." It took TB a few seconds to realize what he meant. 

If you recall the opening round of the 1999 NIT between Princeton and Georgetown at Jadwin Gym, Carmody — then the Tiger head coach — played only five players the entire way. Five guys. Forty minutes each. 

Princeton won the game 54-47. Can you name the five players who went all 40 minutes? 

As for Siena yesterday, head coach Gerry McNamara went with the same five until he subbed with 10.8 seconds remaining, when he made his only lineup change of the day. He was left with four players who went all 40 and one who went 39:49.2. 

Why did he do this? TB looked at Siena's stats and saw that the Saints had three players average at least 30 minutes this season, with three more over 20 minutes and four more over 10. Also, clearly his five guys were exhausted at the end. 

The Princeton answer, by the way, is Chris Young, Mason Rocca, Brian Earl, Ahmed El-Nokali and Gabe Lewullis.  

The first full day of NCAA tournament games yesterday featured that near upset and a genuine upset, when 12th-seed High Point defeated fifth-seed Wisconsin 83-82. It might seem shocking that the Big South champ could beat a Big 10 team, and in many ways it is. Still, High Point is now 31-4. It doesn't matter what league you're in; when you're used to winning, you know what to do at the end. 

The same, hopefully, will be true for the ninth-seed Princeton women's basketball team, who brings a 26-3 record into its Round 1 game tomorrow night (7:25) against eight-seed Oklahoma State at UCLA. The Cowgirls are 23-9 overall, 12-6 in the Big 12. 

If you want to read a little more about Madison St. Rose, by the way, there was this piece from Emilia Reay in the Asbury Park Press.  

Here's an interesting note about the game: The Princeton women are the only New Jersey team, men's or women's, who reached the Division I tournament. 

Meanwhile, there is more to March than just the Madness. For Princeton, there are also two games against Cornell. 

The Princeton men's hockey team will play the Big Red in the second ECAC semifinal tonight at 7:00 in Lake Placid, after the game between Dartmouth and Clarkson. The final will be tomorrow evening at 5, with an automatic NCAA tournament bid for the winner. 

Princeton and Cornell have split two meetings so far this season, with each on top at home. For Cornell, that meant a 2-1 win in Ithaca on Jan. 16. For Princeton, it was a 4-2 win at Baker Rink Feb. 21.

Princeton went to Lake Placid Wednesday after sweeping Union at home last weekend, winning two games by a 5-2 count. The Tigers in Year 2 under Ben Syer finished in fourth place during the regular season, which meant a first-round bye and home ice last weekend. 

Elsewhere in Princeton-Cornell news, those two will meet tomorrow at noon at Sherrerd Field in men's lacrosse. 

Since the start of last season, Princeton is 18-5, with two of those losses to the Big Red, who happen to be the defending NCAA champion. Princeton's other three losses are to Penn State this year (Princeton won last year) and Maryland and Syracuse last year (both of whom Princeton has defeated this year).

Princeton is ranked third in all three polls (Inside Lacrosse, USILA, USA Lacrosse Magazine) but is No. 1 in the first RPI, which was released this week. The Tigers have won five straight since that opening loss to Penn State, and all five are against RPI Top 20 teams, including two in the top 10). 

Cornell has two losses this season, to Richmond and Penn State. Like Princeton (who won at Yale), Cornell won its Ivy opener last week against Brown. 

If you want to see the full weekend schedule for Princeton's teams, click HERE.  

Let The Games Begin

Welcome to what is the start of the favorite few days of the annual sporting calendar for, oh, quite a few million of you. 

It's the start of the first full day of the NCAA basketball tournaments. There will be wall-to-wall basketball for the next few days, as the 128 teams in Round 1 of the two tournaments get whittled down to the 32 who will remain for the two Sweet 16s.  

You'll hear people bemoan the demise of their brackets. You'll watch the end of more than one upset. You'll fall in love with a player whose name you do not yet know. 

And you'll prove what TigerBlog has always said. 

The NCAA basketball tournaments are unlike any other postseason event in that they get less and less interesting with each passing round. The excitement of the next few days begins to wane, for several reasons — mostly because 1) the sheer quantity of games day and night almost surely will lead to something amazing and 2) all the people who have filled out their own brackets are dialed in to whatever upsets they've chosen. 

Want proof? 

Ask yourself to name as many great first-round games as you can. Then ask yourself to name as many great Sweet 16 games as you can. 

See?

For the teams involved, the time between the Selection Show and opening tip-off is a strange mix of a complete blur and of having time stand still. TigerBlog has been lucky to have traveled with Princeton Basketball teams to the NCAA tournament, and every part of the experience is to be cherished. 

At the same time, there's also a game to play — or hopefully games. Just as the journey is incredible, the destination cannot be overlooked. 

After all, this is your chance to make history, the kind that will be referred to decades after the fact, as those wonderful highlights that pop up this time each year remind everyone. 

Each team gets its day-before practice at the actual venue. Those are more walkthroughs. The actual practicing goes on in some small college gym, or even a local high school gym. 

The Princeton women's basketball team has had to deal with all kinds of logistical challenges once it was announced Sunday that the team would be flying all the way across the country for its NCAA opener at UCLA. If you forgot, the Tigers are the No. 9 seed in their region (Sacramento 2) and will take on No. 8 Oklahoma State Saturday night at 7:30 Eastern time in the first round. 

The winner of that game gets the winner of the game between the top-seeded Bruins and No. 16 Cal-Baptist. 

If you're going to be the lower seed and want to win an NCAA game, logic suggests that the best spot to be is No. 9. If you want to win two games, well, the likely second-round opponent is the No. 1 seed, in this case, a UCLA team that is 31-1 and has a good a chance as anyone to win it all. 

But hey, that's why you play, right? Both Oklahoma State and Princeton would love to have the chance to be the one to make that kind of history. 

Speaking of history, here's something you might not have known about Oklahoma State's teams (this comes from the website visitstillwater.org):

For a decade, students had been fiercely competing in inter-class sports. However, with the formation of the football team, they were encouraged to set aside class rivalries and unite under a common banner. The students chose the Tigers as their mascot and adopted the orange and black colors, inspired by the tradition of Princeton University. This led to Oklahoma A&M being affectionately dubbed the “Princeton of the Prairie.” Despite lacking a paid coach, 14 determined young men made up the Tiger squad for their first season. 

Princeton of the Prairie. How about that? 

The Princeton of the Prairie and the Princeton in New Jersey have never played before. Ok State is 5-0 all-time against the Ivy League, most recently with a win over Harvard in 2022. 

The Cowgirls, as they are known now, do have one Princeton connection: assistant coach Robyne Bostick was an assistant at Princeton in the 2001-02 season. Also, in keeping with the way of the world, the 13-player OSU roster includes eight players who are transfers. 

Lastly, here's an interesting fact for you: Between the two teams, there are 10 players who average in double figures in scoring — and an 11th who averages 9.9.

Let the games begin. Enjoy the next few days. 

It's the best part of the Madness.  

Personal Fowl

Did you hear about the all-turkey basketball team? 

Couldn't win a game. Too many fowls.  

TigerBlog has finally calmed down from what he saw when he opened his door yesterday morning. He even got a picture of the scene to share with all of you. 

Yup. There they are. TB's own personal fowls. They stopped off at his front door, gave a little gobble and kept wandering away to the trees.

His neighbor Linda had a different name for them. She's the one who puts out corn for the turkeys and deer and anyone else who strolls by. Yesterday these two chased her all the way to her front door, gobbling aggressively the whole time. 

What did Linda call them? Ungrateful fowls.

And with that, TB apologizes for the fowl language. 

Meanwhile, you know what always sounds good before an athlete's name? No, not "Ungrateful." How about "First-team All-American."

The NCAA indoor track and field championships were held this past weekend in Fayetteville, Ark., and every Princeton athlete who competed came back as an All-American. That's pretty good, right? 

Georgina Scoot and Alexandra Kelly both leapt their way to first-team status, Scoot in the triple jump and Kelly in the long jump. Scott broke the Ivy League record in the triple jump with a 13.49 while finishing sixth, though you don't have to feel for the previous record holder, since it was Scoot at 13.47. 

In fact, her senior indoor season saw her win the event at the Ivy Heps championships for the fourth straight time, and the record she broke in Arkansas was set at the most recent Heps.

Kelly finished third in the long jump, in a program record 6.54m to earn her own first-team honors. Like Scoot, Kelly is also a senior. She has three indoor Heps long jump titles to her credit. 

From the time the NCAA indoor meet started in 1983 through last year, Princeton had one woman finish in the top three: Cack Ferrell in the 3,000 meters in 2005. Princeton has now had two more in each of the last two years, with Kelly this year and a second-place finish Mena Scratchard in the mile last year. 

This was also the first time Princeton women's track and field had two indoor first-team All-Americans in the same year. 

As for the men, Greg Foster became a first-team All-American in the long jump with his fourth-place finish, one that almost became higher until three jumpers passed him with personal bests at the end. Foster was already the Ivy record holder in the event, and he is also a four-time Heps indoor winner in the long jump.

In addition, this was his second first-team All-American honor and first indoors. 

Joe Licata was another first-team All-American, with his in the shot put. Licata finished sixth overall with a personal best of 65-11, one that puts him second all-time at Princeton.  

Who's first? Funny you should ask. 

First, there's the matter of who was second? That would have been C.J. Licata, at 64-10. The last name seems familiar, right? 

And second, who is still first? That would be Augie Wolf, a 1984 U.S. Olympian whose 66-1.75 at the 1983 NCAA championships has stood for 43 years now. Wolf, by the way, finished fourth at those 1984 Olympic Games. 

Back here in 2026, Princeton's 4x400 relay team of Jonathan York, Xavier Donaldson, Kavon Miller and Joey Gant finished sixth, earning themselves first-team All-American as well. 

Myles Hogan finished 10th in the 5,000, while Connor McCormick finished 13th in the mile. Both became second-team All-Americans. 

Still ahead are the NCAA Championships this weekend in men's and women's fencing (which for the first time will have separate national champs, as opposed to one co-ed winner), wrestling and men's and women's swimming and diving. 

If you're wondering, the fencing will be at Notre Dame, the wrestling will be in Cleveland and the swimming and diving will be in Atlanta.  

Will there be more first-team All-American Tigers after all of that?  

ILT Champs, Again

 

There's absolutely nothing in the world of college athletics like an NCAA Selection Show, regardless of the sport. 

None of the teams know what their seed or opponent will be until everybody finds out. The teams on the bubble don't know if they're in or out any earlier than a casual fan. 

The joy you see from each team's reaction shot on television is 100 percent genuine. In the case of the women's basketball tournament — whose current bids were announced Sunday night — it doesn't matter if you're UConn or the team that has to play UConn. 

That moment when you see your team's name flash across? It freezes in time and stays with every member of the team forever. 

It's a reward for the season to date. It's an acknowledgement of the challenge ahead. 

As the draw is revealed, teams have a sense of where they're going to be slotted. As such, whenever that portion of the bracket comes up, the energy in the room rises and rises — until another team's name is shown. Then you cross off that bracket and that location and start to think about where else you might be headed.  

Unless you see your name quickly, the drama builds and builds and builds. And with that, TigerBlog will pause and get back to the building drama. But first: 

Here's an actual text message that TB received Saturday evening: 

Seriously, Fadima Tall just played one of the greatest basketball games that any Princeton player ever has. 

Yes, that's quite a statement. On the other hand, the sender would know. He's as big a Princeton fan as TigerBlog has ever met — and he's not prone to things like overstatement or recency bias. 

The message came shortly after Princeton defeated Harvard 63-53 in the Ivy League women's tournament final Saturday, taking the championship for the sixth time in the eight years the event has been contested. 

How good was Tall? The 6-1 junior played 38 minutes and scored 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting, with seven rebounds, three assists and four steals. That's a great all-around performance. Deservedly, Tall was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. 

Ah, but the defining quality of this Princeton team is that it doesn't not rely on any one player, or even any two players. On any given night, or really on any given possession, any Tiger on the floor can be the dominant one. 

Consider the last four minutes of the championship game. 

Princeton lead by eight early in the fourth quarter, only to see Harvard come back and tie it at twice, the second time at 51-51 with 4:01 to play. Keep in mind that Princeton was headed to the NCAA tournament no matter what, whether it won the game (automatic bid) or didn't (a lock for an at-large). Harvard, on the other hand, had only one path in — win the last four minutes and the autobid. 

So what happened? Would the momentum of getting back into the game so quickly and the immediacy of needing the win be the difference? No. 

Princeton went on a 12-2 run to close it out. It was a remarkable finishing sprint, one that was spurred by Olivia Hutcherson, who finished with 12 points in the game, of which eight came in those final four minutes. 

In other words, again, this was a team effort. 

It was also a defensive effort. Princeton won its semifinal game 65-51 over Brown (Tall had 11 points and 10 rebounds), which included with the championship meant the Tigers allowed 103 points in the two games, or 51.5. 

For the season, Princeton allowed an average of 60 per game. That number could have been 160 per game. When it comes to the Ivy tournament, Carla Berube's teams always clamp down. 

In fact, Princeton has allowed an average of 56.3 points per game in nine ILT games since Berube became head coach. Not shockingly, Princeton is now 8-1 in those games. 

And now, to get back to the Selection Show, the tournament title left Princeton as the lone Ivy representative. It also left the team knowing that its name would be coming up somewhere along the way.

Where would the Tigers go? And who would be waiting there for them?  

It was fairly obvious that the team was headed to either an 8-9 game or a 7-10 game. Would it would be Storrs? Nope. That came and went without the Tigers. That also meant the team was almost surely getting on a plane.

And that's what happened. In the UCLA pod of the Sacramento 2 Regional, first it was a No. 1 seed UCLA and a No. 16 seed Cal Baptist. Then it was a No. 8, Oklahoma State. Seconds later, Princeton came up as the No. 9. 

With that, one kind of drama ended. 

Another one — the one that includes travel logistics, scouting, game prep, tickets, media appearances and everything that goes into an NCAA tournament game — was just beginning.  

 

Ice Sculpture

TigerBlog finds it amazing that the Princeton men's hockey team has won three ECAC championships — in 1998, 2008 and 2018. 

What are the chances of that? Three titles, all spaced 10 years apart. 

Is there any other team that has the same numerical trajectory?  

And while TB is asking questions, could the current Tigers change that history? Well, they're two games away from doing so. 

Those won't be two easy games. At least the 2025-26 team has a chance to try for the big prize. 

Princeton earned that chance this past weekend, sweeping away Union in the ECAC quarterfinals at Hobey Baker Rink with back-to-back 5-2 wins. Of those 10 goals, six of them came from Kai Daniells and Jake Manfre, who had three apiece in the series. Half of those 10 goals came off assists from David Jacobs.

On the other end of the ice, Arthur Smith made 63 saves in the two games, including 34 Saturday night.  

The series was the first postseason home appearance for Princeton since 2018 and the first home quarterfinal series since 2009. The two wins mean that Princeton finishes the season 14-2-1 at home — and Baker Rink has once again become a very electric venue. 

The two games might have had the same score, but they got there two completely different ways. 

Game 1 Friday night was all Tigers. It was 1-0 after the first period, 3-0 after the second and 4-0 early in the third.  

Game 2 Saturday night? That was a bit different. 

Princeton scored first but then fell behind 2-1 after two periods, the second Union goal a shorthanded one. Would there be a Game 3 in this series? 

Uh, no. Not after the four-goal third period Princeton put up. 

It took three minutes to tie it, on a Jaxson Ezman power play goal. It took four more to take the lead, when Daniells, who had all three of his in Saturday's clincher, finished off a cross-crease backhanded feed from Jacobs. 

What a play!!

Jacobs to Daniells and the Tigs are up 3-2!! @ecachockey | @TeamECH | @NCAAIceHockey pic.twitter.com/k1w5lySyBH

— Princeton Men's Ice Hockey (@princetonhockey) March 15, 2026

It's hard to say which of the 10 goals was the prettiest, but this way up the list. Jacobs' pass laid out perfectly to Daniells' stick, even though there were three, or maybe even four, Union players who were in the vicinity, not counting the goalie. 

Empty net goals don't usually turn up on the list of the prettiest goals, but the two Saturday night certainly did. The first came from Manfre, who outsprinted a Union defender to the loose puck to jam it into the goal. The second came from Daniells, whose shot from the Princeton blue line made its way under the Union goalie as he tried unsuccessfully to get back into the net. 

What's amazing about the streak of one championship every 10 years is that the intervening years were not very kind. Princeton had eight losing seasons between the 1998 and 2008 titles. There were seven losing seasons between 2008 and 2018. 

Since 2018, Princeton has had six losing seasons — out of six seasons played. That included last year, when the Tigers went 12-14-3 in the Ben Syer's first season as head coach.

How do you turn that around so quickly?  

The wins this weekend improved Princeton to 17-12-3. They also vaulted Princeton into the ECAC semifinals, which will take place this coming weekend in Lake Placid. 

Because the tournament is constantly reseeded, it wasn't until yesterday's deciding Game 3 between Cornell and Harvard that the matchups for Lake Placid could be set. Now they are. 

It'll be Dartmouth vs. Clarkson in the first semifinal Friday at 4, followed by Princeton and Cornell Friday at 7. The championship game will be Saturday at 5:30. 

The winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Can it be Princeton? Why not the Tigers — even if it is two years early.  

Either way, what Syer  and his staff and players have done this season has been remarkable. This past weekend was the end of the games at Baker Rink for 2025-26. The atmosphere there for the two games was amazing.  

And to still be playing this late into March, with a chance to keep it going? 

Who could have asked for more from this team?  

Tip-Off, Face-Off

The current UMass men's basketball season began with a 78-72 loss to Marshall on Nov. 3. 

That was a Monday. What was Justin Lafleur doing that day? He was getting ready for the upcoming Princeton-Dartmouth football game. 

After all, he was the Dartmouth football athletic communications contact at the time. He probably in his wildest imagination couldn't have anticipated that, come March, he'd be the contact for a team that would make the biggest seismic impact on the NCAA men's basketball selections. 

And yet there he was yesterday in Cleveland, in his new role with the UMass men's basketball team, watching his new team take down previously 31-0 Miami 87-83 to advance to the MAC semifinals. UMass had lost six of seven games heading into the tournament.

Will Miami get an at-large bid? Probably. If so, then that also means that the MAC will have more than one team for the first time since 1999, which further means some other team is now on the outside looking in. 

Congrats to Justin, one of the really good guys in college athletic communications. And one of the hardest working. 

Justin's athletic communications counterpart for that football game against Princeton back in November was Warren Croxton, who is also the contact for the women's basketball team. As such, he is in Ithaca for the Ivy League tournament, which begins today at 4:30 when the top-seeded Tigers take on Brown, followed by the second game, between Columbia and Harvard. 

Princeton went 2-0 against Brown this season and allowed 86 points in the two games combined against a team that averages 61 per game. Speaking of defense, the Bears lead the Ivy League, allowing just 56.5 per game; Princeton scored 58 and 69 in the two wins. 

The Tigers, for their part, led the Ivy League in scoring offense, with 73.1 points per game, the highest total in any of Carla Berube's six seasons as head coach. The Tigers start four players who average double figures and a fifth who averages 9.8. 

Brown is led by unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection Grace Arnolie, whose father Anthony was on Penn's basketball team and was a classmate of TigerBlog's, who sought him out at the game this year at Jadwin Gym to say hello and who had to explain that while, yes, in fact, TB was dressed head-to-toe in Princeton gear that he was, in fact, a Penn classmate. Arnolie (Grace) was second in the league in scoring at 17.5 per game and had 14 in each game against Princeton.

As TB said, tip-off will be at 4:30, which means that you can watch that game on ESPN+ and then shift over to the men's hockey game against Union, also on ESPN+.  Opening face-off is at 7 from Hobey Baker Rink. 

The game is the start of a best-of-three ECAC quarterfinal series, with Game 2 tomorrow at 7 and, if necessary, Game 3 Sunday at 4. The winner gets a trip to the ECAC semifinals next weekend in Lake Placid.

Princeton, the fourth seed, is playing a home ECAC quarterfinal series for the first time since 2009 and for the first time in the ECAC playoffs at all since 2018. It's been a remarkable turnaround in Year 2 under head coach Ben Styer, as the Tigers went from a ninth-place finish with 25 points last year to a fourth-place finish with 37 points this season. 

Princeton split its two games against Union this season, with a 5-1 win at Union and a 4-2 loss at Baker Rink. 

Princeton had two All-ECAC selections, with goalie Arthur Smith and forward Kai Daniells both named to the third team. Daniells leads the team with 16 goals and is second with 16 assists (David Jacobs leads the team with 20 assists), which makes Daniells the first Tiger with at least 16 of each in a season since Ryan Kuffner had 22 goals and 22 assists in 2017-18, the last time Princeton reached the NCAA tournament.  

The other quarterfinals have Clarkson at No. 1 Quinnipiac, Colgate at No. 2 Dartmouth and Harvard at No. 3 Cornell. As an aside, two of the other seven remaining teams have Directors of Athletics who used to work at Princeton — Colgate's Yariv Amir and Union's Jim McLaughlin. 

The semifinal matchups will be determined by seedings among the four remaining teams. 

Yeah, No

Today TigerBlog tries something a little different: 

Yeah — The Princeton women's hockey team plays its NCAA tournament opener tonight against UConn, at Penn State's Pegula Ice Arena. Opening face-off is at 7. You can watch it on ESPN+.

No — Princeton was swept by UConn this season in Storrs, with scores of 2-1 and 3-0. 

Yeah — Those games were nearly five months ago. 

Yeah — Princeton is making its fifth NCAA tournament appearance after a season in which the team won its first ECAC regular season title.

Yeah — The winner of the Princeton-UConn game will face the host Nittany Lions Saturday at 2, with the winner to the Frozen Four, which will also be at Penn State. 

No — To get to the Frozen Four, Princeton would have to get past UConn and then a Penn State team coached by longtime friend and former Tiger head coach Jeff Kampersal (who was the first Princeton hockey player TB ever wrote about, back in the early 1990s).

Yeah — The men's hockey team opens its ECAC quarterfinal series tomorrow at 7 at home against Union. Game 2 will be Saturday at 7. Game 3, if necessary, will be Sunday at 4. 

Yeah — If you haven't seen THIS STORY on a group of Princeton Hockey superfans who call themselves "The Hobey Bakers," make sure you read it. 

Yeah — The writer of the piece is Princeton sophomore Emilia Reay, who also writes for the Daily Princetonian and has dived in headfirst to helping TB at men's lacrosse home games. 

No — Emilia does some great Princeton commentaries on her Instagram account but has a limited following. Make sure you give a follow to: emiliareaycametoplay. 

Yeah — The NCAA indoor track and field championships will be held this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark., with four men's individuals, two women's individuals and one men's relay. 

Yeah — Greg Foster is the No. 2 seed in the long jump. 

Yeah — You can read more HERE and HERE. 

Yeah — Princeton men's lacrosse defenseman Jack Stahl added USILA Team of the Week honors to his Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week award after holding Rutgers' Colin Kurdyla to one goal on six shots. Kurdyla then responded with four goals and seven assists in his next game, a 19-4 Scarlet Knights win. 

Yeah — Stahl's performance against Kurdyla plus his performances against Syracuse's Joey Spallina and UNC's Owen Duffy resulted in three All-Americans who combined for two goals and four assists on 20 shots. Those three All-Americans in their following game after facing Stahl combined for seven goals and 13 assists. 

No — The Princeton men's tennis team was ranked 28th last week, when its only match was against No. 27 Pepperdine, a match Princeton won 4-1. This week's rankings? Pepperdine stayed at No. 27. Princeton dropped to No. 29.

Yeah — The men's and women's tennis teams are spending Spring Break in California. The women opened their trip with a 4-0 win over Fresno State and now play at Cal Poly today and then Loyola Marymount Saturday. The men play Memphis today and then San Diego Saturday, with both matches on San Diego's courts. 

No — Like the men, the women also dropped in the rankings, going from No. 37 last week to No. 54 this week. That's a 17-spot drop. And hey, keep in mind that Princeton didn't even play last week. 

Yeah — Speaking of California, the women's water polo team is also there for Spring Break. The 14th ranked Tigers will take on No. 2 UCLA today at 7 Eastern/4 Pacific in Los Angeles, with four more matches at the San Diego State Invitational this weekend. 

No — The women's water polo team will play eight times in all on this trip, but none will be against USC, whose athletic communications contact is former Princeton contact Joanna Dwyer.  

Yeah — It's the home opener for the softball team, who has a doubleheader Saturday and a single game Sunday against Binghamton. 

Yeah — This is Year 2 of the Cynthia Paul Field on the Meadows Campus. If you haven't been to a game there yet, make sure you do so this season; it's a great facility. 

No — A loyal reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, reminded TB that he wrote THIS several years back and Princeton Athletic siblings. In other words, he'd already answered his own question from earlier this week. 

No — TigerBlog is almost finished with "Packed To The Rafters," an Australian show that has 122 episodes in all. If you have Acorn TV, watch it; you'll be glad you did. 

Yeah — The complete weekend schedule is HERE. 

Berube By The Numbers

As a reminder, the Ivy League women's basketball tournament begins at Cornell Friday afternoon. 

Princeton, as the outright Ivy League champion, is the No. 1 seed and will take on fourth-seeded Brown at 4:30, followed by No. 2 Columbia and No. 3 Harvard. The winners will play Saturday at 5:30 for the tournament championship and the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. 

Nothing that happens in the tournament will change who the 2026 Ivy League champion is. That will be Princeton, not matter what.  

The semifinals can be seen on ESPN+. The final will be on ESPNU.

If you're looking for tickets, click HERE. 

And with that,  TigerBlog segues to something that he finds amazing. 

The Princeton women's basketball team enters the Ivy League tournament at Cornell Friday with a record of 24-3. Not bad, right? 

Given that the Tigers can lose no more than one game in Ivy Madness and no more than one game in the postseason awaits after that (almost surely the NCAA tournament), the maximum number of losses this team can have for 2025-26 would be five. 

That's really good, though it's not the amazing part. 

This is:

Carla Berube is in her 23rd season as a college basketball head coach. Counting this season, she will have lost five games or fewer in 13 of those seasons. 

Amazing, right? 

Actually, it becomes more incredible when you consider that only two of her first 10 teams at Tufts lost five or fewer, which means means that 11 of her last 13 teams have lost five games or fewer — including four of six at Princeton. 

Hey, if you want to throw in the four years she played at UConn, where none of those teams lost more than four games in a season, and in her 27 seasons as a player and head coach, she's up to 17 that have lost five or fewer. 

Oh, and this is the 14th straight year that her teams have lost two or fewer league games in a season. Fourteen? 

Think about it. Five losses? That's not a lot. Two league losses? That's also not a lot. 

Her overall record as she heads to Ivy Madness is 529-123. That's a winning percentage of .811. 

Her record at Princeton is 145-27. That's a winning percentage of .843. Within the league? She's 77-7. That's .917. 

Nine. One Seven. 

Also, she has a dog named "Scooby Berube." That might be the best thing about her. Just kidding. Just kidding. 

Berube and her staff of Lauren Gosselin, Lauren Dillon, Jordan Edwards and Lilly Paro were honored, again, as the Ivy League's Coaching Staff of the Year when the league awards were announced yesterday. 

In addition, Princeton had five players who received All-Ivy honors. To show you how balanced this group is, every one of those five has been the team's best player on more than one night this season. 

Madison St. Rose, who averaged 16.0 points per game this season, one year after suffering a torn ACL, was the team's lone first-team pick. St. Rose's resume now includes an Ivy League Rookie of the Year award and a second-team All-Ivy selection as a sophomore. 

St. Rose went over the 1,000-point mark earlier this season. It's likely that the next 1,000-point scorer in program history will be Skye Belker, a second-team selection this season for the second-straight time. Belker brings 971 points with her into the Ivy tournament. 

Fadima Tall was also a second-team selection for the second-straight year. Tall was a two-time Ivy League and National Player of the Week winner this season, is the team's leading rebounder and improved her shooting percentage (.408-.456) and three-point percentage (.323-.373).

To give you an example of the balance TB mentioned, consider that Ashley Chea and Olivia Hutcherson were both honorable mention selections. Has a team ever had two better honorable mention selections?  

None of those numbers and none of those honors will matter once the ball goes up Friday in Ithaca, and for whatever comes after that for this team. 

At the same time, it's not a bad moment to take stock in what Carla Berube has put together in her career. 

As TB said, it's definitely amazing.  

Oh MacDonalds

One of TigerBlog's very favorite families in Princeton Athletics history is the MacDonald Family of Georgetown, Ont. 

As TB has written before, he's played a card game with the MacDonalds in the past that revealed them to be ultra, ultra competitive. It didn't help that TB won, by the way. 

Steve and Linda MacDonald, the patriarch and matriarch of the family, nearly came to blows. Well, not really. There was some mention of divorce after decades and decades of marital bliss, though TB is pretty sure it was in jest. Yes, they're still together. 

Given all of this, TB can only imagine what's going between Mikey MacDonald, Princeton Class of 2015, and his younger sister Jami, a current Tiger senior. You remember Mikey MacDonald, right? He was the 2015 Roper Trophy winner as the top senior male athlete in his class. 

Mikey MacDonald was a lacrosse player. So is Jami. 

Here are two little facts that make TB chuckle:

* Mikey finished his Princeton career with 208 career points, which at the time was the fifth-highest total in program history and which is now seventh. Can you name the two players who've passed him, by the way? 

Jami? She enters tomorrow's game at Virginia with, wait for it, 207 career points. Can you imagine the trash talk? 

* There's also the fact that Jami was named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week yesterday after having four goals and four assists in Princeton's 19-13 win in its Ivy League opener at Harvard Saturday. It's the second time in her career Jami has been honored with the award. 

Ah, but here's a little fact that probably has not escaped the notice of someone in their house. Mikey was a three-time Ivy League Player of the Week. 

Of course, all of this got TB to thinking if Princeton has had another brother/sister combination where both have been Ivy Player of the Week. His first thought was of the Behnkes, where three soccer-playing siblings combined for six first-team All-Ivy League selections. Here's another trivia question: What were their names? 

TB knows for a fact that the sister was an Ivy Player of the Week. He figures one of the brothers, or probably both, were also honored. 

Is he overlooking anyone obvious? 

The answer to the two questions, by the way, are this: 1) both Michael Sowers and Coulter Mackesy have passed MacDonald and in fact are 1-2 all-time for the Princeton men and 2) you had Griff, Matt and Emily Behncke.

There have to be others, right? TB always overlooks some obvious answers when he asks questions like this. 

While the subject is Ivy League lacrosse Player of the Week awards, or at least tangentially related to that, TB would also like to mention Jack Stahl, the Ivy League men's Defensive Player of the Week. For all of the men's lacrosse players TB has known at Princeton, it's possible that Stahl is the quietest, or at least the one who least needs a spotlight. 

Here is what TB wrote for the story on goprincetontigers.com: 

It's possible that the Princeton men's lacrosse program has never had a player who shuns the spotlight more than Jack Stahl. Unfortunately for him with the way he is playing, that spotlight is going to find him.  

Stahl was honored for Princeton's 20-9 win over Rutgers Saturday. The junior defenseman once again was given the other team's best offensive player to guard, and once again he did exactly what he was supposed to do. 

This time, his assignment was Colin Kurlyda, an All-American who came in with 14 goals on the season. Stahl held Kurlyda to one goal, which came when the Tigers were ahead 19-5.

This came one week after Stahl held two other All-Americans, Syracuse's Joey Spallina and UNC's Owen Duffy, to a combined one goal. If you add those three performances together, Stahl allowed two goals on 20 shots, with five caused turnovers of his own. 

Stahl would have been TB's nominee for Ivy Defensive Player of the Week after that, except that goalie Ryan Croddick had a weekend for the ages. As such, TB was happy to see that he got the recognition he did this time around — even if it probably made him roll his eyes or something. 

Hey, play like he has been, and yes, this is what happens.  

Outright Champs

Forget your birthday.

Forget Christmas. Forget Thanksgiving — and Valentines' Day, your anniversary, your kids' birthdays. Forget all of that. 

Everybody's favorite day was yesterday. It was, after all, the first day of Daylight Savings Time.

Still light out after 7? Knowing that it's only going to keep staying light out longer and longer for the next few months? Who could be against that? 

Throw in how warm it was, at least in the Northeast, and it was a great day, right?  

By the way, remember that pesky rodent named Punxsutawney Phil? He was the one who said six more weeks of winter, as opposed to an early spring — and that was only 37 days ago. TigerBlog won't get into his big problem with that whole scam again. Actually, yes he will:

There are supposedly only two possible outcomes for when Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his slumber: either an early spring or six more weeks of winter. This is dependent on whether or not said groundhog sees his shadow. TB's problem with this is that six weeks from now is March 16. Spring doesn't begin until five days later. Presumably an early spring would mean warmer weather would arrive before spring actually does, and both outcomes are saying the same thing. It should say "eight more weeks of winter."

There was more to celebrate yesterday than just springing ahead for the women's hockey team. The NCAA tournament bids came out yesterday, and the Tigers — who dropped a tough overtime ECAC semifinal game to Quinnipiac Friday night — found themselves on the right side of the bubble. 

Princeton will be playing UConn Thursday night at 7 at Penn State, and the winner of that gets the host Nittany Lions (coached by former Princeton head coach Jeff Kampersal) Saturday. 

TB will have much more on hockey, both men's and women's, as the week goes along. As a reminder, though, the Princeton men will host Union in a best-of-three ECAC quarterfinal series Friday through Sunday, with the first two games at 7 and Sunday, if necessary, at 4. 

Meanwhile, back on Saturday, there was quite a bit of drama in the afternoon in Jadwin Gym. 

The final day of the Ivy League women's basketball season saw Princeton and Columbia both at 11-2, with Harvard confirmed as the No. 3 seed and Brown as the No. 4 in the upcoming Ivy League tournament. The No. 1 seed, and the league champion or champions, were still to be determined. 

As far as the championship, if both teams won, they would be co-champs. If one team won and the other didn't, the winner would be the outright champ. Columbia had the edge to the No. 1 seed with its season sweep of the Tigers. 

Both teams were playing at home — Princeton against Yale and Columbia against Harvard. Yale got out to a 16-2 lead. Columbia led by 12 at the half and by 16 in the second half. 

So what happened? 

First, Princeton came back to take an eight-point halftime lead for what became a 78-55 victory. With that, the Tigers had clinched at least a share of another championship. 

Ah, but Harvard came charging back against Columbia. Suddenly it was tied at the end of the third quarter. 

For TB's part, he was driving home after the men's lacrosse team's 20-9 win over Rutgers. As he did so, his friend and devoted Princeton Athletics fan Duncan Yin of the Class of 1982 kept him updated on the doings in Levien Gym. 

The extent to which Duncan was rooting for Harvard is hard to explain, and it wasn't due to the fact that he also has a degree from the Harvard Business School. He just really, really wanted Princeton to get that outright championship. 

In the end, that's what happened. At least, that's what TB thought happened. It was hard to tell over the joyous exaltations that were coming through the phone. 

Yes, it was true. The final was Harvard 68, Columbia 64. Princeton, 12-2, was the outright Ivy League champion. 

It got TB to wondering — exactly how many times has Carla Berube cut nets down, with all her championships at UConn, Tufts and Princeton? 

That can wait a few days. First, there is Ivy Madness at Cornell. 

Princeton is the No. 1 seed and will play Brown at 4:30 Friday, followed by Columbia and Harvard. The winners play at 5:30 Saturday for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, somewhere Princeton figures to be no matter the outcome this weekend. 

In the meantime, congrats to the Tigers on another Ivy championship.  

So Good, So Good, So Good

It's too bad you weren't at the Princeton Department of Athletics staff meeting yesterday. 

You missed out on hearing Deputy Director of Athletics Anthony Archbald's rendition of "Sweet Caroline."

It was part of what Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack calls "Forced Family Fun." These are the small games that he loves to bring out to start meetings, games that are designed to promote staff bonding, make things a little lighter and just generally remind everyone that there's a time to be serious and a time to laugh. 

Yesterday's game was "Grab the Mic," which saw two teams of five players randomly chosen (TigerBlog wasn't among them). The basic premise is that each team would put up one player at a time to go head-to-head with a player from the other team. A word would then flash up on the big screen in the front of the room, and the first player to "grab the mic" and sing a line or two from a song that had that lyric in it would earn a point for that team. 

One of the words, by the way, was "Family," as in the obvious "We are family." TB has been trying to think of another. 

Anthony's big performance was when the word "Sweet" came up. How was his singing? 

So good. So good. So good.

*

The Princeton women's team is in Lake Placid today for the ECAC semifinals, where the second-seeded Tigers will take on third-seeded Quinnipiac at 7. The day begins at 4, with top-seeded Yale against fourth-seeded Cornell. 

The winners will play Saturday at 5 for the championship, which will bring with it an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. It's almost a certainty that three of the four teams — and maybe all four — in Lake Placid will have their seasons continue on past this weekend. 

Princeton is currently ninth in the NPI ratings, which determine NCAA spots in hockey. There will be 11 teams in the NCAA field, with one automatic bid to a team that will not be in the top 11 of the ratings. 

Going back to the regular season, Princeton won both of its meetings against Quinnipiac, 4-3 in Princeton and 2-0 in Hamden. When were those games played? Nov. 20 and 22. 

Yes, the hockey season is a long one. And yes, it would be great to see it go even longer for the Tigers. 

*

In addition to Forced Family Fun, one of the other features of the department staff meetings would be the awarding of mini-Gargoyles to head coaches of championship-winning teams. The one yesterday saw five of them given out: men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's indoor track and field and women's squash.

Those five brought the number of Ivy titles for the academic year to 10, a figure that doesn't include the ECAC regular season championship for women's hockey or the NWPC championship for men's water polo in the fall. 

There's another championship up for grabs this weekend, and that's in women's basketball. As the regular season enters its final game, Princeton and Columbia are tied for first at 11-2. 

The Ivy tournament will be next weekend at Cornell, and the teams are already set. The Tigers and Lions will be joined by Harvard and Brown, though the order is still to be determined. 

As for the Ivy League title, Princeton would clinch at least a share of it with a win tomorrow at 2 at home against Yale. Princeton would win the outright championship, and the tournament's top seed, with a win and a Columbia loss to Harvard; the Lions will be the No. 1 seed with a win over Harvard, regardless of the outcome of the Princeton game. 

*

Are you interested in watching a fascinating men's tennis match? There's one at the Si Qin Family Indoor Tennis Center today at 2, when 28th ranked Princeton takes on 27th ranked Pepperdine. 

It seems like this is going to be fairly competitive, no? 

You can add to that the fact that Pepperdine has spent the entire week in the East and has already lost to Columbia and beaten Harvard and Yale. Also, Pepperdine will head to Middle Tennessee State for a match Sunday; Princeton's most recent match was at MTSU.

Perhaps Pepperdine should be admitted into the Ivy League? If you've ever been to its campus, you know that attending games there would be well worth it.  

*

Lastly, TigerBlog would like to congratulate his longtime colleague and friend Mike Mahoney, the 2026 recipient of the College Sports Communicators' Arch Wade Award, given annually to a current College Sports Communicators member who has made outstanding contributions to the field of college athletics communications, and who by his or her activities, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession. 

Who was Arch Ward? And what does Pete Carril have to do with this? TB will get back to that in a moment. 

Mike has worked at the University of Pennsylvania for the last 20 years, with six years each at Dartmouth (his alma mater) and Northwestern before that. He goes way back with a whole bunch of Princetonians, including John Mack and Bill Carmody from his time with the Wildcats and Office of Athletic Communications head Chas Dorman when Chas worked at Penn. 

TigerBlog knows Mike well enough to know that the people who chose this award definitely got it correct. Dignity and prestige? Those are defining characteristics of the job that he has always done, in all the years that TB has known him. 

There are some people who are just universally liked, and there are some people who always perk you right up when you see them. Mike Mahoney is one of those. 

Back to Arch Wade and Pete Carril, this is what the CSC website says about the namesake of this award: Arch Ward was sports editor of the Chicago Tribune from 1930 until he died in 1955. He is credited with inventing the concept of an all-star contest. All-star games began in 1933 with the first baseball all-star game. The following year, Ward initiated the College All-Star football game. 

It reminds TB of many of men's basketball banquet, when Carril used to award the team's B.F. Bunn Trophy. Who was B.F. Bunn, he'd ask? It doesn't matter. If a person like that year's winner was being honored with an award in Bunn's name, then that automatically made Bunn someone special. 

The same has to be true of Arch Ward. 

Congrats Michael. 

 

The Great Karen Malec

There was seismic news within the Princeton Department of Athletics this week.

You probably didn't hear about it, which is why TigerBlog is talking about it here.

It has nothing to do with the championships Princeton won last weekend, or any of the other big wins or individual honors that defined the last few days. Nope. Nothing. 

Or maybe, the more TB thinks about it, maybe those things are in fact related. 

The news was the announcement earlier this week from Karen Malec that she will be retiring at the end of the academic year. Karen is Princeton's Senior Associate AD for Event Operations; when she finally leaves Jadwin Gym, it'll be the end of a 36-year tenure with the athletic department. 

Where can TB start to talk about his longtime colleague and great friend? How about with the basics: You won't ever meet a better person than Karen Malec.  

She's funny and friendly and defaults to a smile. She multi-tasks with the best of them. If she's stressed, she doesn't show it. If you're stressed, she knows just what to say.  

And when she says it? She does so in that high-pitched voice of hers, a voice that brings much-needed energy and compassion to any conversation.  

She is a great family woman, with her husband Maleci, himself a longtime public safety officer at Princeton, and son Kyle. 

She's a great friend, especially within her Princeton Athletics foursome with Kim Meszaros, Nancy Donigan and Sandee Moore (who retired herself a year ago). How many concerts have they gone to? How many nights out have they shared? 

That's the four of them, doing what they do — having fun. Of course, they all know when it's time to have fun and when it's time to be serious. It's a defining characteristic of Karen's, actually. 

And that's where the connection comes in.

The number of areas where Karen influences Princeton University — not just the athletic department — is staggering. Pretty much any event that comes up in any athletic facility has her fingerprints all over it. 

Think about how many events that is. Then think about what goes into every event. Then you have a sense of what Karen has done all these years. 

The sheer number of details that go into every event is overwhelming. It's not something that you even notice when you're at one of them, which is exactly how it should be. 

It's also something that Princeton's coaches and athletes don't have to worry about either. They get to focus on training and competing, instead of worrying that something may or may not have been done away from the game itself. 

TB would like to think that at least a small part of Princeton's athletic success is related to that — and that's a credit to the work that Karen Malec has done. 

Karen grew up in Mercer County. She graduated from Curry College in Massachusetts. Her first job at Princeton was as the Dillon Gym manager. 

This is from her bio: 

In her current position of Associate Athletic Director of Event Operations, Karen coordinates the operations of the home athletic contests for our 38 sports teams.  This includes event security, parking, dining services, custodial needs, officials, clock operators and all event personnel. Over the years Karen has played an integral role in hosting the numerous championship events held at Princeton since 1998 including NCAA, Ivy League, ECAC, WNIT, NIT, ITA, EIWA, and ECAC HOCKEY Championships held on campus.  In addition, Karen has contributed to the success of the many university events during her time such as:  2005 US Secretary of the US, Condoleezza Rice speech, The Governor’s Ball in 2006, 2014 National Special Olympics, the 2014 visit by The Dalai Lama, 2012 & 2018 She Roars Conference, facilitating COVID vaccination spaces & events, as well as the annual Alumni Day and Prom events. 

That's quite a record. 

She's earned the right to step away. TigerBlog will miss her, for sure. So will Kim, Sandee and Nancy. TigerBlog asked them all for their thoughts. Here is what they came up with: 

"I think there will be a time referred to 'before Karen' and 'after Karen' here as she has left an indelible mark on Princeton and the Department of Athletics. She is one of the hardest working people I’ve ever known who can smile and keep positive through it all. I’ll miss seeing her every day but know that our friendship and many adventures await." — Kim Meszaros

"Karen is the hardest worker I know. She has poured her heart and soul into her position here. Her years of dedication to the Athletic department will surely be missed by all. I will cherish our friendship forever. I am wishing her endless joy, happiness, relaxation, long fun-filled weekend adventures and good health in her new journey." — Nancy Donigan

Lastly, Sandee decided to speak directly to her friend: 

Karen,

I realized early on that you were a force to be reckoned with in athletics! If I ever needed answers or to get things done, you were my first call! Our friendship is one of the greatest gifts I received from my time at Princeton and I am so grateful for all the wonderful memories we've shared and for all that is yet to come! You leave incredibly large shoes to fill, but an even larger legacy of all Princeton athletics stands for. I wish you so much love, health and happiness in this next chapter, you deserve it!!! Congratulations!!  

What else needs to be said, other than Karen's legacy at Princeton, as someone who cared about every event on campus and embodied the very best of what the department hopes for from those who represent it, is secure forever. 

 

Goaltending

You want to hear something fascinating? 

One of the officials at Sunday's Princeton-North Carolina men's lacrosse game on Sherrerd Field was also one of the referees at Saturday night's Princeton-Dartmouth men's basketball game. Do you find that as interesting as TigerBlog does? 

Maybe TB should have realized something was up when he tried to start the lacrosse game with a jump ball and then immediately called traveling. Just kidding. 

He could have called goaltending. That would certainly have been the order of the day on Sherrerd Field. 

And not the "ball was in the cylinder" kind. Nope. This was the Ryan Croddick kind. 

The Princeton senior goalie was extraordinary this past weekend, with 39 saves and 16 goals against in two games. Those two games were both wins — 11-7 against Syracuse Friday and then 11-9 in the Sunday game against UNC, who was ranked No. 1 before that. 

By the way, if you didn't realize it, Syracuse and UNC between them average just short of 30 goals per game in their non-Princeton games.  

Croddick made highlight-reel saves in both of those games, none of which were more spectacular than the three that game with less than five minutes to go in a tie game. See for yourself: 

CRODDICK WITH A 3-SAVE-EFFORT ➡️ A WADE STRIKE. TIGERS LEAD 10-9. pic.twitter.com/hSEQ2DIeb6

— Princeton Men's Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) March 1, 2026

He finished the game with 25 saves, which just happened to be one better than his previous career high. They were also the most by any Princeton goalie in the last, oh, 41 years. 

Those two games completed a nine-day run in which the Tigers defeated three teams who have already been ranked No. 1 this year, including a victory at Maryland. All of this came after an opening 13-7 loss at home against Penn State that 1) saw the Tigers fall behind 7-1 after the first quarter and 2) seems like forever ago.

Actually, that game definitely set the tone for the three that have followed. Princeton came into the game ranked either second or third in the country. The game against Penn State knocked the Tigers off that perch (all the way down to No. 12) and more importantly got everyone's attention.

The wins this weekend moved Princeton back up to No. 3 in all three major polls, who agree with Notre Dame at No. 1 and then Richmond at No. 2. They also, rightly, earned Croddick all kinds of awards, such as Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week and several national Player of the Week Awards (Princeton attackman Nate Kabiri was the Ivy Offensive Player of the Week).

Because Croddick was so dominant, he stole a bit of the spotlight from defenseman Jack Stahl. Knowing Stahl the way TB does, he can say without hesitation that Stahl was just fine with that. 

The win over Syracuse saw Stahl wipe out Joey Spallina, the Orange attackman who 1) was the No. 1 player in the country in Inside Lacrosse's preseason rankings and 2) had 17 points in two games against the Tigers, including eight in last year's excruciating 19-18 SU win in the NCAA quarterfinals. Stahl held him without a goal or an assist. 

Afterwards, TB convinced Stahl to do some postgame interviews on the field, with an army of cameras, microphones and notebooks staring at him. To say Stahl is quiet is an understatement, but it was definitely nice to see him get some attention. He then followed that up by holding Owen Duffy of UNC, another of the top attackmen in Division I, to a single goal. 

Next up for Princeton is a home game Saturday at noon against Rutgers, with the Meistrell Cup to the winner. Rutgers comes in with a record of 5-1 and is ranked as high as No. 12 in one of the polls. This will clearly be another challenge. 

Still, it's good to take one more look back at this past weekend. It was the ACC/Ivy League Challenge, which saw UNC and Cuse play at Princeton and Penn. UNC defeated Penn Friday night 11-9 at Franklin Field, and Syracuse needed OT to take down the Quakers 9-8 Sunday. 

The games at Princeton both drew big crowds. Both games were intense. Both made for great viewing, either live or on ESPN+.

They also leave you wondering what the next two months will bring. It's great to be No. 3 the first week of March, especially when you were No. 12 not that long ago. 

May, though. That's when you really want to be up there. The games this weekend only left you wanting more.  

Hockey Happiness

Well, TigerBlog is pretty sure he saw something in the Princeton-Dartmouth men's hockey game the other day that he's never seen before. 

What was it? How about a 2-on-0 breakaway? Have you seen one of those? 

It came in the first minute of the third period, with a Big Green turnover that started the breakout. The two Tigers were David Jacobs and Kai Daniells, who sent it back and forth and then back (as in the back of the net), the goal to Jacobs. 

The announcer called it a give-and-go and then corrected himself to say a "give and give." It all happened so quickly and normally, and yet who can remember seeing 2-on-0? 

Second Service!

Jacobs and Daniells cash in a 2-on-0 to make it 2-0!@ecachockey | @TeamECH | @NCAAIceHockey pic.twitter.com/laArt39fRu

— Princeton Men's Ice Hockey (@princetonhockey) March 1, 2026

It did make TB wonder what would happen in a similar situation in soccer. If you pass it back and forth there, is it automatically offsides, since only the goalie is back for the defense? Who has the answer to this?

The 2-on-0 made it 2-to-0, but there was plenty of game left for Princeton after that, with plenty on the line to go with it. Princeton had lost a 3-1 lead at Harvard the night before in what became a 5-3 loss, and now that 2-0 lead vanished to 2-2 with a Big Green goal with 1:10 to play. 

What was at stake? Princeton had already clinched some form of home ice for the ECAC playoffs, but the right combination of points would add a first-round bye and the host role for the quarterfinals after a week off. That's something that Princeton hadn't had since 2008-09, by the way. 

For Year 2 of head coach Ben Syer, the progress made already was extraordinary. Getting the bye would be an incredible accomplishment. 

The loss to Harvard Friday night had left the Tigers and Crimson even in fourth place heading into the last night of the regular season at 35 points, two ahead of Union. 

The first thing Princeton needed was Quinnipiac to beat Harvard, which it did, shortly after Dartmouth tied the Princeton game. Ah, but Union took down Brown 3-0, giving the Dutchmen 36 points, one ahead of Princeton.

Getting to overtime against Dartmouth would have meant one point for Princeton. Since the Tigers had the tiebreaker advantage over Union, the only thing that would have meant playing this weekend instead of resting would have been if the Big Green won in regulation. It made for a tense last 1:10 after Dartmouth had tied it — and it would stay that way through the horn at 0:00.  

Princeton had the point it needed. The result of the OT (Princeton won in a shootout) no longer factored into the bye. The Tigers will be the fourth seed and will play the highest remaining seed after this weekend's single-game opening round matchups. If No. 5 Union defeats No. 12 Brown again, then it'll be the Tigers and Dutchmen.

Meanwhile, back home at Baker Rink, the Princeton women were playing in the ECAC quarterfinals after getting a first-round bye of their own. The opponent was Harvard, in a best-of-three. 

Game 1 went to Princeton, 1-0, Friday. Game 2 went to Harvard, 3-1, Saturday. This set up a winner-take-a-trip-to-Lake-Placid Game 3 Sunday, and this time it was all Tigers, building a 4-0 lead, winning 5-1 and getting goals from five different players. 

The win moved Princeton into the ECAC semifinals at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, where the second-seeded Tigers will play Quinnipiac at 7, after top-seed Yale plays Cornell at 4. The winners will meet Saturday at 5.

Herb Brooks was the USA coach at the 1980 Olympics. The arena that now has his name is where the Miracle On Ice occurred. TigerBlog was inside the arena once, on an August day, and it's a place of awe still. The most recent USA gold medal in men's hockey was awesome, but no, the Miracle On Ice will never be approached by another sporting event.  

For the winner of the tournament, there will be an automatic NCAA tournament bid. Will Princeton get one without winning the tournament? Right now, the NPI ratings (which pretty much determine the NCAA field) have Quinnipiac seventh, Yale eighth, Princeton ninth and Cornell 11th. 

There are 11 teams who will make the NCAA tournament. Due to automatic bids, one is guaranteed to be lower than the top 11 in NPI. 

A Three-Title Weekend, Again

Welcome to March.

It's supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Whether that's true or not, TigerBlog is just happy to see January and February go into the rearview mirror after the winter it's been around here. 

Hey, just a week ago there was a blizzard of 25 inches of snow that actually resulted in all of Princeton University being shut down. That was seven days ago. 

And now? Almost all of that snow is gone. And if you're looking ahead for the forecast, you're seeing 60s and yikes even 70s around here in the next week. That's certainly something to look forward to, right? 

Looking back into the near past, do you know how many highlights were there this weekend in Princeton Athletics? 

There were so many that the men's lacrosse team's sweep of No. 6 Syracuse and No. 1 North Carolina isn't the starting point. Neither is hockey, men's or women's, even though they both had huge accomplishments of their own. 

The women's basketball team had itself a dominating sweep at Dartmouth and Harvard to close in on another Ivy League championship. That also isn't at the top of the Monday Morning Leaderboard. 

On this Monday, you needed an Ivy League championship over the weekend to earn that spot. And also on this Monday, there's a three-way tie up there. 

Yes, Princeton had itself a three-Ivy-title weekend, as there were championship celebrations in men's swimming and diving, men's indoor track and field and women's indoor track and field. Did you see the front page of goprincetontigers.com yesterday? This isn't too bad, huh:

TigerBlog will mention the three championships this weekend chronologically.

The men's swimming and diving team rolled through four days and night of the Ivy League championships before closing out a 200-point win over second-place Yale. Princeton has now won 33 Ivy titles in men's swimming and diving (including two straight). That's a lot of winning. 

Once again, Princeton had the High Point Diver of the Meet (Aidan Wang) and the High Point Swimmer of the Meet (Mitchell Schott). That's three of those for Wang and two for Schott. 

The meet was filled with NCAA qualifiers, records and individual and relay winners. You can read more about it HERE.

By the time the men were celebrating their title at DeNunzio Pool, the two track and field teams were already looking like they were on their ways to repeats. As it turned out, they were.

For the women, this is two straight. For the men, it's an amazing 11 straight. 

The women scored 188.5 points, outdistancing second-place Penn by 20.5. The men won by a huge margin, with 187 points, which was 51 better than second-place Cornell. 

Those three run the total for the academic year to 10, before a spring championship is even contested. 

The complete list to date is: men's soccer, women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's cross country, women's cross country, women's squash, women's swimming and diving and the three this weekend. 

Has it ever happened that Princeton has gotten to double figures in Ivy titles by the end of the winter? Hmmm, well, this is from exactly 52 weeks ago today:

If you're keeping score, this was a three-Ivy League Championship weekend for Princeton Athletics. Further scorekeeping reveals that the Ivy titles for the 2024-25 academic year has reached 10 — by the end of the winter season. That might be unprecedented

That number could reach 11 with either a women's basketball win against Yale or a Columbia loss to Harvard next weekend. 

Congratulations to the three teams that won their Ivy titles the last few days, and to the individuals who also won their events. 

Given everything else that happened around here this past weekend, being the lead story is really saying something.