Senior Saturday

Remember that Wednesday night women's lacrosse game between Princeton and Penn a few weeks ago on Sherrerd Field? 

Penn won it 10-9 in two overtimes. It was a great game to watch, even if the home team lost. 

And guess what? There will be a rematch. Will it be as good as the original? 

This is the final weekend of the Ivy League regular season for the women and the men. For Princeton, that means a doubleheader at home against Dartmouth, with the women at noon and the men at 4.  

Of the eight teams that will compete in the two Ivy tournaments, six of them are already known — Yale, Penn and Princeton on the women's side and Princeton, Cornell and Harvard on the men's. Those six will be joined by either Brown or Cornell on the women's side and either Yale or Penn on the men's. 

The women know they will be gathering at Yale, who is locked into the top seed. Penn will be the No. 2, and Princeton will be the No. 3 — hence the rematch. 

For the men, the tournament will be either in Princeton or Ithaca, and the outcome of Princeton's last game does not impact that. If Cornell beats Harvard tomorrow, then the Big Red will host. If Harvard wins, then the tournament comes to Sherrerd Field. 

That's not to say there's nothing on the line for Princeton's men tomorrow. A win assures Princeton of no worse than a share of the Ivy League championship. A Princeton win and Cornell loss means an outright title for the Tigers; the reverse is true for the Big Red. 

There are still scenarios for a three-way or four-way tie for the men. All of those need Princeton and Cornell to both lose. 

The Ivy tournaments will be next weekend, with games Friday and Sunday. The NCAA tournament selections will be announced a week from Sunday. 

TigerBlog says this all the time, but man did this lacrosse season fly by. Has it really been 2.5 months since it started? 

Then again, he also points out that the whole four-year experience flies by. And that brings him to today's real topic. 

Senior Day. 

TigerBlog received the following text messages this week, one from the father of a player on the men's team and one from a father of a player on the women's team. Here's what they said: 

Woman dad: How is it possible that this is the last regular game for her?
Man dad: How did it go so fast? I just dropped him off for orientation.

Yup. That's how it goes.  

Here's what TB wrote about his own experience as a Princeton dad, at the Senior Day of his own daughter, back in 2022. That's another thing that's hard to believe — it's been four years already? 

Senior Day for TigerBlog has always been a combination of a pain (in writing the script) and anxiety (getting everyone in the right place at the right time, trying to get the timing right and more than anything else not leaving anyone out). He long ago lost track of how many of these Senior Days he's done from the perspective of someone from athletic communications.

This time, though, it was completely different. This time, he was on the field, along with his daughter, He'd describe it as surreal, to see his own daughter be a part of one of these moments, only there were so many other emotions that were dominant at the time.

As they walked out past a lineup of teammates on either side, TB tried to take as much of it in as possible. As special as this felt to him, this wasn't his moment. This was his daughter's moment.

As such, he found it hard to focus on anything other than her, and as they walked, he saw something that he'll never forget. It was the widest smile his daughter has ever had.

She knew how hard it was for her to get to that moment. And she knew that her Senior Day was something to cherish. 

TB smiled widely as well, all as he brushed away a tear or two.

TigerBlog hasn't looked at a Senior Day the same way since.