Seeing Straight

TigerBlog's first text yesterday went to Julie Shackford, the longtime Princeton women's soccer head coach who now at her alma mater, William & Mary. 

Here's the transcript:

TB: "Do you play Wordle?"
JS: "Sometimes."
TB: "You should play it today."

About three minutes later, she texted back one word: "Hah."

As he has mentioned before, TigerBlog is a huge fan of doing the daily puzzles. He starts out each morning with Wordle, and he uses a different starting word each day. Ideally, he'll find one that has some connection to the day to come. 

Yesterday's start word for him was "SIGHT." Why that particular word? It's because TB had to take FatherBlog yesterday to get cataract surgery. You'll be happy to know that it went well. Hey, the man is almost 91.  

When he went to take him home, TB asked the discharge nurse if he could let his father drive. She said "absolutely not;" TB still isn't sure if she realized he was kidding. Also, what does your average almost-91 year old say immediately after his surgery? Here was what FB said: 

"I'm starving. Can we stop at the diner?" 

As for the Wordle word yesterday, starting with "SIGHT," it took TB five total guesses to get the answer. If you haven't played the word yet, TB will save it until the end. 

In the meantime, Shackford's Tribe team has already opened its season this past Wednesday with a 1-1 tie against Loyola. As you may be aware, the Princeton women open their season Thursday at home against that same Loyola team. 

Who has the advantage, Loyola for having already played or Princeton for not playing its third game in eight days? Ah, what was Loyola's other game? 

The Greyhounds had its second game already, another 1-1 tie against No. 10 Arkansas. Both of Loyola's games have been played in Baltimore. Why was Arkansas willing to come to Baltimore, for a single game at that? It wasn't a return game. There wasn't another game during the same road trip. 

This got TB to thinking that Arkansas might have a player from the Baltimore area, so he went to the team's website. Turns out that the Razorbacks 1) have players from 13 different states, 2) they have no players from Maryland, 3) they beat Dartmouth in the first round of the NCAA tournament a year ago and 4) they also lost 4-1 to Baylor in their first game this season. 

Loyola has no players from Arkansas. The team has more players from Florida and Texas than any other state. 

What Loyola will bring to Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium Thursday will be three Patriot League Players of the Week, two of whom are internationals (a French-Canadian midfielder from Quebec and a goalkeeper from Germany) and one of whom is from Maryland. 

Princeton? This, from TB's friend and colleague Andrew Borders' preview story, tells you a lot:

Princeton enters 2026 coming off back-to-back Ivy League titles for the first time in program history after winning the 2024 Ivy League regular-season and tournament titles and following with the 2025 Ivy League regular-season title. The Tigers went 8-6-3 overall and 5-2 in Ivy League play last season, closing the regular season with five straight wins to claim the Ivy title before defeating Brown in the Ivy League Tournament semifinal and falling 1-0 to Dartmouth in the final. Princeton returns the scorers of 21 of the team's 24 goals from 2025 and nine of the 12 players who scored a goal last season, as well as all eight players who scored more than one goal last season. 

You can read Andrew's entire preview HERE. If TB is doing the math correctly, this is the 21st year that Andrew has been the women's soccer contact, by the way. That's a lot of institutional knowledge. 

If you don't want to read it, Princeton plays Thursday night at home and then Sunday afternoon at Syracuse in its second game as the season gets off to a fast start. 

By the way, the Wordle from yesterday? Use your imagination. Why would TB have asked Shackford if she'd done it? 

The word was "TRIBE." 

Has it ever been "TIGER?"