Almost Tournament Time

TigerBlog remembers a time when he'd come home from school to watch the World Series, back when it was still played solely in the afternoon. 

That all changed with the first night games, back in 1971, during the Orioles-Pirates series.  

Given that, he's pretty happy that today's Game 6 of the WNBA Finals will be played at 12:30 in the afternoon. Yes, he understands the PR nightmare this is for the league. Still, there's something throwback about a mid-week afternoon game. 

The Golden State Valkyries lead the Atlanta Dream three games to two and could win the championship with a win, in only their second year of existence. Golden State, of course, features Princeton alum Kaitlyn Chen. 

Winning continues to follow her everywhere she goes. 

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The final weekend of October is approaching, and that means the nearing end of the regular season in most Ivy League fall sports. 

In field hockey, women's volleyball and men's and women's soccer, the top four teams will advance to the Ivy League tournament. The top seed will host. 

The field hockey team's path is well-defined. The Tigers head into tomorrow night's regular season finale at Columbia locked into the No. 2 seed, with the tournament locked in at Harvard. Princeton's semifinal opponent will be either Yale or Cornell. Princeton could still get a share of the title with a win over Columbia and a Yale win over Harvard Saturday.

For Princeton, its eyes are focused to the following week at the NCAA tournament. The Tigers have an RPI of No. 6, which puts them in great shape to get an at-large bid if necessary. 

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The women's volleyball race isn't exactly nearing the finish line, not with three weekends and six matches to go for each team. The standings, though, are pretty telling right now. 

Yale and Cornell are tied for first at 7-1, followed by Princeton at 6-2 and Harvard at 5-3. The other four teams are all under .500.

Each team has one match left against each team other than its travel partner. This weekend's schedule has Princeton on the road at Cornell tomorrow and Columbia Saturday. 

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As for soccer, every men's and women's team has played five of its seven league games, with one more this weekend and then the regular season finale next weekend.

Starting with the men, Princeton has two remaining home games, against Harvard Saturday at 5 and the following Saturday at 3 against Penn. The Tigers may need two wins to get into the Ivy tournament field. 

Right now, Cornell is a perfect 5-0-0 and has clinched a spot in the tournament, something no other men's or women's team has done. Princeton is currently tied with Brown for sixth with four points, three behind Harvard and Dartmouth and four behind Penn and Yale. Clearly, two wins would be great, but not mathematically necessary at least. 

For the women, Princeton is in a three-way tie for third with Harvard and Dartmouth, with nine points each, one behind Brown and and three behind Columbia. The Tigers schedule couldn't be more favorable, with a game Saturday at Columbia and a week from Saturday at home against Brown. 

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Lastly today, TigerBlog would like to congratulate Jim Mitchell on becoming the first head coach of the men's lacrosse team at Southern Methodist. 

The Mustangs, who will begin playing in 2028, originally went after Tiger head coach Matt Madalon, who elected to stay at Princeton. Coach Mitch, as he is known, is hardly a consolation prize. 

The offensive coordinator for Princeton for the last seven years, Mitchell's teams have rewritten the Tiger record book over and over. With his offense, Princeton has had a tremendous last five years, with three Ivy League tournament championships, an Ivy League title, five NCAA tournament appearances, three quarterfinals, two Final Fours and as you know the NCAA Championship this past spring. 

It won't be an easy job. He is starting a team that currently doesn't have a single player, and he will have to compete in the completely loaded ACC.  

Still, Mitch knows how to build a team culture, gives the best pregame speeches TB has ever heard and is just a tremendous human being. He'll be fine. SMU is lucky it found him.