Keeping An Eye On Princeton From Italy

The pizza that TigerBlog had for lunch yesterday in the town square in Florence was tremendous. 

It's probably all about the bread and the cheese, both of which are A+. And the sauce too. The Italians pride themselves on those three things. 

It was so good that TigerBlog asked the woman behind the counter if they delivered to New Jersey. She must not have understood him, because she said "Si."

For the record, TigerBlog liked Rome but loved Florence. Even the Colosseum wasn't enough to push Rome into the lead. Florence is much smaller than Rome, and even in the jammed city center yesterday, it just felt more welcoming. It also has more than its share of history, in art of course and also in politics, architecture, science and religion. TB went to the Basilica of Santa Croce, where all of those converge, where some of Florence's most famous sons are entombed — including Michelangelo, da Vinci, Enrico Fermi and Galilleo. 

TigerBlog will be splitting off from the group tomorrow for a bit of an adventure on his own. He'll have more to share with you on that tomorrow. 

For today, though, there are things going on in Princeton that aren't related to the men's lacrosse team's Italian trip.  

For instance, there's tennis. The ITA Regionals were held the last five days, and when they were over, two Princeton players had qualified for the NCAA singles tournament next month in Georgia. 

The two finalists on the singles draw at each Regional would earn automatic bids into the NCAA field. Actually, they were the two co-winners, because the final would not be played. 

Princeton's Landon Ardila clinched his Monday with his semifinal win, giving him a 10-0 record in sets in the five rounds of the tournament he played. Ardila has been on a tear, having won the Battle In The Bay in San Francisco last month. 

The second Princeton win came from a wildly different set of circumstances. Princeton's Tsehay Driscoll and Bella Chhiv met in the semifinals yesterday, after Driscoll eliminated another Princetonian, Maddie Jessup, in the quarterfinals. 

That's asking a lot of college teammates, no? Hey, go play your teammate for a really big prize. It's not what being a teammate is about, but that's the reality of these tournaments. 

TigerBlog watched from his hotel room in Italy to see what the reactions at the end would be. Fittingly, it went three sets, with a 6-4 win for Chhiv in the first set and then a pair of tiebreaker wins for Driscoll. In the end, they hugged, and Driscoll moved on to the NCAAs. 

What else is there? 

Well, Princeton had a few Players of the Week from last week, including Ottilie Sykes, who was the Ivy Defensive Player of the Week in field hockey after helping hold Cornell without a shot for the final 50 minutes or so in the Tigers' 2-1 win last Friday. Sykes was honored for the second time this season, though she won Offensive Player of the Week last time. 

That's not easy to do. In fact, TB would love to have an easy way to look up if that's ever happened in any Ivy sport. 

The field hockey team, by the way, hosts Brown Friday at 4 and Saint Joe's Sunday at noon. A win over the Bears would clinch an Ivy tournament spot for the Tigers, who moved to No. 8 in the coaches' poll this week.  

The women's soccer team was in attendance at the field hockey game last weekend in Ithaca, where the Tigers also played Saturday. Between field hockey and women's soccer, Princeton allowed only six total shots, outshot the Big Red 39-6, outscored them 5-1 and came away with two big wins. 

Zoe Markesini, like Sykes, was the Ivy Defensive Player of the Week. In addition to being a part of the defense that wiped out Cornell, Markesini also had a goal of her own in the game. '

Princeton will host Dartmouth Sunday at noon on ESPNU. The Big Green has a record of 3-1 and nine points in the Ivy League, tied with Harvard and Columbia for first. Brown, at 2-1-1, is next with seven points, followed by 2-2 Princeton with six. The top four will reach the Ivy tournament; you can do the math on this one. Princeton still has games against Columbia and Brown after the Dartmouth game. 

Elsewhere, the women's hockey team swept UConn last weekend. This is the same UConn against whom Princeton went 0-3 against last year, including falling in the first round of the NCAA tournament to the Huskies.

Chloe Brinson earned ECAC Rookie of the Week honors after having a goal and three assists in the two games. The goal was a big one; it came in overtime in Saturday's 6-5 win. That's not a bad start to a college career. 

See? You can take TigerBlog away from Princeton physically, but he's always dialed in on what goes on there. 

And now he's off to sleep. After all, he has a big adventure tomorrow.