Not For The Meeks

The game was over; the trip to Charlottesville and a date at noon Saturday with Duke in the Final Four secured. 

The Princeton men's lacrosse team was in its locker room. The celebration of the 14-10 win over Penn State in the quarterfinals was in full swing. 

TigerBlog had to interrupt the festivities for three players who were needed in the postgame interview room. One was Jackson Green, who had three caused turnovers, two of which directly set up Princeton goals, and who yet again could not have his impact on the game measured in statistics.

Another was Tucker Wade, who had already been interviewed on TV and now was headed to answer more questions from the assembled print media. Here are two important things to know about Wade: 1) he scores a lot of goals (four in the game, 35 for the season now) and 2) he hates the spotlight. TB felt badly about having to ask him, except that he had been dominant. 

The third was Andrew McMeekin. On a day when Princeton's "we not me" attitude was on full display, nobody had the impact on the game that McMeekin did. McMeekin had no shirt on when TB told him he was needed, which led TB to two thoughts: 1) what must it be like to walk down the beach with his arms and 2) how in the world is this guy so underrated? 

McMeekin, Princeton's record setting face-off specialist, had just gone up against Penn State's Colby Baldwin and Reid Gills, who between them had the Nittany Lions fifth in Division I in winning percentage at the X, with better than .600. On a brutally hot day on the Delaware turf, the challenge for McMeekin was to take almost every face-off for the Tigers and not get worn down by the two-headed monster he was up against. 

This brings TB back to McMeekin's arms, and the rest of him. If you've never seen him in anything other than a lacrosse uniform, he comes across a bit like Jaws, either the one from from the old James Bond movies or possibly the great white shark. If anyone could match up physically, it would be McMeekin.

This was from an Inside Lacrosse story of anonymous coaches' scouting reports, under "Penn State keys to win:"

"Keep Andrew McMeekin on his toes with your 1-2 punch at the stripe."

There was also this: 

"Baldwin is a veteran, good off the ground, different than Gills in that he makes everything a scrap. The combination of them both makes it really hard on the opposing specialist." 

So what happened? McMeekin went 19 for 26 with 12 groundballs and a goal. And it wasn't just any goal. It came in the fourth quarter, six seconds after John Dunphey had given the Tigers an 11-10 lead. McMeekin's goal made it a two-goal Tiger advantage and was the kind of backbreaking goal that can only come from a face-off guy. 

Here are some of McMeekin's records:

* most face-off wins in Princeton history
* most groundballs in Princeton history
* ranks 1-2 on Princeton's single-season groundballs list
* has three seasons of 100 GBs; no other Tiger has more than one
* this season's team has won more face-offs than any other in Princeton history

And yet, where are his individual honors? 

Other than being the Most Outstanding Player of the Ivy League tournament as a sophomore and a second team All-Ivy selection this year, there's not really much else. When USA Lacrosse Magazine released its All-American team, he was nowhere to be found. He didn't earn any honors a year ago, Ivy or national. 

How is that possible? 

Meanwhile, as far as the game yesterday, this was an all-around team effort. Every player who stepped on the field contributed. Take Caden Southworth, a freshman shortstick defensive midfielder who hasn't played much. Princeton threw him out for a huge third-quarter shift because of the heat, and he responded with big one-on-one defense and a big clear. 

Wade had his four. Chad Palumbo had three more goals and two more assists. Behind those two, Princeton had eight different players with one goal each. 

From the opening face-off until the end of the third quarter, neither team led by more than two. It was 6-6 at the half. It was 9-9 after three. It was 10-9 Penn State a minute into the fourth. 

The game came exactly one year to the day when Princeton lost 19-18 to Syracuse in this round, falling short of the goal of Championship Weekend. There was zero chance this team was going to let this one get away. 

And they didn't. They responded with 14 great minutes, scoring the final five goals of the day. Was McMeekin worn down by the heat? 

Well, he won the FO after the Penn State goal and then the next two after that. He didn't take the one after his goal but won the next two. By the time he lost one, there was less than a minute to go in the game and Princeton was headed to Charlottesville. 

Worn down by the heat?

Hah. Have you ever tried to face-off against a great white shark, or a giant guy with steel teeth?  

Quarter Horses

The forecast for Sunday in Newark, Del., is for sunny skies and a high of 85 degrees. 

It'll be there that top-seeded Princeton will play Penn State in the NCAA men's lacrosse quarterfinals. It'll be the second meeting of the year between the teams, after Penn State defeated Princeton 13-7 in the Tigers' season opener back on Valentines' Day. 

The high temperature for that game was 34. 

As is always the case, another season has flown by. Just when the weather is getting better, it's time to determine a champion.  

There are exactly 10 days left between now and Memorial Day, which means that 10 days from today will be the championship game, at Scott Stadium at the University of Virginia. 

There are, obviously, eight teams left heading into this weekend's quarterfinals. The math is easy: one of those eight teams will be in a dog pile 10 days from now and seven others will be left to think of how close they came and regroup for next year. 

The first two games will be played tomorrow at Hofstra, where second-seeded Notre Dame will face Johns Hopkins at noon and then No. 3 North Carolina will take on No. 6 Syracuse. Those winners will play in one semifinal. 

The Princeton-Penn State game is the first one at Delaware, also at noon, followed by a game between two unseeded teams, Georgetown and Duke. The winners of those games play in the other semifinal. 

Princeton is 11-7 all-time in NCAA quarterfinal games, not that a stat like that matters at all right now. Both Princeton and Penn State are loaded with NCAA tournament appearance, as the Tigers are in their fifth straight tournament and Penn State went to the Final Four a year ago. 

You remember last year's quarterfinals, right? It was there (at Hofstra) that Princeton and Syracuse played the best game of the 2025 season. As they say, it's a shame either team had to lose. Unfortunately, one did, and it was Princeton, 19-18.

The season opener this year between Princeton and Penn State was not the best game of this season. It was an awful one for the Tigers, who fell behind 7-1 after one quarter and were never in it. 

Since then? Princeton is 14-1, the lone loss during the regular season to Cornell. That was nine games ago. One of those nine wins was over the Big Red in the Ivy tournament final. 

This Princeton team has scored more goals than any in program history (238) and has allowed 28 fewer goals this season that last (in one fewer game). Princeton has won 247 face-offs, which obliterates the existing single-season program record. 

Face-off wins, though, will not be easy to come by Sunday for either team. Penn State has won just over 60 percent of its face-offs this year, with Reid Gills sixth in Division I and Colby Baldwin 25th. Both have more than 100 face-offs wins this year. 

Of course, if the face-off X is going to be a heavyweight bout, TigerBlog refers you to the Princeton corner, where 6-2, 235-pound Andrew McMeekin sits with his program records for face-off wins and groundballs in a career and his overwhelming postseason success (191 for 336 with 118 GBs in 13 games).

Nate Kabiri comes into the game with 99 career goals and Chad Palumbo comes in 98. Palumbo's last two NCAA games have seen him score 12 goals on 15 shots with three assists. 

Did you read TB's feature story on John Dunphey yet? You can HERE.

If you don't want to read the whole thing, well, TB doesn't know what to tell you. There is a part of it, though, where Dunphey talked about last year's loss to Syracuse:

The takeaway is that one little play here or there and it can get away from you and suddenly you lose 19-18 instead of win 19-18. It shows you how important every little thing is. Maybe you missed a groundball or took a bad shot in the second quarter and didn’t think about it in the moment. You can’t take anything for granted. This time is so sacred and so special. It’s fleeting. How can you make the most of every day? Like I said, maybe you don’t think about it in the moment you didn’t get that groundball. This year, we can’t let that happen.”

Maybe Princeton needed to go through that to get to this point. Lesson learned? Will Princeton be able to reverse what happened three months and 50 degrees ago? 

The prize for the winner is a big one.  

 

Double Feature

Are you too young to remember double features? 

When TigerBlog was a kid, you could often go to the movies and see two different pictures for one ticket. Also, the tickets weren't really all that expensive. Ah, those were the days. 

Anyway, this is a different kind of double-feature week for TigerBlog. It's a double feature story week. 

He posted the first one yesterday, about Princeton senior lacrosse midfielder John Dunphey. You'll have to read it for yourself, which you can do HERE.

Dunphey has gone from being a very solid complementary player for his first three seasons and six games to one of the best middies in the country in a blink. Here is some info from the story: 

Though Princeton lost that game to Cornell 13-11, Dunphey scored twice, on two shots. The following week he scored five more, on five shots, with three assists in a 20-14 win at Brown, earning a spot on the USILA Team of the Week. That win started Princeton’s current winning streak, which has now stretched to nine straight with the win over Marist. Dunphey’s totals in that run? He has 15 goals and 14 assists, for 29 points. That’s an average of 3.2 per game, or triple his career average prior to that. Incredibly, he has scored those 15 goals on just 24 shots, which is a .625 shooting percentage. That’s an insane number. 

Oh, and here's the first line: 

Thuh-Wump. Pfft. Thuh-Wump. Pfft. Thuh-Wump. Pfft. Thuh-Wump. Pfft. 

If that doesn't make you want to read the story, nothing will. 

Princeton, by the way, plays in the NCAA quarterfinals this Sunday at noon against Penn State at the University of Delaware. The Tigers are the top seed in the tournament — and not surprisingly, TB will have more on this matchup tomorrow. 

His other feature story will run tomorrow, in advance of the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, which will be held at Weaver Track and Field Stadium Saturday and Sunday. The subject of this one? Pia Beaulieu, an All-Ivy League women's soccer player who will be running the 3,000 meter steeplechase at Heps. 

TigerBlog had never met her until he spoke to her last week. She's, uh, memorable. And her story is a really good one. 

TB told women's soccer head coach Sean Driscoll and women's distance coach Brad Hunt that when they suggested the story, they had him at "steeplechase."

There are five remaining Ivy League championships to be crowned for the academic year, and all five will be awarded this weekend. The men's and women's outdoor track and field titles will go the Heps winners, while the women's open rowing and men's heavyweight and lightweight Ivy titles will also be decided this weekend. 

Of those five, three will be won in New Jersey, with the women's Ivy rowing championships on the Cooper River in Pennsauken. The men's Eastern Sprints will be on Lake Quigsigamond, in Worcester, Mass. It's possible that TigerBlog spelled "Quigsigamond" wrong; it's been a challenge for several decades now. 

The men's and women's track teams will be looking to complete another Triple Crown sweep, something that you may take for granted but not something that just happens. All three first varsity 8 races should be crazy competitive after the way the results this season have gone. 

And lastly for today, TigerBlog gives a shoutout to Thanana Kotchasanmanee, a freshman from Thailand who competed at the NCAA golf regionals for the last three days. And how did she do? 

She tied for the individual title, which earns her a spot in the NCAA championships. This is from the story on goprincetontigers.com:

She entered the day six shots off the lead which was held by Cindy Hsu of Texas at -8, and by the end of the day Kotchasanmanee had shot her second 66 (-4) of the week to vault into a tie for first at 204 (-6) alongside Marta Silchenko of Oklahoma State who had also shot 66 in the final round. With the Cowgirls in third place as a team and in possession of one of five team AQs through to the NCAA Championship, Kotchasanmanee was the recipient of the lone individual qualification that goes to the highest-finishing individual not on the five teams to advance.

Kotchasanmanee is the fourth Ivy Leaguer to secure a trip to the NCAA Championship since it was first held in 1982. The other three are all Princetonians as Kotchasanmanee joins Mary Moan (1997), Kelly Shon, (2013) and Maya Walton (2017) as Tigers to reach the final site.

The 2026 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship begins May 22 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.

And the second feature will be out tomorrow. Make sure you look for it.  

Stacie Too

 

TigerBlog was at the final Department of Athletics staff meeting of 2025-26 yesterday.

One of the staples of each meeting is an update in competitive success — and Princeton has certainly had its share of it this academic year.

In fact, there are 12 Ivy League tournaments each year. How many has Princeton won this academic year?

How about more than half of them? 

Here's the list: men's soccer, field hockey, women's volleyball, women's squash, women's basketball, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse. That's seven out of 12. 

That makes the final scoreboard for 2025-26 Princeton 7, Everyone Else 5 (that's what it will be when the baseball tournament ends this weekend). 

And that doesn't count men's and women's Heps cross country and indoor track and field and men's and women's swimming and diving, all of which Princeton won, though they aren't technically in the team tournament format. Also, men's and women's Outdoor Heps hasn't happened yet either; they will be held this weekend at Princeton's Weaver Track and Field Stadium. 

Or, for that matter, women's soccer, which was the Ivy League champion by winning the regular season title. Or women's tennis, who won the Ivy title in a sport where there is no tournament. Or women's hockey, who won the ECAC regular season championship. Or men's water polo, who won the NWPC championship. Or women's lightweight rowing, who won Eastern Sprints. Or the other three rowing teams, who compete this weekend for Ivy title. 

So that's a fair amount of winning.

TigerBlog has been here a long time, and he's said the same thing time after time after time: None of this winning is guaranteed. He's even linked to the last scene of the movie "Patton" to hammer home the point: 

TigerBlog isn't sure how many athletic department meetings he's attended. One possible answer would be: "Not as many as Stacie Traube."

Stacie Traube has also been at Princeton longer than TigerBlog. If TB has the numbers correct, she is finishing her 41st year at Princeton, the last 37 of which have been spent in the football office, after four years in the Politics department. 

For all the years TB has know her, he never knew this, which he learned from her bio: 

She began her career at Princeton in the politics department, working closely with the late Prof. Walter F. Murphy. Her name (nee Scofield) can be found within in Murphy's acknowledgements in the preface of the Con-Interp textbook.

That's impressive. 

What's really impressive would be the number of athletes with whom she has worked, beginning before their recruiting visits and continuing long after their graduations. Given the size of the roster and the number of years, that's probably somewhere around 1,000 football players, maybe more, given that she started at a time when there was still freshman football. 

Stacie in many ways is Princeton Football. TB isn't sure how many home games she's missed in all those years, but it's not a lot. There's more to it than that, though.

She's always been super-protective of the program from a standpoint of the people who have played and coached here and any public messaging that has gone out. She has always been dialed in 100 percent on making sure every aspect of the program is properly represented. 

And there's no aspect of the program that hasn't had her fingerprints on it. In a sport where there are offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators and special teams coordinators and running game coordinators and so on, Stacie was just a coordinator. Recruits. Current players. Alums. Coaches. 

Ask any of them what Stacie Traube has meant to Princeton Football. They'll all smile and gush over here, and why wouldn't they? She's made every one of their experiences better. 

You can consider this the third in TB's series of "She's retiring." First it was Karen Malec, from the events staff. Then it was Nancy Donigan, from compliance. 

In this case, it's Stacie Traube who will be stepping away at the end  of the academic year. Those three? That's a combined 116 years of service to Princeton Athletics — loyal, hard-working, high-quality, high-quantity service at that. 

And that's something that deserves to be saluted. 

Again, as TB has said before — twice now — their retirements will leave a huge void around here.  

To The Quarters

 TigerBlog will be back shortly. 

He needs to update Nate Kabiri's and Chad Palumbo's NCAA tournament numbers in the Princeton men's lacrosse record book after the top-seeded Tigers defeated Marist 17-8 in the opening round Sunday on Sherrerd Field. 

This might take a few minutes. In the meantime, you can pencil in this coming Sunday, when Princeton will play Penn State at Delaware in the quarterfinals. Princeton is in the quarterfinals for the second straight year and third time in five years. 

At stake is a trip to the Final Four Memorial Day Weekend in Charlottesville, Va. As a subplot, Penn State defeated Princeton 13-7 back on Valentines' Day in the Tiger season opener; Princeton has won 14 of 15 since and avenged its only other loss, to Cornell, with a 19-9 win two Sundays ago in the Ivy League tournament final. 

Also, while TB is busy, you can check out this groundball from Johns Hopkins' Luke Martin in overtime to set up the possession that gave the Blue Jays the winning goal in a 9-8 win over Cornell. 

THE PLAY OF THE SEASON 🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/ZXoEwG7vJ3

— Johns Hopkins Men's Lacrosse (@jhumenslacrosse) May 10, 2026

That is without question the greatest single groundball pickup that TigerBlog can ever remember seeing anywhere, let alone at a moment like that, in OT in an NCAA game.  

Okay, TB is back. 

He starts with Palumbo. 

So in the game Sunday, Palumbo put up six goals, tying the program record for goals in an NCAA game. Whose record did he tie? His own. Well, technically, this was the sixth time that a Princeton player has had six goals in an NCAA game: Palumbo twice, Chris Massey twice and Jesse Hubbard and  Coulter Mackesy once each. That's elite company. 

Palumbo's six goals against Marist gave him 12 in his last two NCAA games, including the six he scored against Syracuse in last year's quarterfinal loss. Those 12 goals have come on 15 shots.  

As for Kabiri, the Tewaaraton Award finalist, he had three goals and five assists in the game against Marist. Only Hubbard has ever had more points in an NCAA game, when the Hall-of-Famer had six goals and four assists in the 1996 quarterfinal against Towson. 

Kabiri's eight points are actually tied for second, along with ... Palumbo, who had eight points against Syracuse in that game last year, and Jon Hess, who had a three-goal, five-assist game in the 1997 NCAA final against Maryland as he earned Most Outstanding Player honors. 

Beyond just the NCAA record book, Kabiri now has 99 goals in his career, while Palumbo has 98. Should they get to 100, they would be the 16th and 17th to do so at Princeton.

Kabiri, only a junior, is also on the verge of getting to 100 assists and 200 points (something only eight Tigers have ever done). He brings 95 assists along with those 99 goals into the quarterfinal game, making him already one of only two players in program history with at least 90 goals and 90 assists, along with Michael Sowers (121G, 181A). 

And that's the individual stuff. At this point in May, it's all about the team. Actually, with this group, it's always about the team. 

It was mid-February on Sherrerd Field when Princeton and Penn State met. The high temperature that day was 38, but after the cold spell and snow that dominated the month before, it felt downright warm. 

Hot? That was Penn State's start. The Nittany Lions led 7-1 after the first quarter and won by six. Penn State defeated Army-West point 10-6 Saturday to reach the quarterfinals in its own right. 

There will be all kinds of NCAA tournament experience on the field at Delaware. How much? How about every class on both teams has been to the NCAA tournament every season. 

Penn State reached the Final Four a year ago. Princeton is still smarting from that 19-18 loss to Syracuse last year.

Face-off in Delaware is at noon, followed by Georgetown-Duke. The two winners will meet in one semifinal at UVa. 

The other side of the bracket has Notre Dame-Johns Hopkins and UNC-Syracuse Saturday at Hofstra.  

Softball Celebration

There are times when TigerBlog wishes he could go back to his high school self and tell that guy where technology would be in the future. 

This past Saturday at 7 was one of those times. 

This is how the conversation would have gone:

Current TB: "So there was an NCAA men's lacrosse tournament Zoom, overtime of the Cornell-Hopkins game on ESPNU on YouTube.TV and the Ivy League softball tournament streaming on ESPN+. Had the meeting and the softball game on the laptop and Cornell-Hop on the smart TV. Was also getting texts on the smartphone. Had to pay attention to the meeting for the game while Cornell-Hop went into OT. Wanted to blog about softball for Monday, so wanted to focus on that too."
HS TB: "What in the world are you talking about?" 

That pretty much sums it all up. 

You'll be happy to know that TB was able to follow all three. Meeting went smoothly. Hopkins won in overtime. 

And softball? It was a dominant performance by the Tigers all weekend, finishing it off Saturday night with an 8-0 win over Columbia to take the championship. Princeton went 3-0 at Cynthia Paul Field in the event. 

Had any team other than Princeton come out of the softball tournament with the win and gotten the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid, then that would have been a big shame, after the way Princeton dominated the 21-game regular season. The Tigers tied the Ivy record for league softball wins with 18 and won the league by six games. 

In fact, TB didn't even notice this until he went back to see the standings, but there was a bigger gap between Princeton and second place than there was between second place and last place. He wishes he could go back — easily — and look up how many times that's ever happened in the league in any sport. 

Princeton started the tournament by falling behind 4-0 to Brown after two innings of the first game. From that point forward, Princeton outscored its opponents by a combined 21-2. 

The Tigers came back to take down Brown 7-5 and followed that with a 6-0 win over Columbia. Brown eliminated Harvard, who lost to Columbia in the first round, and then was itself eliminated by Columbia.

That set up the final day of the tournament. Princeton needed one win. Columbia needed a win to force a deciding game. 

It was scoreless into the fourth before Princeton put up five and then closed it out with three more in the fifth. It ended once the eighth run crossed the plate.  

Of course, Cassidy Shaw didn't need eight runs to win the game. The Tiger pitcher went five innings in all three days, striking out 17 and walking only one. Is that good? Seems it. Unsurprisingly, Shaw was the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. 

The win set up quite the Tiger celebration. Shelley Szwast came away with some great shots, including: 

 Those are happy Tigers. 

And why not? This has been one of the greatest seasons in program history, and now the five-time defending Ivy champs head to the NCAA tournament for the 13th time. 

All that was left after the celebration was the selection, which was announced last night at 7. Princeton will be heading to Stillwater and the campus of Oklahoma State, where the Tigers will open the regional with a game against Stanford Friday at 2 Eastern. The host Oklahoma State team will then play Eastern Illinois on the first day of the three-day, double elimination event. 

OK State is 15th in the Division I RPI, one spot ahead of Stanford. Eastern Illinois is 124. Princeton is 83rd. 

Not that any of that matters. Princeton has had a huge season and just had a huge weekend. 

The plane ride to Oklahoma is the reward — and an opportunity to keep it rolling.  

 

NCAA Lax Trivia

The NCAA lacrosse tournaments begin this weekend for the two Princeton teams. 

The women will be at Maryland to take on Rutgers at 2 this afternoon, with the winner to take on the host Terps Sunday at noon. The men will be home Sunday at 2:30 to take on Marist, who defeated Stony Brook 10-6 Wednesday night in the play-in game. 

With these games about to start, who's ready for some Princeton Lacrosse NCAA tournament trivia? You are, right? 

Question No. 1 - Princeton has won six NCAA men's championships and three NCAA women's championships, for a total of nine. How many NCAA championships have the other seven Ivy schools combined to win, with the men and women added together?  

Question No. 2 - Of Princeton's nine combined NCAA championships, five have come in overtime. What five Tigers have championship game OT goals?  

Question No. 3 - Princeton had two players named to the men's NCAA tournament 25th anniversary team in 1995. Who were the two players?  

Question No. 4 - Who holds the Princeton record for career NCAA tournament goals (men or women)?  

Question No. 5 - Chad Palumbo tied the Princeton single-game record for goals in an NCAA game by a Princeton men's player with six in last year's quarterfinals against Syracuse. Whose record did he tie? There were three of them.

Question No. 6 - Both the Princeton men's and women's teams have won better than 60 percent of their all-time NCAA games. Only one other school has done the same. Name the school. 

Question No. 7 - Chris Massey, Jesse Hubbard and Jon Hess played in 11 total NCAA tournament games, with a record of 10-1 and three championships. How many points did those three combine for in those 11 NCAA games? 

Question No. 8 - The game today will be the second postseason tournament game between Princeton and Rutgers. When was the other? 

Question No. 9 - Princeton men and women have played a combined 39 NCAA tournament games on the Princeton campus. What is Princeton's record in those games?  

Question No. 10 - The two Princeton teams have played 18 overtime NCAA games between them. What is their record in those games?  

To put a little space between the questions and answers, here's another dog picture, this one with his own Princeton Lacrosse hat:

Answer No. 1 - 6 (five men, one women)

Answer No. 2 - Andy Moe (1992), Kevin Lowe (1994), Jesse Hubbard (1996), B.J. Prager (2001), Theresa Sherry (2003) 

Answer No. 3 - Scott Bacigalupo and David Morrow — both of whom have children on the current teams (Maggie Bacigalupo and Kevin Morrow)

Answer No. 4 - Lauren Simone, who scored 37 before graduating in 2003. At the time, Simone was tied with Maryland's Jen Adams (now the head coach at Loyola) for the NCAA career record. To give you an idea of how much the game has changed, those two are now tied for 14th. Also, like Bacigalupo and Morrow, Simone (now Lauren Farrell) also has a child who plays lacrosse at Princeton — freshman Grace Farrell. 

Answer No. 5 - Jesse Hubbbard, Chris Massey (twice) and Coulter Mackesy

Answer No. 6 - Maryland

Answer No. 7 - 127. Yes, one-hundred-twenty-seven points, in 11 games. 

Answer No. 8 - Rutgers defeated Princeton 12-10 in the 1979 AIAW consolation round. The AIAW was the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, which was the forerunner for the NCAA tournament for women, which began in 1982 for women's lacrosse. 

Answer No. 9 - Princeton's combined record is 33-6 in NCAA home games. 

Answer No. 10 - In 18 games, Princeton is 10-8. 

How did you do? 

And remember: Princeton-Rutgers women today at 2, winner to play Maryland Sunday at noon. Princeton-Marist men Sunday at 2:30. 

Another Yeah/No

Remember when TigerBlog did this the first time? 

You don't? It was only two months ago. 

Well, even if you don't, here it is again:

YEAH 
Who is that in the picture? That's Jamison Moore of the men's lacrosse team. J-Mo, as he's know, got an A+ on his senior thesis, entitled: "Policy Visibility in a Polarized Age: Government Stimulus and Electoral Accountability in the United States.” How rare is it to get an A+? Apparently very. Apparently it takes multiple graders and then outside approval and confirmation. Anyway, congrats to J-Mo. That's really impressive stuff. 

YEAH
The Ivy League softball tournament starts today at noon at Cynthia Paul Field, where top-seeded Princeton will take on fourth-seed Brown, followed by second-seed Harvard and third-seed Columbia. It's a three-day double-elimination event that will have either six or seven total games. The winner gets the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. 

NO
There is some rain in the forecast for the next few days but nothing that should prevent the tournament from being played. There was enough rain yesterday to force the teams into the Jadwin Gym E-level "pit" for practices. TigerBlog saw a Brown assistant coach who was seemingly lost on C-level and was able to direct her to where she needed to be. It's easy to forget that Jadwin has six levels and is an easy place to get lost. 

NO
TigerBlog made a mistake earlier this week when he said the softball team finished 19-2 in the league to set a record for most wins. Instead, Princeton was actually 18-3, tying its own record — and still very impressive. 

YEAH
How many players are on the field at any one time in softball? That would be nine. How many are in the batting order? Also nine. How many All-Ivy League softball players did Princeton have? Once again, nine. The full recap of those honorees is HERE.

YEAH
The Princeton women's lacrosse team will be making its 31st NCAA tournament appearance when it takes on Rutgers tomorrow at 2 in College Park, Md. The winner of that game gets Maryland, the third overall seed, Sunday at noon. 

YEAH
Princeton women's lacrosse has been to 11 Final Fours and seven NCAA finals, winning three of them. Princeton is 42-27 all-time in NCAA games. 

YEAH
Princeton defeated Rutgers 15-9 in Princeton on Feb. 25. Rutgers is 10-8 on the year, with an RPI of 20. Princeton's RPI is 18. 

NO
TB went back to see the Princeton-Rutgers women's lacrosse year-by-year results, he was surprised to see that they've only played 21 times? How is that possible? Well, it starts with the fact that they first played in 1977 and played each of the next five years but then not again until 1999. Why? No idea. Then they didn't play from 2014 through 2023. Again, no idea. Princeton leads the series 16-4-1. This is the first time the teams will have played at a neutral site. 

YEAH
One last thing from the Ivy tournament sweeps for Princeton. The five all-tournament selections for the women were Maggie Molnar, Haven Dora, Jami MacDonald, Dylan Allen and Ella Sloan. The five men were Nate Kabiri, Chad Palumbo, Tucker Wade, Finn Fox and Ryan Croddick. Molnar and Kabiri were the Most Outstanding Player winners. 

YEAH
The top-seeded Princeton men finally know their first-round opponent. It'll be Marist, who defeated Stony Brook 10-6 last night in one of the two play-in games. It'll be Tigers-Red Foxes Sunday at 2:30 on Sherrerd Field. 
 
NO
Princeton is the No. 1 seed for the third time, despite having won six NCAA titles. The No. 1 seed on the men's side has won only six times in the last 18 tournaments. 

YEAH
Nate Kabiri is one of five men's finalists for the Tewaaraton Award, the highest individual honor in college lacrosse.  Kabiri is Princeton's sixth finalist, along with Coulter Mackesy last year, Michael Sowers in 2019, Tom Schreiber in 2013 and 2014, Ryan Boyle in 2004 and Trevor Tierney in 2001. 

YEAH
Princeton has the second-longest streak of NCAA appearances in Division I with five, trailing only Georgetown's eight.   

YEAH
Princeton sophomore Porter Malkiel has 11 goals on 17 shots, for a .657 shooting percentage. That is the highest shooting percentage any Princeton player with double figures in goals in a season has ever had. 

Welcome, Karameli Fa’ae’e

Karameli Fa'ae'e Named Women's Rugby Head Coach

It dawns on TigerBlog that through the years he's written about a lot of athletes, coaches, alums — and dogs. 

TB loves dogs, ever since he grew up with a toy poodle named "Louie," who was named after the French Revolutionary king.  

And dogs seem to love him. Maybe that's why he takes so many pictures of dogs and has, as such, written about them. 

He's written about dogs on surfboards, dogs on skateboards, dogs who run obstacle courses, dogs who appeared to be driving cars, dogs who were wearing various amounts of Princeton gear; you know, pretty much anything dog-related. 

Take Watson, for instance. 

A Princeton Bulldog. Specifically, the bulldog of former women's lacrosse player Shea Smith and her family. This picture notwithstanding, Watson was the life of the party at pretty much every team tailgate. 

Who else? Remember Fred? TB wrote about him in June of 2014, when he saw him parked outside of a Baltimore ice cream store in a sidecar of a motorcycle. Who was inside the store? A former Princeton swimmer named Stephanie Wright and her family. 

TB didn't know them, though the fact that he was wearing his standard Princeton gear got them to ask about his connection. 

Anyway, here was the photo of Fred (no relation to the Wright family):

Then there was Nutmeg. 

TigerBlog ran into him in the lobby of the Marriott Newton before the 2024 Princeton-Harvard field hockey game. Nutmeg is another good-looking doggo:

How's that for a face? 

It took more than 18 months, but Nutmeg's family reached out yesterday. Yes. Here's what his owner had to say: 

Holy cow!I know I’m a year & a half late to this but very glad Nutmeg brought Princeton great luck in your field hockey game vs Harvard!!
Go Tigers!
Our Nutmeg does love to suck up the attention and rub downs!
He was in town to cheer on our daughter rowing for One Arlington Rowing (club team of Yorktown High School, Arlington, Va) in the Head of the Charles.  

How about that? It's nice to know Nutmeg is doing well. Thanks for reaching out. And his owner is correct. As TB recalls, Nutmeg was an attention, well, hound.  

TigerBlog could go on all day about dogs, except for the news yesterday that Princeton has hired its new women's rugby coach. Her name is Karameli Fa’ae’e, and she's coming to Princeton after being an assistant coach at Brown. 

She's also an assistant coach in the United States national team program, with the U-23 team. Here is a quote from the release announcing her hire that really stood out to TigerBlog:

“I want to acknowledge God, my family and the community who have supported and shaped me into the leader I am today. I am deeply honored to accept the opportunity to serve as Head Coach of the Women's Rugby program at Princeton University. I look forward to building an athletic environment that reflects the same standard of excellence found in its academic mission.  My commitment is to cultivate excellence in performance, integrity in action, and a shared dedication to something greater than ourselves.” 

The women's rugby program at Princeton is still essentially in its infancy. How do you build a winning program? You start by building a winning culture. That seems to be something that Fa’ae’e understands perfectly. 

She certainly has a strong background in the sport. She was a U.S. national team captain as a player, after she played for Samoa and New Zealand. She's been a coach on the collegiate, professional, national and international levels. 

And now she comes to Princeton. If you read the release that TB linked up top, you probably came away thinking the same thing TB did: She looks like she has a lot of energy. 

Maybe it's a rugby thing, but Fa'ae'a certainly gives off a vibe in her photos of enthusiasm, excitement and forcefulness (she can also hold three rugby balls and her phone at the same time). Those are all qualities that will serve her well as she builds her program 

Welcome to Princeton, Karameli Fa'ae'e. 

What's Left?

Guess what's a little more than four months away? 

That's right. Princeton football season. 

The 2026 schedule was released yesterday, and opening kickoff is Sept 19, in Rhode Island, against Bryant. The home opener is a week later against Albany. The other non-league game is at Wagner. 

If you've never been to a game at Wagner, there is an amazing view across the field to the nearby Verrazzano Bridge. 

TigerBlog is pretty sure he'll have more on Princeton Football as the season gets closer. Still, four months doesn't really seem like that long — though there is that little thing called "summer" between now and then. 

What's left of the 2025-26 athletic year at Princeton? While there might not be much left on the schedule, what there is will be very significant. 

As you probably know, Princeton won both Ivy League lacrosse tournaments this past weekend. If you were wondering, that's only happened once before, in 2014, when Penn won both. 

TB knows this because his colleague Chas Dorman, who used to work at Penn, said that he was the lone constant between those two sweeps. TB will give Chas his due on this one. 

Not that this should shock anyone, but TB will have more lacrosse as the week goes along. For now, there's just a reminder that about the the NCAA draw for both teams: the women are at Maryland against Rutgers Friday at 2, while the men (the No. 1 overall seed) will host the winner of Wednesday's play-in game between Marist and Stony Brook in the first round Sunday at 2:30. 

This week will bring the Ivy League softball tournament to Princeton, who went 19-2 during the regular season to set a record for most regular-season league wins. The event is scheduled now to begin Thursday at Cynthia Paul Field, and hopefully the weather cooperates.  

How did Princeton put together its record-setting season? Well, it helps that the Tigers lead the league in team batting, pitching and fielding.  

Princeton, the top seed, will play fourth-seeded Brown in the first game of the double-elimination tournament at noon, followed by second-seeded Harvard and third-seeded Columbia. There will be three games Friday and then one or two Saturday, with the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the winner. 

Princeton has won five straight Ivy League softball championships and hosted the league's postseason each of those five years. 

What else is left beyond lacrosse and softball? There is track and field, rowing and NCAA golf. 

There are five Ivy League championships still to be crowned in this calendar year, two in track and field and three in rowing. 

The Ivy League Heptagonal Championships will be held at Weaver Track and Field Stadium next weekend, as both the men and women look to wrap up another Triple Crown. Princeton has tuned up for Heps with the Penn Relays and Larry Ellis Invitational the last two weekends and will be off this weekend. 

TigerBlog's contribution to Heps will be an upcoming feature story on women's soccer player/steeplechaser Pia Beaulieu, which will be on the website at some point next week.

As for rowing, the women's lightweights won yet another Eastern Sprints title, taking both the first varsity 8 race and the overall points championship. Up next is a trip to California at the end of the month for the IRA national championships. 

The three Ivy titles on the table in rowing will also be next weekend, with the Eastern Sprints for the men and the Ivy League championships for the open women. The men's event will be on Lake Quigsingamond in Worcester, Mass.; the women will be on the Cooper River in South Jersey. 

Looking beyond, there will be the NCAA women's rowing championships, the NCAA track and field regionals and the IRAs for men as well, all at the end of the month. There will be the NCAA track and field finals in early June. 

And that'll be it. 

An athletic year at Princeton has somewhere around 700 events. When you get to this point, almost all of those are behind you.

As TB said, though, the ones that are left? They'll all be huge.