Sunshine And Smiles On Powers Field

Even for the most physical of sports, there are days for sunshine and smiles. 

This past Saturday afternoon on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium was one of those, at least for Bob Surace and his Princeton football team. 

The Tigers made a huge statement with a 21-14 win over Dartmouth Saturday, improving to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Ivy League. With Harvard's 37-0 dismantling of Columbia, the Crimson also improved to 4-1 in the league, with Dartmouth and Brown a game back at 3-2. 

What Princeton did Saturday was ensure that it will go into the final week of the season still with a chance at the league title, regardless of what happens next weekend. That's always a first goal of every season — get to the end and play meaningful games. 

That's exactly what Princeton will do. Princeton, in fact, would win no worse than a share of the championship with wins the next two weekends, at Yale this coming Saturday and then home against Penn in the season finale. Harvard will be at Penn and then at Fenway Park against Yale after that. 

Remember, there is also the matter of the FCS playoffs now. Harvard's win over Princeton would give the automatic bid to the Crimson in the event of a two-way tie, though both Harvard and Yale reached the playoffs a year ago, when the Ivy League first participated. 

That is the backdrop. Where do the sunshine and smiles come in? Well, for TigerBlog, they came from a few miles away from Fenway Park, as he watched the game on ESPN+ and saw nothing but both when it ended. 

Maybe it's because to that point, it had been raining for two straight days in Boston (where he was for the Ivy League field hockey tournament). Or maybe it's because it almost looked like the end of a sports movie. 

Princeton sealed the win with a fourth-down stop, after going up 21-0 and then holding off the Big Green. The Tigers definitely left some points on the field that could have put the game away sooner, but that didn't matter in the end. 

And now with the game ended, every Princeton player was all smiles, as was his head coach, who was wearing a gray hat and a sweatshirt and a huge grin of his own. 

The win was the 90th for Surace as Tiger head coach, moving him past Bill Roper into sole possession of first place for career wins for the program. TB wrote about this last week when Surace tied the record, but he left out that while 90 doesn't seem like an unapproachable number (like Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak), the fact that it stood for 96 years suggests otherwise. In that context, this is something truly amazing. 

Back at the game, Princeton ran for 165 yards and threw for 156, running the ball twice as many times as it threw it. Nearly half of those rushing yards (74) came from Princeton's three quarterbacks (Eli Friend, Wyatt Becker, Ty Ciongoli), two of whom (Friend, Becker) had touchdown runs. 

Josh Robinson caught four passes for 79 yards and one touchdown on a play where he was about as open as a receiver can get. Sometimes with that much time and such an open receiver, the quarterback will think too much and miss. This time, Ciongoli put it right into his hands. Robinson, for his part, looked like he was shocked how open he was. That can be scary for a receiver too. 

The TD made it 21-0 in the second quarter. Was the rout on? No. Dartmouth made it 21-7 at the break and could have had more but it too left some points on the field. 

In the end, it turned out to be a seven-point game. And it turned out to be a Princeton win. 

TB watched the video until the end. Did you? If you did, then you probably smiled, just like TB did, when you saw the sheer joy for everyone in orange and black .

There are two huge games to go. There is a championship to be played for well into November. That is to come. 

Saturday? That was all sunshine and smiles.  

Tigers-Green

While the Ivy League field hockey tournament begins today, the real competition was in the Princeton team hotel yesterday evening. 

The occasion? A team trivia contest, with the Tigers divided into six teams. TigerBlog's team of Josie Bianco, Caitlin Thompson, Lilly Wojcik and strength and conditioning coach Rich Fahsbender maybe won, or maybe tied. TB will go with won. 

He also learned a few things. If anyone ever asks you which country's flag is the only one in the world that is not a rectangle, the answer is "Nepal." If you're wondering which country has the largest amount of coastline, that would be "Canada." What's the only country that is in all four hemispheres? That would be Kiribati.

Anyway, it was fun. Kudos to Ivy Defensive Player of the Year Ottilie Sykes for organizing. And if you want to check out the league semifinals today, it's Harvard-Yale at 11:30 and Princeton-Cornell at 2:30. It'll be pouring at Harvard, apparently. 

The weather tomorrow in Princeton should be much better. In fact, you might even call it "perfect" weather for football, with temps in the upper 50s and a partly cloudy day. 

You can't ask for more for a football game, especially a huge one late in the season. It'll be Princeton and Dartmouth at noon tomorrow on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium.  

What makes this one huge? There are three weeks left in the Ivy League season, and the standings look like this:

Princeton/Dartmouth/Harvard 3-1
Brown/Yale 2-2
Columbia/Penn/Cornell 1-3

TB will get back to the game in a second. First, there is the matter of Homecoming. 

If you see a really tall guy with an Australian accent who looks familiar but is wearing green, don't get shaken. If the Cornell game last weekend was Princeton's actual Homecoming for alums, then the game tomorrow will be Homecoming for Elliott Carr, who left Princeton's Office of Athletic Communications to take over the same office at Dartmouth. 

By all accounts, Elliott is doing a great job in Hanover. He is one of those people you never have to worry about in terms of putting in the effort, going above and beyond and doing a consistently high-quality job. 

Also, old friend Bruce Wood — the TigerBlog of Dartmouth — will be in attendance. There aren't many people left who come to cover a game at Princeton who can remember covering games in Palmer Stadium. Bruce is one of them. 

Okay, back to the game. The math is obvious. There's a three-way tie for first with three weeks left, and this is the last remaining game among the teams that are at the top of the standings. Harvard defeated Princeton two weeks ago. Dartmouth defeated Harvard last week. 

While the Big Green were taking down Harvard, Princeton was having a massive, possibly season-changing, come-from-behind 21-20 win over Cornell. The Tigers will finish the regular season at Yale and home against Penn after the game tomorrow. 

Harvard has Penn at home and Yale on the road. Dartmouth has Cornell away and Brown at home. 

Obviously if one of the three teams wins out, it will have no less than a share of the league championship. Dartmouth would be assured of the league's automatic bid to the FCS playoffs with three ore wins. Princeton and Harvard would both need to win out and get a little help, at least to get the automatic bid.  

Those are the stakes. What do the stats say about the game? 

Well, they suggest that the team that best stops the other team's running game will be in good shape. Dartmouth is third in the league in rushing offense. Princeton is fourth in rushing defense. Princeton is fifth in rushing offense. Dartmouth is seventh in rushing defense. 

Ah, but the teams rank 7-8 in the league in passing offense. Stop the run and make them throw. That's probably written on both team's game plans. 

What else jumps out? Dartmouth is 10th in the FCS and Princeton is 11th in fewest penalties per game. Both teams are tied for fourth in the FCS in fewest turnovers, as both have lost one fumble and thrown five interceptions (three of Dartmouth's five came last week against Harvard, who in turn threw five in the game; that's a lot of interceptions). 

Princeton-Dartmouth. Kickoff at noon on Power Field.  

Thursday Round-Up

TigerBlog saw the news that Dale Brown passed away last week. 

If the name isn't familiar, Brown was the LSU men's basketball coach from 1992 to 1997. No other men's basketball coach at LSU has ever won more than the 448 Brown won. 

TB can't think of Brown without thinking about the time when he and Mark Panus (TB's predecessor in the Office of Athletic Communications) were sitting in the front seat of a car heading to the Meadowlands for a basketball luncheon. In the backseat? Pete Carril. 

This was in the early 1990s, when Shaquille O'Neal was playing for Brown. As Panus drove the car up the New Jersey Turnpike, Brown was being interviewed on WFAN sports radio. TB and Panus were simply listening, and every now and then a grunt came from the back seat. 

The grunts got louder as Brown talked about being in big men to work with Shaq, including Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Finally, Carril couldn't take it anymore. From the backseat, he finally erupted with this: 

"What are you doing? Why do you need to bring in those guys? Why don't you teach him? Is it because you don't know nothing?" 

Carril and Brown lived into their 90s. All of these years later, remembering that drive always makes TB laugh. 

Anyway, RIP Dale Brown. 

And while the subject is men's basketball, the Tigers are home tonight at 7 against Hofstra.  

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The first Ivy League fall tournament begins tomorrow at Harvard with the field hockey tournament. Princeton is the No. 2 seed and will play Cornell in the second semifinal at 2:30, after Harvard and fourth-seed Yale play at 11:30. The winners will play Sunday at noon for the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid. 

And why is the tournament at Harvard? It's because the Crimson defeated Princeton 2-1 in a shootout back on Sept. 26. As TigerBlog left the game that day in Cambridge, he knew he'd be back come ILT time.

Princeton is 12-4 on the season, with all four of those losses via shootout, to the teams ranked 1-2-3-12 in the current RPI. The Tigers, who have won eight straight, have five wins over Top 20 RPI teams, including two in the Top 10 (No. 4 Northwestern, No. 10 Penn State). 

The NCAA tournament field will be announced Sunday night at 10.

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The soccer tournaments are a week away, and both Princeton teams are playing to get into the field of four in this weekend's final regular season games. 

The women are currently tied with Harvard for fourth with 10 points, behind Brown and Columbia with 13 each and Dartmouth with 12. Princeton hosts Brown Saturday at 6, in what is also Senior Night. 

There can still mathematically be a five-way tie for the championship, which would make the tournament scenarios even more crazy. Princeton has already lost to Harvard, tied against Dartmouth and beaten Columbia. A win over Brown would, TB is pretty sure, mean a spot in the tournament. 

The men are also home Saturday, against Penn at 3. If you think the women's race is complex, here's what you have on the men's side right now: 

Cornell has already won the league and clinched home field. Columbia has been eliminated. The other six They all have either nine points (Yale, Penn) or seven points (Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown). 

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Princeton Hockey is a combined 8-0-0 to date, with six of those wins for the women's team, who is home this weekend against Colgate (tomorrow at 6) and Cornell (Saturday at 6). Princeton is already 4-0-0 in the ECAC, with you know an eternity left to play. 

The men opened their season last weekend with a sweep of Stonehill. This weekend sees the Tigers open their ECAC schedule at Colgate and Cornell, with both games at 7. 

To give you a sense of just how much of an eternity there is in a hockey season, the last day of the men's regular season is also the same day as the third game of the season for the women's lacrosse team. 

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In other Crossover Season news, the women's volleyball team is home against Dartmouth tomorrow at 6 and Harvard Saturday at 5. There are two weekends left in the Ivy season, but it's reasonably certain who the four teams in the tournament will be. 

Right now Cornell is 9-1, followed by 8-2 Yale, 7-3 Harvard and 6-4 Princeton. From there it drops down to 3-7 Penn and Brown and 2-8 Columbia and Dartmouth.  

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Aleksandar Mitric and Simeon Stankovic will be in Georgia this weekend for the ITA Conference Masters tournament. Mitric and Stankovic won the Ivy League doubles championship, which advanced them to this tournament. A win in Georgia this weekend would earn another trip to Georgia later this month, for the NCAA tournament. 

Princeton has already qualified Landon Ardila and Tsehay Driscoll for the singles tournament. 

*

The complete weekend schedule is HERE. 

Standing Tall

Well, that's a wrap on the 2026-27 Princeton women's basketball season. 

Not really, obviously. Still, how else are the Tigers going to top what happened Monday on opening night in Jadwin Gym against Belmont? 

Specifically, TigerBlog is referring to two things. 

First, there was the 63-52 final score, which gave Lauren Gosselin her first win as Princeton head coach. That's a memory that will stay with her forever. 

It's a big adjustment to go from being an assistant coach for as long as Gosselin was to being the head coach, in so many ways. And if you ever talk to a young head coach, he or she will tell you that this is true as much or more for the off-the-court stuff as the actual coaching. 

There's media, for starters. These days, there's content creation. There's speaking at alumni events and at meetings on campus. You're now the face of the program. It can be a lot to get used to when you're new to it. 

As for the on-court piece, practices are probably a bit different but not that radically, especially if you surround yourself with a strong staff. It's on Game Night where it feels (and is) different.

You're in the first chair. You can stand up, something assistants are not supposed to do. You can talk to the refs, another thing assistants aren't supposed to do. 

More than anything else, the final say on decisions, subbing, play-calling and everything else now is in your hands. It's a big change, something that Gosselin is only starting to experience. To start your career with a win over Belmont, a team that went 20-12 last year and 26-13 while reaching the WBIT final two years ago, had to feel great. 

The First Of Many! Congratulations to @Coach__LB on her first career victory! #GRIT🐯🏀 https://t.co/jAENhKb5KE

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) November 3, 2026

And why did Princeton win the game? That's the second item that will be really tough to match the rest of the season — or the rest of the decade for that matter. 

TB speaks of the performance by Fadima Tall, which was somewhere in the neighborhood of otherwordly. How's this for a stat line? 

* 37 min, 9 for 20 FG, 2 for 7 three-pt FG, 9 for 9 free throws, 29 points, 22 rebounds (seven offensive, 15 defensive)

That's crazy. Twenty-nine points and 22 rebounds?  

Guess who that ties her with for number of games with at least 29 points and 22 rebounds? How about Bill Bradley, who only did it once (first game against Columbia in 1964). 

Speaking of a long time ago, there are two women's players who can say they did it: Margaret Meier and Ellen DeVoe. Meier played in the 1970s. DeVoe did it in 1985. 

So what to make of this performance on Day 1? Tall has already established herself as one of the top players in the league, with a resume that includes back-to-back second-team All-Ivy selections. Oh, and do you remember last year's Ivy League tournament? Tall was the Most Outstanding Player. 

Okay, maybe that's not a wrap on the women's basketball season. There's a lot to be seen obviously, especially as it comes to Tall's ceiling.  

Both the 29 points and the 22 rebounds were career bests for Tall. She obviously won't approach 29/22 on a regular basis, or maybe ever again, but it'll be interesting to see what her numbers are a few months from now. 

The game against Belmont put her over 10.0 points per game for her career. She averaged 13.0 per game a year ago. What is this season's trajectory? 

She now has 736 career points, this after having 45 points as a freshman. If she matches last year's point total of 281, she'd finish with 1,017. If she averages what she did against Belmont, she'll finish the regular season with 1,548. TB will go with something in between. 

Either way, it was just an incredible opening performance by Tall, the result of which was Win No. 1 for Gosselin. 

Next up? A trip to Richmond, for games against the Spiders Friday and Murray State Sunday.  

Two Championships

Today is Election Day.

TigerBlog endorses voting for candidates who run on a platform of removing every lawn sign within 24 hours of the big day, whether they win or lose. 

And please, no more political commercials for a long time. 

"My opponent voted to take your dog away."
"Oh yeah, well my opponent was mean to a kid on the playground when he was six."

If you are a political candidate, or an NFL team, or speech and debate squad or pretty much any entity anywhere that is looking to win, you might want to call up Kaitlyn Chen and get her on your side. TigerBlog will say this again, as he has so many times before:

WINNING FOLLOWS KAITLYN CHEN EVERYWHERE SHE GOES

If you need more proof, TigerBlog refers you to the recently completed WNBA playoffs, in which the second-year Golden State Valkyries defeated the Atlanta Dream in seven games to win the title. Guess who is on Golden State? That would be Kaitlyn Chen. 

A winner everywhere she goes. Congratulations to Kaitlyn Chen ‘24 and the @valkyries on winning the @WNBA Championship! #ThisIsBallhalla ⚔️ https://t.co/Hgyrr2kN6G

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) November 1, 2026

So with that, here is Chen's most recent six seasons of basketball:

2022: Princeton - Ivy League Champion/Ivy tournament champion, NCAA tournament second round
2023: Princeton - Ivy League Champion/Ivy tournament champion, NCAA tournament second round
2024: Princeton - Ivy League Champion/Ivy tournament champion, NCAA tournament first round
2025: UConn - NCAA Champion
2025: Golden State Valkyries - WNBA expansion team (makes playoffs)
2026: Golden State Valkyries - WNBA Champion 

Given that she went from UConn to her rookie season within a few months, that means that in the last five years she's played on three teams and won five championships.  

That's a lot of winning. And in case you think she's just along for the ride, she 1) is the only player in any sport ever to be a three-time Ivy tournament Most Outstanding Player, 2) started every game for UConn's national championship team and 3) is one of the top players off the bench in the WNBA. 

Her minutes weren't as high in the playoffs as they had been in the regular season, but that didn't matter.  She also has to be just about the best teammate there's ever been. If you watched any of Golden State's games, you could clearly see that. TigerBlog thinks that Chen's incredible enthusiasm actually fuels her teams and is part of why they always seem to win. 

Elsewhere in "Princeton Women Win Championships" news, the women's cross country team won its third straight Ivy League Heptagonal title this past Friday as the meet made it way to Attleboro, Mass. 

Unlike the Valkyries, who were pushed to the absolute limit to win their title, the Heps women's race was completely one-sided. Princeton had runners finish 2-3-5-10-13, finishing with 33 points, or 39 fewer than second-place Penn. 

 This is from the story on goprincetontigers.com: 

Emma de Jong was the first Tiger across the finish line, taking the runner-up spot with a time of 20:25.1. This is her third-consecutive Heps she has scored in, moving up six places from her eighth-place finish last year. Last year's individual champion Anna McNatt followed right behind de Jong at 20:28.5 in third for the 2-3 finish. Both runners' times made it onto the all-time top 6,000-meter records list with de Jong in 15th and McNatt tied at 19th. They were each awarded First Team All-Ivy honors. The next runner to score for the Tigers was Caroline Barton clocking in at 20:36.5 to secure a fifth-place finish for the second year in a row. First-year Lux Burgin was the fourth Tiger across the finish line, making an impressive Heps debut with a time of 20:45.4. Burgin kicked out 22 runners from 2K-6K to finish in 10th place. Hannah Riggins rounded out the Tiger scoring with a time of 20:53.3, securing a 13th place finish.

And hey, speaking of winning, does the name "Burgin" ring a bell? Lux Burgin is the younger sister of men's lacrosse senior Wilder Burgin. The women's cross country championship was the fourth Ivy title in family history, which also includes an NCAA championship from this past spring. 

Next up for the women will be the NCAA Regional meet, which will be held at Lehigh a week from Friday.  

Record Tied

This was the second straight weekend in which TigerBlog set his clock back an hour. 

Twice? How's that? 

The first tine was last Saturday/early Sunday in Italy, which turned its clocks back one week earlier than the United States. This was especially helpful since the bus for the airport left at 6 am. 

The second time was obviously this Saturday. TigerBlog can tell you from long-ago experience that it's not a great morning for parents with babies and toddlers, who don't quite understand what having an extra hour of sleep is supposed to mean. 

So yes, that was how TB came to set the clock back twice in one year. That's a record for him.

It's because of a different record that TB will put off for a day talking about a pair of championships from this past weekend. 

No, today belongs to Princeton head football coach Bob Surace. 

When TigerBlog thinks about unbreakable Princeton records, the first that comes to mind is Bill Bradley's 2,503 career points in basketball. Despite the fact that he did it in three years with no three-point shot, Bradley's record hasn't come close to being touched in the 60-plus years since he did it. 

Then there is Michael Sowers in men's lacrosse. Sowers had 302 points. To put that in perspective, Coulter Mackesy is in second place, 54 points back of Sowers. Nate Kabiri enters his senior year 95 away; nobody has ever had more than 90 in a season, and that was Sowers. And if someone does get that many points, they won't be close to his points per game of 6.423. That's nearly two full points per game more than anyone who has ever played at Princeton. 

If you look at pro sports, there are certain records that will stand forever. Cy Young won 511 games. Nobody will come close. Look up how many assists Wayne Gretzky had. In case you didn't know, it's 1,963, which just happens to be more any other player has points. Again, no one will come close. 

One record that has always fascinated TigerBlog is Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in 1941. That's 85 years ago, and nobody has ever had a longer streak than Pete Rose's 44 in 1978. Why does this fascinate TB? It's because it wouldn't take years or decades to do it. All you need is 57 games, and yet nobody has come close. 

And this is what brings him to Bob Surace. This past Saturday, Surace's team rallied to defeat Cornell 21-20 in a thriller on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. The win was huge for the Tigers, who got the help they needed Friday night when Dartmouth beat Harvard 24-14. 

As such, the Ivy standings now have a three-way tie at the top with Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth all at 3-1. And guess who comes to Princeton this coming Saturday? That would be Dartmouth, who will be here for a kickoff at noon. 

Princeton won the Cornell game despite 1) having only 14 rushing yards, 2) being out-first-downed 27-15 and 3) losing the time of possession stat basically 40 minutes to 20. Princeton won the game with three Josh Smith touchdown receptions, including the game-winner with 1:33 to go. 

Princeton had two quarterbacks who both threw for at least 124 yards and had at least one touchdown pass. When was the last time that happened? Maybe in the Harry Nakielny/Brock Harvey days, when they'd rotate series by series? 

TB will try to look that up.  

In the meantime, that win Saturday was the 89th for Surace, tying a 96-year-old record for wins by a Tiger football coach. Surace, who is now tied with Bill Roper, got a game ball from Equipment Manager Clif Perry. 

It’s Brotherhood. @CoachBobSurace | #JUICE 🍊🥤 https://t.co/1SRms4VmwU

— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) November 1, 2026

What you see there is what you get with Bob Surace. 

To TB, this is sort of like DiMaggio's record. It takes more than 57 games obviously, but it also doesn't require a 40-year career either. This is only the 16th season of Surace's career at Princeton. 

If you look at the roster of Princeton head coaches, you'll see Hall of Famers, leaders of multiple Ivy championship teams, innovators in the sport's history. What you don't see, or didn't see, until Saturday was someone who could match that "89" of Roper's. 

And now Bob Surace has done that. It's even more impressive considering that he started out 2-22 before turning it around. Since then, he is 87-46 since, with four Ivy League championships. 

TB texted Surace after the game with his congratulations, and Surace came back with a thank you text of his own. Maybe this was a bigger deal to a historian like TB. 

Or maybe Surace was just too busy turning his attention to Dartmouth and the games after that, at Yale and home against Penn, with an Ivy title to be chased. 

 

Happy Halloween

 

You don't need TigerBlog to tell you that tomorrow is Halloween. 

It's the Princeton holiday. Orange and Black everywhere. Even Oreo joins in the fun, with their Princeton Athletics Double Stuffs. 

If you're wondering, TigerBlog's favorite actual Halloween candies would be: mini-M&Ms, Hershey's miniatures and Three Musketeers bars. If he knocks on your door, now you have no excuse not to know. 

TB has always talked about how Halloween is the start of a sprint that goes to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's in a seeming blink. Maybe it's because of the Princeton schedule, which dives right into winter long before fall ends. 

There will be trick-or-treating on the concourse at Princeton Stadium tomorrow before Princeton's game against Cornell, which kicks off at noon. Before that, of course, there are also three kinds of Princeton hockey today: field at Columbia at 6, women's at Hobey Baker Rink against Brown at 6 and men's against Stonehill in Boston at the Warrior Arena at 7. 

And then shortly after the football game, okay, two days later, there will be a basketball doubleheader on Carril Court at Jadwin Gym. The men will start it off against Carnegie Mellon at 4, followed by Lauren Gosselin's debut as Tiger head coach, against Belmont. 

Hockey? Basketball? There's also swimming and diving, rugby and water polo, along with everything TB mentioned yesterday. 

The football game will give Princeton a chance to bounce back from last weekend's 35-7 loss to Harvard, which resulted in the Tigers' first Ivy League loss. The standings now are: 

Harvard 3-0
Princeton/Dartmouth 2-1
Columbia/Brown/Cornell/Yale/Penn 1-2

TB can't remember a time when he's seen the standings like that. 

If you're a Tiger fan, you start your football weekend tonight at 7 rooting for Dartmouth, and not just because TB's' former colleague Elliot Carr is the team's contact in athletic communications. For Princeton to get back in the mix for an Ivy title, someone has to beat Harvard. Why not Dartmouth? 

Whatever happens tonight in Hanover, Princeton needs to get back to winning to stay in the race. By weekend's end, there could be a three-way tie for first — or the Tigers could be two games back.

TB also reminds you that Princeton head coach Bob Surace needs one more win to tie Bill Roper's 96-year-old record for wins. Roper has 89, one more than Surace's 88. 

As for the game, TigerBlog stole this from Cornell's well-named "Pre-Snap Read" story:

Cornell leads the Ivy League in scoring offense (31.3 ppg, No. 34 in FCS), rushing offense (169.2 ypg, No. 39), red zone offense (.885, No. 22), sacks (3.00 per game, No. 6) and sacks allowed (0.67 per game, No. 3). The Big Red has scored on 23 of 26 red zone trips, with 19 touchdowns.

The Big Red have scored at least 29 points in five straight games. The biggest W on its schedule came against then-No. 4 Lehigh, a 48-38 statement two weeks ago. Cornell also put up 38 in a 13-point win against Yale but also has Ivy losses to Harvard (41-29) and Brown (38-31 in overtime last weekend). 

Princeton was leading all of college football on every level in scoring defense at 10.2 per game before Harvard scored 35. Even after that, the Tigers are still third in the FCS, at 14.3. Princeton is also third nationally in net punting, while punter Brady Clark leads the league with a 46.1 average. 

Kai Honda is second in the league in rushing touchdowns with eight, one behind Cornell's Garrett Bass-Sulpizio, who actually is the Big Red quarterback. He actually has more rushing TDs than passing TDs (seven), and he leads all Ivy quarterbacks in rushing yards as well. 

This is also a matchup of the No. 1 rushing offense and the No. 1 rushing defense in the league. Princeton allows 113.7 yards per game. 

There have been all kinds of crazy games played between the Tigers and the Big Red. Maybe it's because it's always so close to Halloween? 

Remember — kickoff is at noon. And you can trick or treat before the game. 

And also a reminder — it'll be basketball season Monday. It'll be men's hockey season tonight. Women's hockey is in Week 3. Ivy tournaments for the fall are just ahead. 

Go Tigers.  

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. 

Off And Running In Attleboro

TigerBlog will be at the field hockey game at Columbia Friday night after missing the team's last two and in the process ending a streak of having attended 73 straight. 

Princeton had a record of 55-18 in those 73 games, for a winning percentage of .753. On the other hand, the Tigers were 2-0 last weekend without him, for a winning percentage of 1.000. Perhaps he should stay away? 

The last time he had missed a game prior to last weekend was the second game of the 2022 season, when he had to escort the freshmen back to Princeton for orientation after they had played the first game of the year at the annual opening event, which that year was at North Carolina. He (and they) missed the 2-1 loss to Louisville. 

When he looked at this year's schedule and saw that Princeton would be in New York on Oct. 30, he thought that he might be able to do a doubleheader of Heps cross country in the morning/early afternoon and then a few hours later the field hockey game. That would have worked out perfectly had the cross country championships been at van Cortlandt Park, which is only a two-mile walk to where the field hockey game will be. 

As you may recall, Heps cross-country is one of TB's favorite annual events on the Ivy League calendar. It's intense competition mixed with a party atmosphere that draws a huge crowd every year. It would be perfect, no?  

Alas, when he looked closer, he saw that Heps this year will be held in Attleboro, Mass. And on Saturday. Oh well. TB hates to miss it. 

By the way TigerBlog knows little about Attleboro except that once when he was driving through he stopped and found a surprisingly good bagel place.  

The Heps meet will be held at the Mark Coogan Cross Country Course at Highland Park, on land that formerly was the Highland Park Country Club. The club went out of business in 2018 and sold the land to the town of Attleboro, which received a large gift to preserve the area as a spot for running, hiking, biking and walking. 

Since 2019 it has been the home course for Brown, which is in Providence. If you're wondering, it's about twice as far from Brown to the cross country course as the race itself is.  

The Princeton men come into the race as the five-time defending champion. They are also the second-highest ranked Ivy League team in the current USTFCCCA at No. 24, trailing No. 16 Harvard. No other Ivy school is in the Top 25, though Cornell is 30th if you count others receiving votes. 

Princeton is third in the Mid-Atlantic Region rankings, behind powerhouses West Virginia and Villanova. Penn is seventh in the region; Harvard and Dartmouth are 2-3 in the Northeast Region.  

Any guesses as the top five in the national poll? TB did not do well with his own guesses of Northern Arizona, Oregon, Texas Tech, Illinois and Oklahoma State. The answer, in order: New Mexico, Oklahoma State, Colorado, Alabama, BYU. 

His guesses for the women: North Carolina State, Oregon, Northern Arizona, Villanova and Wisconsin. How'd he do? BYU, NC State, West Virginia, Florida, Northern Arizona. He did a little better at least. 

The Princeton women have won two straight Heps cross country titles as they head to Attleboro. The Tigers are the only Ivy team in the top 32, coming in at No. 28 in Division I.

Regionally, Princeton is third in the Mid-Atlantic, behind West Virginia and Penn State. The Northeast Region has five Ivy teams, led by Harvard at No. 5. 

Maybe the lure of Heps is the immediacy of it. The basketball seasons that begin next week will take months to crown a champion. The same is true with the fledgling hockey seasons. 

In cross country? You need to be ready for the opening gun, and 20 minutes later, there will be champions. 

Or maybe it's the color. It's the fall, so there will be leaves of different shades. There are eight teams with eight different uniforms. 

Or maybe it's the party. There will also be eight tents, complete with pretty much any kind of food choices you could want. 

Either way, Heps cross country is always something special, wherever it's held. Unfortunately for TigerBlog, it's being held far from Columbia, instead of a short walk. 

He will miss it.  

From The Camera Roll

So there was TigerBlog at the baggage claim at JFK Sunday after getting off an 8.5 hour flight from Milan. 

He was surrounded by 52 men's lacrosse players, pretty much all of whom wore something that advertised "Princeton." In fairness, TigerBlog also was dressed thusly, at least for his "Princeton Lacrosse" sweatpants. The sweatshirt he wore said "Bella Venezia Lacrosse," something he acquired in a trade for a Princeton sweatshirt with a member of the Italian national team staff. 

That's Samuele by the way. He was wearing a blue "Italia Lacrosse" sweatshirt that TB originally said would make a good trade, but Samuele said that he had played exactly one game for the national team and that the sweatshirt meant a lot to him. Fair enough. 

Here's the sweatshirt TB got in return:

Good trade all around, no? 

Meanwhile, this is Martina. She went from fairly upset to amazingly thrilled when a Princeton Lacrosse sweatshirt came her way, courtesy of Samuele, who drove her 20 miles to pick it up from the hotel where the Tigers were staying. Of all the people who came away with Princeton gear, TB is pretty sure Martina was the happiest.

Don't worry. TigerBlog hasn't forgotten the story about the woman at the baggage claim. He'll get back to that shortly. 

TigerBlog took nearly a thousand pictures during the trip. He showed you a few from Lake Como the other day, and yes that area was scenic beauty at its finest.

TB also took this one, which he's pretty sure if the back of the head of Porter Malkiel, one of the stars of Princeton's second midfield unit. This is one of his favorites:  

He took so many pictures on Lake Como that he'll share a few others to give you more of a sense of what it was like there: 

 

And then there was the food. This is just a small sample of what TB ate while he was there:

 

 

Of all of the food that was consumed, the last one was likely the best one. It was about as perfect as food can be prepared, at least to TigerBlog.  

 

Of course TigerBlog did make his own pizza, or at least made some of a pizza, with considerable help from the experts. It turned out to be really good. See for yourself. 

Like he said, he has a thousand that he could share. Maybe he will go back through the camera roll a different time. 

Tomorrow he'll be back to talking about the rest of Princeton Athletics. For today, he wanted to share the photos — and to tell you the story about the woman at baggage claim. 

As he waited for his suitcase to come rolling out, a woman walked up to him and started chatting. She asked who the team had played while there, and TB began to explain what the trip was all about. He also mentioned that the games against the Swiss and Italian national team weren't all that competitive but were a lot of fun for everyone involved, tossing in the fact that Princeton is the defending NCAA champion.

She told him that she knew, and that her son-in-law had played lacrosse at Yale. She said that her late husband had played at Washington & Lee. She mentioned that she herself had attended UVa and that she knew they had a good team. 

As it turned out, the woman at the baggage claim is one of the most famous journalists of all time. It's possible that she is the most famous woman journalist ever. If not, she's in the top five. Somehow TB had no idea who she was until Tiger defensive coordinator Jeremy Hirsch told him after he spoke to her.

The more TB thought about it, he figured that she possibly liked that she was having a normal conversation with someone who didn't know who she was, rather than someone hounding her for an autograph or photo. She was super nice, that's for sure. And she knew about lacrosse. 

TB asked he about her trip to Italy, and she mentioned that she was on vacation. It was a pleasant little five-minute chat.

Who was she? 

Katie Couric. Nice to meet you Katie.