Welcome To September

Welcome to September. 

When you think of summer, you don't really think of September. That's more for back-to-school, the coming of autumn, the start of football season, the cooling of the temperatures. Still, most of the month is still in summer — and comes complete with the best weather of the year. 

In fact, as someone who grew up near the Jersey Shore, TigerBlog can tell you that there are few better times of year to go down the Shore as they say than September. Crowds? Nope. Great weather? Yup. Parking? Lots of it.  

The majority of the U.S. Open tennis tournament will be held this month, though it did start in August. Of course, the match between Sofia Kenin and Venus Williams seemed like it might not start until October or so with the way that the Novak Djokovic-some other guy match was going. 

As it turned out, some other guy took down Djokovic in five long sets, giving Djokovic his a first-round loss in a Major pushing Williams and Kenin to a first serve at 12:10 am. Kenin won the match 6-2, 7-6, finishing it off just before 2 am. 

Can you imagine waiting around not knowing what time your match is going to start, only to have the match before yours go on forever? How do you know what to eat and when? How can you ready to play after midnight? 

This September was going to be a difficult month for TB on one front, at least on one front. Why? That's because his four-year term on the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse rules subcommittee was to end on Aug. 31, 2026. 

Had it really been four years? Yes it had. Time flies, as everyone knows, though this had been a really quick four years. TB felt good about his time on the committee, including serving as chair the last two years. He was part of the introduction of video replay into the game, and he was also part of recognizing that the game had 1) had major overhauls the previous few cycles and 2) that it was now in a good place and didn't need huge changes again. 

And just like that, it was supposed to be over. Until it wasn't. Instead, he finds himself reappointed for another four-year term. Just like that, yesterday was no longer the end and today is Day 1 of the new beginning. TB's quest to rid the game of live-ball timeouts continues. 

In other lacrosse news, TigerBlog has seen some of the returning players from the men's NCAA championship team of this past spring and has asked them all the same question: How many times have you watched the video? 

The answer is always the same: "a lot." That would be TB's answer if you asked him. He's watched in a lot, or, more accurately, a whole lot. 

The video was the one, well, hopefully you've seen it by now. If not, click HERE. 

That's crazy impressive. It was largely a Ben Heske production. Now you can watch his latest, which he did for the women's team: 

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A post shared by Princeton Women's Lacrosse (@princetonwlax)

This video has the additional benefit of being narrated by Rachael Becker DeCecco, a two-time NCAA champion at Princeton herself (2002, 2003) and still the only Tiger to win the Tewaaraton Award as the top player in college lacrosse. These days Rachael is one of the driving forces behind the success of the Premier Lacrosse League and now the Women's Lacrosse League.  

Both videos showcase what the Princeton Lacrosse experience is. Between the two teams, there are 10 NCAA championships. 

Only Maryland has more combined titles with 18, four by the men's program and 14 by the women. Well, that's sort of the case. Syracuse officially has 10 men's championships and no women's championships, though the 1990 championship remains technically vacated. UVa is tied with Princeton with 10, also with seven men's and three women's. 

Clearly there is great tradition here. And clearly these videos do such a great job of capturing that. 

And with that, happy September.  

 

Game Night, Game Week

TigerBlog was driving along a highway the other day when he saw a car on the side of the road with its trunk up. 

As he drove past at 70 miles per hour or so, he noticed that the driver, a man who appeared to be in his 30s or 40s, had set up his golf bag behind the car. TB's thought? 

"Hey, buddy, you're probably going to have to take a drop on this one."

In other comedy news, TigerBlog Jr.'s girlfriend Veronica is one of nine children, and her mother does stand-up. This was from one of her shows this weekend:

"If you take two kids to the park and bring one back, that's a 50. That's an F. If you bring nine kids to the park and bring back eight, that's an 89. That's a B+."

Not bad, right? And that doesn't even take into account possible grade inflation. 

Ah, but seriously folks. TigerBlog will be here all week. 

Well, not really. He's heading to North Carolina Thursday for the start of field hockey season, which begins with the Conference Crossover in Chapel Hill. Princeton will play Old Dominion Friday and then  the host Tar Heels Sunday. Penn will also be there to play the opposite schedule. 

The field hockey team is one of six Princeton teams who will be kicking it off this week as the calendar turns from August to September. In addition to field hockey, there is also women's volleyball (at Colgate's tournament), men's and women's cross country (at Providence's invitational), men's water polo (at Navy for three matches, none of which are against the host) and women's rugby (at La Salle). 

The schedule brings with it 1.5 head coach debuts for Princeton. Derek Ellingson, the women's water polo head coach, is the interim head coach for the men's team for 2026 after Dusty Litvak left Princeton to become the women's head coach at Loyola Marymount. Ellingson has been at Princeton since 2004, as an assistant with both teams and for the last seven year as the women's head coach, with a:

148-46 (.763) overall record and is 48-8 (.857) in CWPA play. His teams have won two CWPA championships while he has served as head coach (2023, 2024) and have played in two NCAA Tournaments with a trip to the national semifinals in 2023. :Overall since his arrival on campus in 2004, Ellingson has been an assistant or head coach for 11 CWPA Division championships and 14 CWPA Conference championships while guiding teams to 14 NCAA Tournaments. 

That's from his bio. 

The women's rugby game Saturday in Philadelphia will be the Tiger head coaching debut for Karameli Fa'ae'e. You can read more about her HERE.

In the meantime, there's the matter of the two teams who have already started their seasons. That would be the two soccer teams. 

The women were to have a game Thursday against No. 22 West Virginia, but the thunderstorms forced that to be postponed. The Tigers did get to play yesterday, defeating James Madison 2-0 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. 

The two goals came courtesy of Isabella Garces, who now has three in three games, as well as three of the five her team has scored. The three goals equal her season total from last year and are one off of her high for a full season after she had four in 2024. 

The women will play two straight games against Big Ten teams next, both on the road, with stops at Ohio State Thursday and Rutgers Sunday. 

And all of that brings TB to the men's team, who will be home tonight against Portland at 7. This is a huge opportunity for the Tigers after a 1-1 tie against Villanova in the season-opener Friday night.  

Portland and Princeton have never met before, and the Pilots are coming all the way across the country for just the one game. A year ago the teams combined to go 29-4-6, and they have both been highly ranked in the preseason. 

Princeton will also be home Friday against James Madison.  

Guest TigerBlog - Emilia Reay And Fresh Tiger Stripes

TigerBlog has a standing invitation to anyone who wants to submit a guest entry here.

 

Not too many have ever taken him up on this offer, though he was pretty sure he knew someone who would. That would be Emilia Reay, a rising junior at Princeton who first came onto TB's radar early in her freshman year, when she started covering field hockey for the Daily Princetonian. 

 

It's not always easy for someone that young to walk into a college press box and not be intimidated. In Emilia's case, she was more intimidating than intimidated. She certainly announced her presence at least. 

 

In addition to her writing, you can find her Princeton Athletic commentaries on her Instagram page "EmiliaReayCameToPlay." 
 

Emilia spent her summer working for USA Lacrosse, where she wrote, worked with national teams, studied up on the game's history and did pretty much any task that came up. She took TB up on his offer to write about her experiences there, which follows here: 

 

The USA Lacrosse Museum was in dire need of some fresh tiger stripes. I might be a little biased though… 

I’m Emilia Reay, and TigerBlog let me write about the best exhibit at HQ, my stomping grounds all summer long since I was USA Lacrosse’s Digital Media and Editorial Intern. 

I learned a lot while I worked there this summer. For starters, when you’re on the field with the U15 development teams, you actually have to pay attention, unlike when you’re on the field with the Princeton team. The kids are great, don't get me wrong, but there were some close calls because their shots “had too much helium,” as ESPN’s Anish Shroff says. It’s one of my favorite broadcasting lines. I actually got to interview him for my Dana Boyle story. If you’re a loyal TB reader, you should have seen that link two weeks ago. 

 

Alright, if you made it this far even though this isn’t TB’s writing, I won’t make you wait any longer for the best exhibit at HQ. Here’s the Orange and Black I’m talking about, and it’s none of that Orioles stuff that rips off Princeton’s signature color combo:

My coworker Paul sent me that second photo. He’s in charge of making sure the museum’s national champion exhibit is up-to-date. When Paul and I realized that I wouldn’t be in the office to witness the changing of the guard from Cornell to Princeton in the Men’s DI Champion display, I suggested he at least take down the red gear while I was there. I even offered to do it myself to speed up the process!

While I was interning, the “Mag Team” banned me from writing about Princeton. I mean, I go to the school, I worked for the team, and they won the whole thing, so of course I’d rather write about them than other people from other programs! After all, none of the interns could say their schools won the national championship. 

Around HQ, Princeton is well represented. The field is named after none other than legendary Princeton coach Bill Tierney. What about the walkway around that field? It couldn’t be named after another Princeton coach, could it? 

 

Oh yeah, it’s the Chris Sailer Trail. Then there are nods to other Princeton players in the promenade’s pavers, the National Hall of Fame, and the tunnel out to Tierney turf. What’s not to love?

Whenever I was waiting on an edit, I read the magazine archives. I took some home every weekend too. I started with the first editions, all the way from 1978, and then I exclusively read Princeton covers. In my first round of reading, there was an address label for Howard Krongard on a 1979 cover. I came to find out he was a stellar Princeton goalie. And nobody knew him as Howard. It’s Cookie. More on that here.

 

 

I’m glad I was at USAL this summer of all summers to intern there. Next stop: Tiger Town! 

 

Poll Position

TigerBlog spent Sunday afternoon at the rooftop pool at Miss TigerBlog's building in Washington, D.C.

As settings go, this one was pretty near perfect. The roof is about 20 stories up, and the view from the pool has Arlington to the right, the Washington Monument to the left and the rest of the Mall in between. 

As you may know, this past Sunday was the Freedom 250 Indy Car race through the Mall. Prior to the start, there were a series of flyovers above the course. 

Of course, the flyovers don't suddenly end when the course is flown over. In this case, the planes continued on a path that took them essentially over the rooftop pool, something that was just amazing to see. And hear. Especially hear. 

The highlight was when two F-35s pulled out of a formation and peeled off on their own, one of which did a vertical climb through the clouds while the other made a 180-degree turn. 

All of this happened so close to MTB's pool that it felt like the pilots were waving. It also obviously drew the attention of everyone at the pool, and in about 15 seconds the entire group had moved to the fence to watch and listen. 

Oh, and they all had their phones out to record — everyone but TigerBlog. His instinct was to record, but then he was too mesmerized in the moment to do so. It was like the old times, being in the moment instead of trying to capture the moment for a video that would hardly ever be played. 

Ultimately, he didn't pay any attention the race itself. For today, he would like to talk about "poll" position, not "pole position."

He'll start with tennis. The ITA released its preseason individual rankings, and Princeton senior Paul Inchauspe was ranked second in Division I in singles, tying the highest ranking in program history, along with Matija Pecotic, who reached No. 2 in December 2012. 

The No. 1 player in the preseason is Dylan Dietrich of UVa. The NCAA individual championships are in the fall now, if you recall. Inchauspe was a semifinalist a year ago.  

Princeton's other ranked men's players were Landon Ardila, who along with Inchauspe start out at No. 13 in doubles, and Aleksandar Mitric and freshman Simeon Stankovic, who ranked No. 74 in doubles. That's not bad for a player who has yet to hit a ball on a college court; then again, Stankovic was also ranked as the No. 9 incoming player and No. 92 in singles. 

Alice Ferlito was ranked 73rd in singles on the women's side. 

In other rankings, the Ivy League has released several of its preseason media polls. Princeton was ranked No. 1 in men's soccer, women's soccer and women's volleyball, all of whom won their Ivy titles a year ago. 

Remember, the women's soccer team is home tonight at 7 against West Virginia and Sunday at 11 am against James Madison. The men open their season at home tomorrow at 7 against Villanova, with Portland here Monday at 7. The women's volleyball season opens with three matches next weekend at Colgate. 

Of all the polls, though, TB's favorites are in field hockey, and not just because it's one of the teams he covers. No, it has to do with the Princeton-Harvard rivalry. 

If you remember, these two have dominated Ivy field hockey for the last decade. Since 2016, in fact, Princeton and Harvard are a combined 107-1 against the rest of the Ivy League schools. Can any rivalry in any other sport say that? 

The teams met three times last year. Harvard won the regular season matchup and, with it, the Ivy title, since the teams were both 6-0 against everyone else. Princeton then won the Ivy League tournament championship, defeating, of course, Harvard in the final. 

Round 3 came in the NCAA semifinals, where Princeton won 2-0 before falling 2-1 in double overtime to Northwestern in the championship game. 

To start 2026, Harvard is the preseason No. 1 in the Ivy poll, followed by No. 2 Princeton ... but then there is the NFHCA Division I coaches poll, also released this week. In that one, it goes Northwestern, North Carolina, Princeton and then Harvard as the top four. 

Princeton starts its season next weekend with games against Old Dominion and North Carolina, both in Chapel Hill. 

Goodbye Dolly

In this day and age where it's hard to find any common ground, TigerBlog is pretty sure there is one thing almost all Americans could agree on. 

Everyone loved Dolly Parton. 

The famed country singer passed away yesterday at the age of 80. The news was startling to TB — and probably to almost everyone when it was first seen. 

If you think that she wasn't as universally beloved as one can be these days, then consider these two headlines: 

"Dolly Parton, Country Music Queen and Humanitarian, Dead at 80."

"Dolly Parton, Beloved Singer and Global Icon, Dead at 80."

The first is from CNN. The second is from Fox News. Since when do they agree on anything? Dolly Parton united them.

Her first album, entitled "Hello I'm Dolly," was released in 1967. She'd record 49 more in nearly 60 years after that debut — and she wrote the often-redone song "I Will Always Love You."

This is from her obituary: 

Referred to as the "Queen of Country", Parton was one of the most-honored female country performers in history and received various accolades, including 11 Grammy Awards and three Emmy Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, including a humanitarian honorary Oscar win in 2025, six Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Parton sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling musical artists of all time. 

This was from her family yesterday: 

A message from the family of Dolly Parton. pic.twitter.com/9DNRgRx0uH

— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) August 25, 2026

TigerBlog didn't intend to start today with a Dolly tribute, but it seemed necessary for someone who writes every day. Rest in peace, Dolly.  

As near as TB can tell, Dolly never performed in Princeton. Maybe the closest was a 1982 Triangle Club spoof that included "Five to Nine," a take-off of the movie "Nine to Five." 

Is there a Princeton Athletics segue in there? 

Princeton head men's lacrosse coach Matt Madalon recently came back from a family vacation in Dollywood, located in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. It is annually the most attended tourist attraction in the state. Madalon said the news was "so sad." 

The news of Dolly's passing reached TB when he was at Monmouth yesterday for the field hockey scrimmage. Tiger head coach Carla Tagliente said that she liked Dolly Parton very much, for the movie "Steel Magnolias" as much as for any song. Clem Houlden, one of the Tiger captains, had her mouth drop open at the news while saying that she liked the song "Nine To Five" very much. 

Athletic trainer Lauren Roethlisberger, who yes is a cousin of the former quarterback, was probably the most shaken by the news. She's more than 50 years younger than Parton was, and she also loved her, showing how many generations were touched by Dolly's music and persona. 

The scrimmage did provide TB the chance to break in his new camera, though that does seem an unfortunate word choice. Armed with one 45-minute lesson, TB did his best and did manage to capture a few shots that he liked. 

He got these two, for instance, though neither of them scored a goal:

He also got this one of Ella Cashman, who did score:

TB gives himself a B for his first time shooting with the new camera. He'll have plenty of chances to practice moving forward. And if he can sneak in dog pictures, so much the better. 

The scrimmage itself was a good first look at the team that went to double overtime in the NCAA final a year ago. As TB watched it on the hot summer turf at Monmouth, he thought that it was a long way from there to Louisville, the site of this season's Final Four. 

The preseason Ivy League poll and the national coaches preseason poll were both released yesterday. TB originally was going to write about those, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow. 

For today, it had to be Dolly. Her passing had to touch even the coldest of hearts. 

She was certainly loved.  

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Does anyone ever get too old to appreciate a good rainbow? 

TigerBlog still hasn't. He saw this one Sunday afternoon and realized he had to snap the photo, even though he was driving. Don't tell anyone. And, rest assured, he was obeying the posted sign as far as speed was concerned. 

Rainbows are fun, right? You can make your own simply by spraying water in the air in the direction of the sun, whether it's from a squirt bottle or, if you're sitting at field hockey practice, from a water cannon. 

Do people under, say, 40 know what this is from and like it? 

With women's soccer season underway, the rest of the fall schedule can't be all that far behind. Today, in fact, is photo day for football, women's rugby and women's cross country. That will bring many thousands of new photos for those teams, just like the other fall teams have had. 

If you want to see Princeton field hockey and want to go to the beach as well, today is your lucky day — the Tigers will scrimmage at Monmouth at 4 pm.

TigerBlog will be there. He bought a new camera (something he's wanted to for awhile) and is hoping to become at least a reasonable photographer. He took the rainbow picture with his phone, by the way, because his camera still intimidates him. 

He had a meeting yesterday with Karla Donohoe, who has taken some great Princeton Athletic photos the last few years. When she asked TB what kind of lenses he has, Karla was probably expecting an answer different than "a light one and a heavy one." 

After talking to Karla, TB is now dripping with confidence with what to do when the scrimmage starts. She showed him some settings, gave him some advice about what to look for and offered up tips about the lenses. 

You can check out the field hockey Instagram tonight to see if he learned anything from her. So far, the best picture he's taken is of a dog:

Perhaps this is the start of a new sidelight. TigerBlog, pet photographer. His first thought for a business motto was "Bring TB your pet and he'll shoot it for you." Yeah, no.  

Yesterday brought with it the first Office of Athletic Communications weekly meeting of this athletic year. As TB walked in from the Stadium Garage, he went past football practice on Finney/Campbell and men's soccer on White-Peff. 

Practices are fascinating to watch. They are always quite scripted, down to the minute, according to the plan. They start with warmups and go to individual drills, followed by team situations and then a warm-down. It seems like every sport follows this order. 

Football practices are the most fascinating of all. The ratio of practice to game play is the highest of any sport, TB assumes, with maybe the exception of rowing? 

With that many football players on the field, the pace is quick. It's also repetitive, running the same plays over and over so that when they're called on any given Saturday, they're ready to be executed.  

As TB watched the football practice, his mind moved ahead to November, when hopefully these drills will be part of important games. It has to all be done without thinking by then, which is why the earliest days of football practice are crucial. 

The No. 1 thing you want to avoid in preseason would be injuries, which inevitably happen. TB has seen way too many athletes who have missed entire seasons due to such injuries, after spending an entire off-season preparing and being in the best shape possible. Some athletes go four years here without a scratch; others never are able to stay out of the training room. TB presumes a great deal of that is luck. 

Also, as TB has written before, athletics and theater have much in common. The rehearsing that leads up to performance is where quality of the product is often determined (with of course the main difference that you keep score in sports). 

The curtain comes up on the men's soccer season Friday night at 7 at home against James Madison. The football team will continue with rehearsals until the opener at Bryant Sept. 19. 

Crossover Episode

So the start of the 2026-27 athletic year at Princeton was delayed by two hours. 

That's supposed to be good luck, right? 

It certainly was for Opening Night. After a two-hour rain delay Thursday night, the women's soccer team got the 2026-27 party started with a 3-0 win over Loyola (the Tigers fell by the same score at Syracuse yesterday).

TigerBlog watched the Loyola game on his computer on ESPN+, at the same time as he watched the Fever-Wings game on TV. That's mid-season form. 

Though it was just the first game for the Tigers, it's possible that one of the prettiest goals of the year was scored. It came courtesy of Isabella Garces, and it gave Princeton a 2-0 lead late in the first half. 

Isabella Garces fought her way from in between three Greyhounds to finish this one from Kayla Wong!

💻: https://t.co/8hxZ6QTfsJ pic.twitter.com/85HIQPOCuq

— Princeton WSoccer (@PrincetonWSoc) August 21, 2026

Pretty sweet, right? 

The goal got TigerBlog thinking back to photo day, when the field hockey team was finishing up and the women's soccer team was about to start. It led to a few nice inter-team shots, sort of like one of those Law & Order crossover episodes. 

There was this one, for instance:

 

TB is pretty sure that the women's soccer player here will outscore the field hockey player here for the season. In fact, she already has. That's Garces with field hockey goalie Olivia Caponiti.  

And there's this one as well:  

Going left to right, that's seniors Cecilia Cerone, Garces, Ottilie Sykes, Olivia Caponiti, Rebecca Shelly, Esme Rudell and Kayla Wong. 

It's nice to see friendships that go from one team to another. Tigers supporting Tigers, as it were. 

It's also interesting when you consider that the seven women in the picture came to D-level of Jadwin Gym for pictures from five different states and one foreign country, the distance between their hometowns a span of around 7,000 miles. 

If you're wondering, the picture, again left to right, goes Texas, California, England, Connecticut, California, California, New Jersey. By the way, Wong is from Manalapan, New Jersey, TigerBlog's hometown as well. 

This is another awesome part of Princeton Athletics. They come from all over, and they all become Tigers. They start out as strangers from wildly different places and end up as friends forever. That's something that transcends the wins and losses, no matter how many of the former there are.

That picture includes two field hockey players, who in their first three years have won an Ivy League championship and an Ivy League tournament championship, have played in two NCAA tournaments and reached double overtime of the most recent NCAA final. The five women's soccer players have been part of two Ivy League championships, one Ivy League tournament championship and two NCAA tournaments. 

The women's soccer team was picked first in the league's preseason poll; the field hockey poll has not yet been announced, though the Tigers will be either first or second. 

The women's soccer team will be home again Thursday night against West Virginia (7) and then Sunday morning against James Madison (11). 

The field hockey season starts a week from Friday against Old Dominion and a week from Sunday against North Carolina in the Conference Crossover, which this year will be played at UNC and also includes Penn. The Tigers do scrimmage tomorrow at Monmouth and home Saturday against the University of British Columbia.  

Happy Friday

Happy Birthday to BrotherBlog!!!

Exclamation points and everything.  

Consider this your card from your brother. He really did mean to get you one. These things happen. 

How old is BB? As TB told his brother, age is just a number. It's just that his number is higher than TB's. 

BrotherBlog lives in Seattle, where he does a bunch of stuff in the law school at the University of Washington. And by "a bunch of stuff," TB means his brother "is the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and an Associate Teaching Professor. He has taught law courses for more than 20 years including Family Law, Administrative Law, Mental Health and Law, Beginning of Life: Rights and Choices, Legal Issues at the End of Life, HIV and Law, and Constitutional Law: Equal Protection. Additionally, he designed and implemented the two online courses for LL.M. bar exam takers: Professional Responsibility and Constitutional Law: Structures of Government."

Yes, but can he type as fast as his brother? No way. 

In other Happy Friday news ...  

*

The Stanley Cup made its way to the Princeton campus yesterday, courtesy of Eric Robinson, Class of 2018. 

Robinson won the Cup this past season with the Carolina Hurricanes. Following a tradition similar to wishing a sibling Happy Birthday, each team member gets to spend a day in the off-season with the famous trophy. To celebrate his day, Robinson brought the Cup to the Princeton area.

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A post shared by Princeton Men's Hockey (@princetonhockey)

If you're wondering who the kids are, they're Charlotte and Will, whose mother is Emily Dorman, the head of athletic training at Princeton. Their father? Chas Dorman? The name rings a bell (he oversees Princeton Athletic Communications). 

When TB went to Robinson's Instagram page, he saw a few other pictures that he wanted to share: 

For the top picture, who doesn't like to see "Take Your Dogs To Work" Day pictures? 

For the second, if you think the guy on the far left was smiling at media day in September 2017, you should have seen him six months later, when he scored the game-winning goal in overtime to give Princeton the 2018 ECAC championship. His name is Max Becker, as you recall. 

The bottom picture, by the way, will make every one of those guys smile every time they look at it, from now until the end of time. It's something TB considers each time he watches the current media days, with the thousands of photos of smiling faces. 

Those are memories that will last forever.

*

Back at BrotherBlog, he told TB that he and Joe, the official Brother-in-Law of TigerBlog, were going to Victoria to celebrate. TB assumed they meant the one in Australia.

Turns out they opened another one in British Columbia, which borders Washington State. 

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Mega-congrats go out to Cara Holdsclaw, Princeton Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Relations, on the recent induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame of her wife Chamique Holdsclaw. Playing for the legendary coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee, Holdsclaw won three NCAA championships and then a gold medal for Team USA at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. 

If you think women's basketball started with Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, it didn't. It started long ago, long before what it is now. According to history.com (one of TB's favorite websites): 

On March 22, 1893, the first women's college basketball game is played at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. With each made basket counting as one point and the game lasting two 15-minute halves, a sophomore class team prevails over a freshmen team, 5-4. Men are not permitted inside the gym at the all-women college, but a crowd of fascinated women cheer on their fellow classmates from the running track of the campus gymnasium. The winning team earns a gold and white banner.

The first intercollegiate women's basketball game? You wouldn't be surprised to know it was in 1896; you might be surprised to know that it was between Stanford and Cal. 

Cara, by the way, finished her own college playing career with 927 points, scoring 810 of them at Dayton after transferring from Arkansas after her sophomore year. Interestingly, she never attempted a three-point shot in any of her four years. 

*

Have a happy weekend.  

Final Jeopardy, Opening Day

Okay, here is your Princeton Athletics "Final Jeopardy" category: 

"No. 42"

And the Final Jeopardy answer is: 

"He was the last Princeton athlete to wear the No. 42 in any sport."

Cue the music. 

Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah. Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah, Dit, Dah Dah Dah Dah Dah. 

While that is stuck in your head, consider what today is: OPENING DAY!!!!

The women's soccer team will be home tonight at 7 against Loyola. That's a real game, by the way, not a scrimmage. 

TigerBlog wrote this back on July 9, when he mentioned that it was six weeks out from the first Princeton Athletic event of the 2026-27 year: 

Enjoy the rest of the summer. It'll be six weeks from now in no time.  

He was right. And here you are, on Opening Day.

The women's soccer season will get off to a flying start, with four games between now and the end of August alone. The Tigers will be at Syracuse Sunday and then home again a week from today against West Virginia and a week from Sunday against James Madison. There are three more games in the first 10 days of September. 

To give you a sense of how the college athletic calendar gradually shifts, the first women's soccer game 10 years ago was on Aug. 26. If you go back 20 years, it was on Sept. 2. 

And keep in mind, the rest of Division I starts a week earlier than the Ivy League. They've been practicing since July, hoping to play into December — the middle of December at that. All of these teams that are playing in mid-August? The NCAA Women's College Cup will be Dec. 10 and 13 in Cary, N.C.

That's a long way off. 

In fact, the women's and men's semifinals and finals will both be that weekend at the same site, with the men's games one day behind the women's. Is this a first? Is TB reading the dates wrong? 

Also, can you tell TB who the defending champions are, by the way? Florida State on the women's side and Washington on the men's side. 

Remember, by the way, that there is no admission fee for all regular season fall teams at Princeton other than football. And those other fall teams will be underway soon as well. 

The men's soccer team will play two home games in August, opening a week from Friday against Villanova and then the 31st against Portland. Fast forward to Friday, Sept. 2 (that's two weeks from tomorrow by the way), and you have the openers for men's and women's cross country, women's volleyball, men's water polo and field hockey. 

Opening Day for any sport is always exciting. Even the New York Jets can be excited on their opening day. 

At Princeton, this is more than just one soccer game. It's the start of a run that will go all the way into June, with 38 varsity teams and 1,000 varsity athletes. There will be (hopefully, knock wood) championships won, individual honors accrued, records set. There will be great games. There will be tough losses. 

And the best part is that there is no way to know which sports and athletes and events those will all be. 

Oh, and back at Final Jeopardy: 

The question: Who is Greg Seaman?

He wore No. 42 for the men's lacrosse team until he graduated in 2009. Today he is the head of the men's lacrosse Friends' Group.  

Here he is at the dinner to retire the No. 42 back in 2009, along with John McPhee and Princeton athletic legends (and No. 42 wearers) Bill Bradley and Dick Kazmaier:

Lastly when TB was in the newspaper business, he used to go to a welcome back luncheon at what was then Trenton State College and is now The College of New Jersey. Each year, the college president would always say the same thing: "I predict that all of our teams will go undefeated this year." 

TigerBlog won't go that far. He's pretty sure there will be some losses mixed in. As he thinks back to those luncheons, though, he always goes back to his mindset at the time. He was in his mid-20s and wondering if he could make this his entire career. He always figured he'd do it for one more academic year and then figure out what his "real" job would be. 

And then, come the start of the next year, he'd feel recharged and excited about what might happen during the coming months. He figured when he lost that, then he'd know it was time to try something different. 

He still thinks that way. That's why he's still doing this all these decades later. 

Go Tigers. Here's to another great year.  

Whose Number Is It Anyway?

 TigerBlog can't begin to guess how many "media day" photos were taken last week on Jadwin Gym's D level.

There were five teams who went through the four stations: men's soccer, women's soccer, field hockey, women's volleyball and men's water polo. That's nearly 100 athletes. 

Total photos taken? Maybe close to 100,000? 

And that doesn't even count the teams still to come — football, women's rugby and men's and women's cross country — who will be taking their turns this coming week. That's a lot of shooting, editing, posting and everything else. 

If you follow any of these teams and athletes on Instagram, then you've seen several hundred of the finished products. If you follow teams from other schools, you can see how huge a part of college athletics this has become. It's another item on the "didn't exist all that long ago and now would be unfathomable not to do" list. 

TB is, of course, biased towards field hockey, so he says this with that disclaimer. Of all those photos that were taken, these were his two favorites.

If you're wondering, by the way, that's Molly Nye of the field hockey team, a junior who was a key part of last year's run to double overtime of the NCAA championship game. Fun fact: Nye's family home is within walking distance of the field at Harvard where Princeton won the Ivy League tournament last year. 

Anyway, which do you like better, facing the camera of facing the Tiger? TB went through this after the NCAA men's lacrosse championship last spring, when he had these two pictures taken with Miss TigerBlog ’22:

He's still not sure. He's just glad he has that conundrum in his life. You know. The championship and all. 

Oh, and a belated Happy Birthday to MTB. For those who remember her from her Little Miss TigerBlog days, she's 26 now. Yeah. 

MTB is actually four months older than Washington Commanders' quarterback Jayden Daniels, who is still 25. Or is that five? 

Daniels, you might recall, had his legal representatives tell LSU that they no longer had the right to use his name, image and likeness because the football program gave his No. 5 jersey to a different player. He called this "profoundly disrespectful."

Clearly Daniels has never done stats at an LSU football game. With rosters of more than 100 players, not having the ability to use all available ones makes it even more problematic for the statkeepers.

 Besides, it's college football, not the NFL. FBS rosters completely turn over every four five six seven eight years (or, moving forward, perhaps only five). 

Princeton has retired exactly one number, and it's across all 38 sports. That's the number 42, the one worn by both Dick Kazmaier and Bill Bradley, worn by nobody in either of their sports since they did and nobody at Princeton on any team since 2009. 

TB wrote this as he watched the field hockey team practice yesterday afternoon on Bedford Field. Opening day for the Tigers is a little more than two weeks away. 

As with every year and with every team, you have players who graduated and freshmen who are coming into the program. There are six freshmen on this team, four of whom are wearing a uniform number that belonged to someone who graduated last year and the other two of whom are wearing one that nobody wore last year but was worn for the previous four years by someone else. 

It's just how it is. In fact it's a fun part of Princeton Athletics, following the legacy of uniform numbers, something that can be traced back more than 100 years for certain teams.  

In the case of field hockey 2026, on its most simplistic level, you have the No. 14. It belonged for the last four years to Ella Hampson, an Englishwoman with a very big personality whose default was laughter. Now that number has been passed on to Savannah Faulkner, a freshman from Louisville. To see the No. 14 on the field without hearing Hampson's running commentary takes a little adjustment, but it's also something TB loves to see. 

It's the literal marching forward of each team's lineage. That's an ultimate sign of respect.