FDOC

Remember when TigerBlog wrote about his two young colleagues Alex and Joanna? 

Well, they sit in the outer area of the Office of Athletic Communications on E Level of Jadwin Gym, and they've started a tradition of writing an "OAC Question of the Day" on a small white board. The question yesterday was "what was your FDOC outfit?"

It took TigerBlog a few seconds to realize that they meant "First Day of Classes." Then he pointed out that his FDOC was nearly 45 years ago.

If he had to guess, TB would say that he wore jeans, high-top sneakers and a white button down shirt. That was his go-to look for pretty much all of the 1970s and 1980s. 

He forgot to mention to them that he also had long hair, parted in the middle and feathered back. Again, you had to be there back then to really understand.

Yesterday was the FDOC at Princeton.

Alex, Joanna and a few others were outside of Jadwin, offering snacks and Princeton stuff to athletes as they walked by, asking them if they would like to be part of the "First Day Of Classes" photoshoot. 

TigerBlog remembers what his first class of his freshman year was — a political science class on the history of the Supreme Court. Back then he wanted to be a lawyer, so it seemed to make sense.

The class was held in the University Museum at Penn, opposite Franklin Field. He can still remember more than anything else the smell of the tarring of Spruce Street as he walked down towards the museum. That smell, which is a fairly common one, has always, 100 percent of the time in all the years since, taken TB back to that moment.

If he knew what the future held, he would have worn something that said either "Princeton Lacrosse" or "Princeton Field Hockey." Of course, they were both sports he hadn't yet seen back when he first started college. 

For the first day of classes, the Department of Public Safety produced a very cute video promoting campus safety. It stars Lieutenant Sean Ryder, who in addition to his community relations role is one of the biggest Tiger sports fans you'll ever see. 

Here is the video:

Clever, right? 

TigerBlog spent some time on the campus yesterday. In contrast to the summer calm, it was obviously a bustling place. 

At one point, he stood outside a classroom that had an open window and heard a few moments of the opening lecture. He also saw classrooms that were emptying, including one where he heard something that had to have been repeated often yesterday: 

"Nice to meet you. What is your name?"

Some of those relationships will last forever. Most won't, but some will.

For the athletes of Princeton, yesterday was a reminder of why they chose to come here in the first place. It's a chance to mix a great athletic experience (you know, three Olympic gold medalists, professional athletes, that sort of thing) with being at the No. 1 academic school in the country.

It's a challenge, to be sure. Going through Princeton in both counts is not easy. To make it through is a great achievement. 

TigerBlog calls it "The Finish Line." He saw his own daughter go through what all of the current students, especially freshmen, have just bitten off. 

The entire time she was at Princeton, TB just kept hoping that she'd make it to the Finish Line, the FL, as it were, if the First Day of Classes is the FDOC. 

There were tough nights athletically and academically. There were doubts. There were tears. There was all of that. 

In the end, every minute of it added together to create the experience that is Princeton. And when she did get to the Finish Line, as a four-time women's lacrosse letterwinner on top of a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering degree, well, nobody has ever earned it or deserved it more.

And so that is what TB wishes for every Princeton student who had the FDOC yesterday. 

Get to the FL. 

And, like Miss TigerBlog, make sure you cherish the journey. It will pay huge dividends for the rest of your life. 

The Grandfather

Well, it's September.

TigerBlog likes to keep you updated on all important news.

He spent the last weekend of August watching college football and the U.S. Open in tennis. What he learned was that there was a connection between the two, in the form of Princeton, of course. 

First of all, his favorite player is Francis Tiafoe. There's something about the power and drive with which he plays, and the fact that he's always been a step below the top players. 

TB is hoping that he breaks through at this Open, where he reached the semifinals two years ago. He'd get back that far with a win tonight in the quarters against Grigor Dimitrov, in a match that probably won't start until around 9.

This is from his Wikipedia page, by the way:

His father immigrated to the United States in 1993, while his mother joined him in 1996 to escape the civil war in their country (Sierra Leone). In 1999, his father began working as a day laborer on a construction crew that built the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland. When the facility was completed, he was hired as the on-site custodian and given a spare office to live in at the center. The Tiafoe brothers lived with their father at the center for five days a week for the next 11 years. They took advantage of their living situation to start playing tennis regularly at age 4. They stayed with their mother when she was not working night shifts as a nurse.

As far as TB knows, Tiafoe has no connection to Princeton. The same is not true of another player who plays today at the Open.

The first women's quarterfinal today will match Spain's Paula Badosa and Emma Navarro of the United States. Navarro definitely has a Princeton connection — one that TB didn't realize. 

Navarro defeated Coco Gauff, the defending champion, in three sets Sunday night. Gauff double-faulted an astonishing 19 times, compared to only two for Navarro.

As he watched the match, TB did what people do these days. He looked up Navarro online to see what he could learn about her.

How did TB ever watch TV before he could do that? Ah, the old days. 

So here's what TB learned as he started to research Emma Navarro:

First, she was the NCAA champion in 2021 at Virginia. Okay.

This got TB to think about whether or not she ever played against Princeton, and the answer is yes, she did. It was in the second round 2022 NCAA tournament in her second and final season as a college tennis player.

How did she do? Well, she didn't win, or lose. Playing first doubles, her match was tied when the other two matches finished in favor of the Cavs, so she didn't finish.

Then, in the No. 1 singles match, she played Princeton's Daria Frayman. Navarro won the first set 7-5 and was up 3-0 in the second set when UVa finished off the match, which meant that the first singles match no longer mattered and wasn't completed. 

Frayman, by the way, would win the von Kienbusch Award as the top senior female athlete a year later.

Next, TB found out that Navarro's father is a billionaire investor. Okay. That would be a fun thing to be, TB supposes.

Then, as TB looked up more about her dad, he saw that he was listed as "the son of a football coach." 

Wait? What? Football coach named "Navarro?" You mean, Frank Navarro?

As it turns out, that's exactly who his father — and therefore Emma's grandfather — was. Frank Navarro. 

If you are a fan of Princeton football, then you know that Frank Navarro coached the Tigers from 1978-84. He had a record of 23-23-2 in the Ivy League as Princeton's coach in Ivy League games, which mirrors his all-time career record of 99-99-6, including his time with Williams, Columbia and Wabash.

Navarro was the Princeton head coach the first time TigerBlog saw a Princeton football game. What TB didn't know about Navarro is that he played at the University of Maryland on a team that beat Tennessee in the 1953 Sugar Bowl to win the national championship. 

Navarro went 16-36-2 at Columbia, for a .307 winning percentage. While that might not seem too high, consider that it was the best by a Columbia head coach from the time he left in 1973 until the most recent coach, Al Bagnoli, went .500

Navarro didn't live to see his granddaughter get this far is this year's Open. He passed away in 2021, at the age of 91.

Rooting for Emma Navarro now is like rooting for Princeton.

Stick Around

So TigerBlog was in the supermarket yesterday afternoon when he stumbled upon a scene that belonged on some pretty good comedy special.

There was a woman who was using the self-checkout, which as you know is TB's preferred method of paying — except for the brick wall that is the dreaded "Please put your item in the baggage area" and the subsequent "Help is on the way."

This woman, her name was Tracy, was scanning her items when she hit that brick well. She tried and tried, and yet the message kept repeating: "Please put your item in the baggage area. Please put your item in the baggage area. Please put your item in the baggage area."

At this point, Tracy clenched her teeth, balled up her fist and appeared ready to start bashing the scanner. When TB said he could relate, Tracy said "Stick around. There's about to be cursing."

Who could have blamed her? 

In the meantime, you can stick around for some pre-Labor Day weekend Princeton Athletics things.

*

The women's soccer team played its second game of the season last night. By the time the weekend ends, there will be two more teams who open their seasons. 

The first is tonight, when the men's soccer team is at Rutgers for a 7 pm start (admission is free). Rutgers enters the game at 1-1-0, having defeated Northeastern 3-1 and lost to Delaware 4-1. 

Princeton has won the Ivy League title twice in the last five years. The 2023 Tigers were led by Daniel Ittycheria, who was second in the Ivy League in goals scored with nine as a sophomore after having one the year before. He also earned first-team All-Ivy League honors. 

The other team who opens its season is the women's rugby team, who will host Sacred Heart Saturday at noon. 

The game will be the first at the new Rickerson Field at Haaga House, which is part of the new Meadows Campus. Admission is free, and the first 100 fans will get a Haaga House t-shirt. 

*

TigerBlog has one last thing from the U20 World Championships for women's lacrosse. 

Princeton's Jami MacDonald was named to the All-World team after finishing fourth in the tournament in points and tied for second in goals. MacDonald's Canadian team was the runner-up to the United States, who featured Princeton's Haven Dora. 

Jami was in Hong Kong with her parents Steve and Linda, who also spent some time in Thailand as part of the trip. They sent along the above photo. 

*

Speaking of Princeton athletes who are representing the U.S. and Canada on the U20 level, women's soccer players Pietra Tordin (USA) and Zoe Markesini (Canada) begin play this weekend in the U20 World Cup in Colombia. 

The United States is in a group with Morocco, Paraguay and Spain. Canada is in a group with Brazil, Fiji and France. 

The USA will play its three group stage games in Cali, starting Sunday against Spain. Canada plays tomorrow in Medellin, beginning its run against France.

There are 24 teams in the field, of which 16 will advance to the knockout rounds. 

*

Lastly, TigerBlog went into New York City yesterday to meet with Nick Mead, the rower from the Class of 2017 who won gold in Paris in the fours and then was voted by his U.S. teammates to carry the flag at the Closing Ceremonies. 

TB had never met Mead before. You only have to talk to him for a few seconds to know that 1) he's really tall, 2) he's really humble and 3) he's really not looking to be in the spotlight. 

Unfortunately for Mead, the spotlight found him yesterday as he and TB ate in the Mr. Broadway Deli on 38th Street. 

The restaurant hostess, Chani Staniewski, saw that TB was on his laptop, taking down what Mead was saying, and asked if Mead was a celebrity. TB said that of course he was and explained Mead's accomplishments. 

Before he and Mead were able to leave, Mead posed for several photos and was the recipient of a chocolate lava cake with a sparkler in it as the restaurant's sound system played a song called "Congratulations." 

Mead, as you might expect, was a good sport about it all. Oh, and he stands 6-7. Chani? Yeah, no. She's a bit shorter than that, as you can see in the photo.

The full story will be on goprincetontigers.com probably the second week of September, after the story about another Princeton rowing gold medalist, Hannah Scott. You can look for that one over the weekend. 

Tigers And Pirates At Myslik

TigerBlog made a new friend yesterday.

He is currently working on his series of feature stories on Princeton's gold medalists from the Paris Olympics. As part of the piece on rower Hannah Scott, he connected with another Northern Irish athlete, Lady Mary Peters, who won gold in the 1972 pentathlon. 

Lady Mary lives in Belfast, and she and TB spoke via Zoom. Here's the first thing that she said to him after he called her "Lady Mary":

“You only have to call me 'Lady Mary' once, and then it’s just 'Mary P.' That’s what my friends call me, and you are now my friend.”

TB spoke to his new friend for about 15 minutes, and he came away wildly impressed. The rest of the story? It'll be out soon. 

Meanwhile, TB is off to New York City today. He'll be meeting up with another Olympic gold medalist in rowing, Nick Mead. 

In addition to having won gold, Mead also had the honor of carrying the USA flag at the Closing Ceremonies. It should make for another interesting conversation. 

That was an incredible honor for Mead, who became the first rower to carry the flag as the Games ended. He shared the flag-bearer responsibility with swimmer Katie Ledecky, she of the nine Olympic gold medals. 

And, it is TB's contention that Ledecky looks very much like Lady Edith, who was a different Lady Mary's sister on "Downton Abbey."

TB is very interested in hearing from Mead what it was like and especially how he was chosen and what that felt like for him.  He'll certainly be reporting back in on that. 

He's hoping to have the first of the stories by the weekend. That's the one on Scott, which will feature his new friend Mary P in a prominent way.

TigerBlog will be driving into New York City today. He prefers that to taking the train. It'll also give him plenty of time to get back to campus in time for the second Princeton event of the athletic year, which is another women's soccer game. 

Sean Driscoll's team opened its season last Friday night with a 1-0 win over Miami (Fla.) on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. The game wasn't secured until the final seconds, when Tyler McCamey made her fifth save on a tough chance that seemed headed to the far corner. 

Those five saves, with the big one at the end, earned McCamey the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week award.

Tonight's visitor to Myslik Field is Seton Hall, which will be on the same field tonight at 7.

Tonight will be Game 5 for the Pirates, who bring a 2-1-1 record to Princeton. Seton Hall has wins over Marist and Rider, a tie against FDU and a loss against Lehigh. 

As TB looked into the matchup tonight, he learned that this is the first meeting between the teams since Driscoll became head coach. In fact, this will be the 13th meeting between the teams but the first since 2014.

Even more amazing is that every minute between Princeton and Seton Hall in women's soccer has come while Julie Shackford was the Tiger head coach. That was a total of 12 meetings, of which Princeton holds an 8-2-2 record.

For Princeton, it'll be Game No. 2 and Game No. 2 without Pietra Tordin and Zoe Markesini, both of whom are currently in Colombia for the U20 World Cup. Tordin, with the United States, and Markesini, with Canada, will begin their chase for that prize Saturday.

In the meantime, it's a great challenge for the Tigers to be without two of their best players. At the same time, it's also a great opportunity to have newcomers step up and make their own marks. 

It could be as late as Sept. 22 that the two will be in Colombia. By then, Princeton will be just beginning its Ivy League schedule. 

It's not ideal to be without two stars — but as TB said, it could be a benefit. If you were watching the game Saturday, you saw the only goal put home by Princeton's Isabella Garces, a sophomore who scored for the first time in her career.

It'll take more of that from Princeton in the early part of the season. That's part of the fun of the early season.

It's also fun just to be at Princeton events as the new year begins to unfold. Admission is free at Myslik Field. 

For more information on the game, click HERE.

Scrimmage Day

TigerBlog got some pretty good feedback from yesterday's entry on the Princetonian dogs.

Among them was this: "Well, doggone it, that was a really nice read!"

TB actually wrote that one after the Friends of Princeton Lacrosse golf outing. Once again, after finishing 18 holes, TigerBlog realized that he has a love/hate relationship with the sport. 

Love — As in, he hits enough good shots that he knows that if he played regularly, he'd get to be pretty good eventually. Hate — As in, he hits enough awful shots that he knows that will never happen. 

He can see why the game is addicting to the people who love it and can play it well. He also can see why people want to smash their clubs over the knees and hurl them into the nearest water hazard.

Oh, and in case you were wondering who the bulldog in the picture on goprincetontigers.com was, that was Watson, former Princeton women's lacrosse player Shea Smith's dog. Kudos to Princeton's gregarious photographer Shelley Szwast for being spot-on with that. 

This, of course, is Shelley's favorite time of year. In her world, there's her favorite part of the year (when Princeton is playing games) and her least favorite part (when Princeton isn't).

There has been, to date, one Princeton game to start the new year. That was a 1-0 win over Miami for the women's soccer team this past Saturday.

TigerBlog will sort of being going to a game today. It's actually a field hockey scrimmage, at Monmouth (start time is 4:30).

The Princeton field hockey team plays its first real game in eight days (Friday, Sept. 6), when it will take on Louisville on the Cards' home field as part of the ACC/Ivy League Crossover Challenge. Princeton will then take on North Carolina two days later, while UNC will face Penn Friday and Louisville Sunday.

Princeton field hockey has won 27 Ivy League championships, the most by any women's team in Ivy history (okay, grudgingly, TB will admit that Harvard women's squash has also won 27). Will Tiger field hockey regain the league this fall? 

Princeton fell in the championship game of the inaugural Ivy League tournament a year ago on a goal that barely squeezed across the line in the final minute of regulation against Harvard. This year's team will have a very similar, and very different, look.

There are 15 returning players on this team, and every one of them played in huge moments in 2023. That's a good starting point.

Then there are two players back who missed either all or essentially all of last season. One of those is Grace Schulze, who was Princeton's leading returning scorer a year ago — only to go down with a shoulder injury one minute into the second game of the season and miss the rest of the year. 

The other? That's Beth Yeager. Perhaps the name is familiar? 

Yeager is back at Princeton after 1) being a first-team All-American each of her first two seasons and then 2) took last year off in hopes of playing in the Olympics. As it turned out, Yeager made the U.S. team for the Olympic qualifying, then was part of the dramatic way the team reached the field of 12 for the Games and then started every game for the United States in Paris.

With all of that experience, Yeager is back in orange and black. At the opposite end of the experience spectrum is a potentially dynamic freshman class of seven players who are looking to make their own marks. 

As usual, Princeton will be playing its brutal non-league schedule, including both of last year's national finalists (North Carolina defeated Northwestern, who will be at Princeton Sept. 29. There are also five other NCAA tournament teams from a year ago on the schedule.

For today, it'll be the first chance to see how all the pieces fit together. 

It's also a chance to go to West Long Branch in late August. That's a place as well, what with the beach in walking distance of the field. 

Scrimmages aren't quite the real thing. That's the whole point. 

They are a good taste of what is to come. For Tiger Field Hockey ’24, hopefully it goes well into November.

Dog Days

TigerBlog has worked at Princeton for a long time, right? 

It's hard for him to remember something that made him smile as much as the email he received Friday from Alexis Branagan, the Communications and Event coordinator for Princeton University Concerts. The subject was the fact that International Dog Day was approaching (in fact, it was yesterday).

Here is what her email said:

"In celebration of the occasion and as a nod to Princeton University Concerts' "Listen Your Way" campaign, I'm planning social media posts with photos of dogs listening their way. Please send me photos of your dogs, preferably ones with alert ears, attentive eyes...something that suggests they're listening."

The email was sent to everyone on the University communications group, from every department, including, obviously, athletics. It took about five minutes for the first dog picture to come through — and then the rest of the day was one dog picture after another. 

In the end, Alexis got back 70 pictures of dogs, of all shapes, sizes, colors, breeds and names. She also got a picture of one bunny and this email: 

"Just want to chime in and say that I'm preparing NOW for Oct. 29 so I can have the purrfect photo on hand. This is so cool. Made my Friday!"

The last part was a pretty standard response. Alexis seemed to make everyone's Friday. 

In case you missed it, here is one of three videos that Alexis produced from all the pictures:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Princeton University Concerts (@princetonuniversityconcerts)

These, of course, are the Dog Days of summer. They refer to a time in summer when the days are hot and humid, and time seems to move a little slower.

TigerBlog didn't realize that the term originates from "the period following the heliacal rising of the star system 'Sirius," known colloquially as the 'Dog Star,' which Hellenistic astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs and bad luck."

At least that's what it says on Wikipedia.

Oh, and mad dogs? Not in Alexis' videos. All 70 of them were happy and clearly listening intently.

There are no Cat Days of summer. Princeton has long been more of a cat place than a dog place, at least in its nickname. 

Princeton has long been the "Tigers," back to the 1870s. This is from the Princetonian (not yet Daily) of Nov. 21, 1879:

It may seem a small matter to notice editorially, yet it is well to get at the Tightness of things, however unimportant they may appear. Our College rocket, either through ignorance or carelessnees, is usually given in a fearfully and wonderfully mangled manner. The reporters have it "Phiz-boom-ah," "Yiss-boom-bah," "Siss-boom-bah," and various other unheard-of and indistinguishable sounds. We even heard a Freshman tearing his throat on " Sick-boom-bah." Giving the hissing sound incorrectly and beginning the final syllable with a b sound spoils the effect of the cheer. Our rocket, when given properly, is unsurpassed by any cheer we have ever heard, and since we have a good one let us make the most of it and give it properly. " Tiger s-s-s-s boom ah-h-h," a forcible tiger, a savage hiss with clenched teeth and a rousing boom, ending with a heartfelt ah. If we had talent and material we could give illustrations of a Princeton man (old graduate) in the different stages of the rocket. Unfortunately we have not. Stand before your mirror and practice for the coming game.

If you don't know how Princeton became the Tigers, it had to do with 1) the color orange, as in "William of Nassau of the House of Orange," 2) football jerseys that were black with orange stripes and 3) a newspaper story that credited Princeton with "fighting like Tigers." 

It just stuck from there. 

Even if Princeton hadn't been the "Tigers," it still almost surely would have been the "Lions." The Class of 1879 donated two bronze Lions that sat outside of Nassau Hall until 1911, when they were replaced by the Tigers that are there now and moved to outside of Wilson College.

Again, those are cats. 

The dogs? 

Well, TB asked Alexis if she thought her project would get as many dog pictures as it did and as many "OMG I love this" responses as it did. Here was what she said:

In honor of International Dog Day, I wanted to create a video of dog photos set to music as a fun way to give a nod to the upcoming Princeton University Concerts (PUC) 2024-25 concert season and to the playful spirit of dogs. I thought reaching out to the Princeton Campus Communicators Network (PCCN) would be a good way for me to reach beyond just the few colleagues I knew who have dogs, and it would also help bring some new attention to PUC!

I know people love their dogs, so I expected that soliciting dog photos to a large listserv would cause a bit of a fun buzz, but I didn't expect quite such a robust and enthusiastic response! I was hoping for maybe 10 photos! Over 70 people responded! I also did not expect so many people to "reply all" to the PCCN listserv. That made it all the more joyous. People from departments and organizations all over campus were exchanging comments about their cute companions. It was a nice way to step out of the day-to-day and sort of wave hello to both unacquainted and familiar colleagues.

And there you have it. 

The Dog Days of summer on a Cat-centric campus.

211-20 And 1-0

Just as quick heads up for your Monday morning, the United States was sort of dominant at the World U20 Women's Lacrosse Championships.

The tournament in Honk Kong ended Saturday morning as the USA, well, TigerBlog isn't sure of the right word to describe it. For instance, "won" doesn't really seem to cover it. Neither does "dominated," which comes up just a bit short too.

The championship game matched the U.S. and Canada, and it turned out to be by far the closest game the Americans played in the tournament. Final score? 

USA 23, Canada 6.

The United States played seven games between the group stage and playoff rounds. The team went 7-0 and outscored its opponents by a combined 211-20.

By the way, Canada was 6-0 before it played the U.S. and had outscored its opponents 127-10 to that point. 

Other than the game against Canada, the closest any other opponent stayed to the U.S. was 24 goals. The semifinal game against Australia figured to be at least competitive. Final score: 33-1.

Princeton had two players in the tournament, and both had huge performances. 

Canada's Jami MacDonald finished fourth in the tournament in points with 35 on 25 goals and 10 assists, which also made her one of two players to finish with at least 20 goals and 10 assists. MacDonald's 35 points were fourth overall and were the most by any non-American in the tournament.

Haven Dora of the U.S. had 29 points, seventh-best in the tournament, with six goals and 23 assists. Her assist total tied her for second.

As MacDonald and Dora make their way back to Princeton after their international summers, Princeton has two player who are in Colombia to prepare for the U20 World Cup of women's soccer. And, as was the case in lacrosse, there is one American (Pietra Tordin) and one Canadian (Zoe Markesini).

That tournament begins later this week.

The Princeton women's soccer team opened its season — and for that matter the entire 2024-25 Tiger season — by hosting Miami (Fla.) Saturday night. Isabella Garces scored her first collegiate goal with 26 minutes to play to give Princeton a 1-0 win.

TigerBlog was watching the game on ESPN+, where the play-by-play man was Jeff O'Connor, whose voice you know from Princeton soccer, hockey and women's lacrosse. As soon as Garces put the ball in the net, he immediately called it as the first of her career. That's one of the little things that makes for a really good announcer.

TB didn't have to be there to know that Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium was packed with athletes from the other fall sports. It's something of a late August tradition now. 

The goal itself was a thing of beauty. 

The game, Miami's third, was scoreless into the second half before the Tigers scored the one that would stand up. It started when Kelsee Wozniak played a ball down the right side to Kayla Wong, who then one-timed it back to the middle, where she played give-and-go with Pia Beaulieu. 

By the time Wong got the ball back, Garces was already pointing with her right hand to some open space inside the box. Wong played it perfectly into that space, and Garces redirected it into the far side of the goal. 

26' left, 2nd half | Princeton 1, Miami 0

First career goal for Isabella Garces gets Princeton on the board!

💻: https://t.co/Sz2fmJ4bwc pic.twitter.com/pPkBRf6n78

— Princeton WSoccer (@PrincetonWSoc) August 25, 2024

That goal might have stood up, but it came close to not doing so. Miami had a last chance in the final seconds, but a big-time save from senior goalkeeper Tyler McCamey as time was expiring kept the Hurricanes from tying it.

The win came on the first of three straight home games to start the season for the women's soccer team. Next up will be Seton Hall Thursday at 7 and then Penn State the following Thursday, also at 7. 

Within two weeks from today, every fall team other than the football team will be off and running. It'll get very busy, very quickly. 

Still, there's only one Opening Night. There's always something special about the first game of a new year, with no idea of what's coming between then and June.

For now? Princeton is unbeaten.

Opening Kickoff

Welcome to the start of the 2024-25 Princeton Athletics year.

Game 1 is actually tomorrow, when the women's soccer team hosts Miami (Fla.) on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. Opening kickoff — for the game and the new year — is at 7.

Between now and the NCAA track and field championships in June 2025, Princeton's 38 varsity teams and 1,000 athletes will compete in somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 events. Championships will be won (presumably hopefully). Great moments will happen. Tough defeats will have to be endured. 

There figure to be records set. There also figure to be injuries. Familiar names will do what they've always done. New names will become familiar names.

He's told you this every year, but he always thinks back to when he was still at the newspaper and Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey) had its kickoff luncheon. The college president at the time was named Harold Eickoff, and he started every one of those luncheons with this: "I predict this is the year that all Trenton State teams will go undefeated."

He obviously wasn't serious. He was more talking about the optimism that this time of year brings, that anything is possible.

There's an excitement that surrounds the start of a new year. It's always the same feeling, at least for TigerBlog.

It's the feeling that lets him know that yes, he chose the right career path all those years ago. What else could he have done with his life? 

If TB didn't have that feeling, then he'd know that it was time to do something different. He always figured he'd work in sports until he found a "real" job, and yet he'd always get to this time of year and thinks "one more year" until he realized that he was a lifer.

And so another year begins. Miami has already played twice, falling 1-0 to North Florida and tying Florida Atlantic 1-1 last weekend. 

There aren't many sports in the Ivy League where the national impact is as great as in women's soccer. There are 336 Division I women's soccer teams (TB is pretty sure that's the number), and a year ago four of the 64 teams in the NCAA tournament were from the Ivy League.

Princeton was one of those four teams. The Tigers won their first round game 1-0 over Michigan before falling to Texas Tech, the No. 2 seed in the region, on PKs after a 0-0 tie.

The 2024 preseason poll has the four NCAA teams from a year ago as the top four: 1. Harvard, 2. Brown, 3. Princeton, 4. Columbia. Harvard, Brown and Princeton all received first-place votes.

If you're looking down the road, Princeton has Brown and Harvard at home and Columbia on the road, the first two in October and the last one in November. For now, in late August, it's the opener. 

Princeton will have something of a new look this year, and even more of a new look in the early season than it figured — though for a very good reason. The Tigers will be without Pietra Tordin, who had 12 of the team's 33 goals last year, and defender Zoe Markesini as both are at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia.

Tordin, who plays for the United States, and Markesini, a Canadian, will begin play next Saturday. Depending on how far they advance, they could be gone until the final, which will be Sept. 22.

If you want more information on the game against Miami and the team outlook, you can click HERE.

In the meantime, you can keep in mind that there are few better places to watch a game than Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. You know that as the first game of the year, the crowd figures to be energetic and large. You know that there is no admission charge.

Princeton will also be home the next two Thursdays as well, both at 7, first against Seton Hall and then Penn State. 

And by the time Penn State gets here, the schedule for the other fall teams starts to come into play. And then it's really off and running.

Yeah. TB is in the right business.

Tiler? Timer? Tiger.

TigerBlog needs to hang his head in shame.

He plays a bunch of different puzzles each day, including Wordle, Quordle and Octordle. For one of the words in Quordle yesterday, TB had "TI_ER."

He tried TILER and TIMER before it dawned on him. TIGER. 

How in the world could he not have gotten that right? 

Luckily, the extra guesses didn't keep him from winning. He was, though deeply ashamed of how he needed three guesses to get "TIGER."

While TB tries to come to grips with that failure, here are some other thoughts for the last Thursday before the 2024-25 athletic year begins, as the women's soccer team hosts Miami (Fla.) Saturday at 7 in the first Princeton Athletic event of the new year. 

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The Olympic Games ended more than a week ago. TigerBlog is currently working on a series of features on Princeton's three gold medalists from Paris. 

He's already talked to Hannah Scott, and he will be speaking with Nick Mead this coming week. He's also reached out to Maia Weintraub.

As part of the story on Scott, TB learned that before these Games, Northern Ireland hadn't had a gold medalists since the 1972 Olympics, when Mary Peters won the pentathlon. 

There was a celebration in honor of Scott in her hometown the week after the Games, and Scott sent TB a picture of her and Peters. TB thought it would be great to try to track Peters down to talk to her for the story, and he'll be catching up with her next week as well. Peters — Lady Mary as she is formally known — is 85 years old.   

Keep on eye on GoPrincetonTigers.com for these stories in the next two or so weeks. 

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TigerBlog mentioned yesterday that Bill Roper holds the record for wins by a Princeton football coach (with 89) and that Bob Surace is currently tied for second, 11 behind (78).

TB should have mentioned that James McCormick, the head coach in 1909 (the one year that Roper left Princeton for Missouri) had himself a really interesting story. McCormick was a 1908 graduate who was a three-time All-American, with first-team honors in 1905 and 1907 and second-team honors in 1906. 

When he became the head coach, he was only 25 years old. He would go on to be a Marine Corps officer in World War I and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954, five years before his death. 

Princeton went 6-2-1 in 1909 under McCormick in his only season as a head coach. As a player, McCormick was part of Princeton teams that went 32-6-1 and outscored their opponents 716-77.

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The weather in Princeton has gone from 100 degrees every day to the most perfect weather you could ever hope to have. In fact, all week it's been in the upper 70s with low humidity in the afternoon and down into the 50s at night. 

It's "turn off the AC and leave the windows open" weather. 

Of course, it'll be back in the high 80s next week. Still, a hint of fall for a few days has been pretty nice. 

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TigerBlog plays golf once a year. This year's golf outing will be Monday, when he plays at the Friends of Lacrosse event at Springdale. 

Each year when he plays he thinks that he should take it more seriously, play more often, see how good he can get. So far, he's never done so. 

In the meantime, he's pretty sure he'll hit just enough good shots to make him think he could be good and too many bad shots to remind him that he can't be. 

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Not shockingly at all, the United States and Canada cruised into the semifinals at the World U20 Championships for women's lacrosse in Hong Kong.

The semifinal matchups had the U.S. play Australia and Canada play Japan. Both of those games were to be played before dawn in the Eastern U.S. today.

It would be pretty shocking to wake up and see that either team has lost. The final will be Saturday morning Eastern time.

Both of Princeton's players at the event have done very well. Haven Dora of the United States entered the semifinal round tied for second with 17 assists and, with five goals, tied for seven with 22 points.

Canada's Jami MacDonald was tied for fifth in points with 17 goals and eight assists, for 25 points. The player she was tied with was Australia's Ocea Leavy, who also had 25 points — on 25 goals and no assists.

Today, And A Month From Today

Today is BrotherBlog's birthday.

Once again, TigerBlog has not gotten him a card, running his streak of consecutive years of not having gotten his brother a birthday card to somewhere in the neighborhood of a lot. 

Both brothers work on college campuses. TB, as you probably already know, works at Princeton, where he has spent 35 years writing about Tiger athletics. BB works at the University of Washington, where he is a professor in the law school and the interim Dean of Students. Clearly, TigerBlog is the smarter of the two.

BrotherBlog is two years older. He's a good man, TB's brother, and he's done a lot of good in the Pacific Northwest with his volunteer work in the field of justice. He has a good sense of humor and is always there for his brother when he needs him to be.

And, much to his credit, he likes to pretend he cares about things like Princeton Athletics when his brother starts to go in that direction. He's not the biggest sports fan, though he definitely is on the U-W football bandwagon (nothing says Big Ten football quite like the Sept. 27 Washington at Rutgers game).

He's also 50-50 to read the blog on any given day, so TB will still have to call him to say happy birthday.

Meanwhile, one month from today is another big day. 

It will be on Sept. 21 that the Princeton football team will open its season, with a noon kickoff at Lehigh. There are few better ways to start a football season than going to a game at Goodman Stadium, which is 1) close, 2) scenic and 3) the home of a great sausage/onion/pepper sandwich.

That game will be Princeton's opener. It will be Lehigh's fourth. That's a big wild

Lehigh opens its season in nine days, in fact, with a game at Army-West Point. Before playing the Tigers, Lehigh will also take on Wagner and LIU.

The first Princeton win of the season will move Bob Surace into sole possession of second place in career wins by a Tiger head coach. He currently has 78 of those, tying him with Steve Tosches.

The only coach at Princeton who has ever had more was Bill Roper, who won 89 games over the course of three tenures: 1906-08, 1910-11, 1919-30. Why did he leave in between?

First, he left Princeton to coach Missouri in 1909, returning a year later. He left in 1912 to work for Woodrow Wilson but then got back into coaching in 1915 at Swarthmore and then came back to Princeton after World War I.

Roper's record has stood for 94 years, and it'll stand for at least one more, since Surace needs 11 wins to tie him. 

By the way, as TigerBlog was doing some research about James McCormick, who coached Princeton to a 6-1-1 record in the one year that Roper was at Missouri, he came across this from a preview story of when McCormick was Princeton's best player, in 1907. It's from a preview story from a game against Washington & Jefferson:

The contest this afternoon should prove one of the most interesting games played in Princeton this season, and should afford the first real test of the team's strength. The Washington and Jefferson team averages 175 pounds, and the men are exceptionally fast and aggressive.

Ah yes, the dreaded 175 pounders. The current Princeton roster lists only five players who are less than 175 pounds: three defensive backs, one wide receiver and one placekicker. 

For the record, the final score of that 1907 game was Princeton 40, W&J 0. That game was in Week 5, and those were the first points W&J allowed to that point.

TigerBlog loves to go back in time and learn things about Princeton Athletics history that he didn't know much about. It's especially great in the summer.

One month from now, though, will be opening kickoff for 2024. It's always better to watch the current teams. 

Princeton's home opener will be Sept. 28, when Howard will be at Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. The other non-league game is Oct. 12, at Mercer. The Ivy opener is at Columbia Oct. 5.

The entire 2024 Princeton football schedule is HERE. Ticket information is HERE.

And, again, happy birthday to BrotherBlog. TB is sorry about the lack of a card, but he didn't have any stamps.