What A Week

TigerBlog has been doing this every work day since January of 2009.

That's without fail. No matter what, every day, for more than 11 years.

He's done this on vacation. He's done this from three continents. He's done this after surgeries. He's done this when he's been sick. He's done this when he has had literally nothing to say, through summer after summer when there have been no Princeton athletic events.

Today is the closest he's come in all that time to not writing.

What can he say? TB actually wrote a piece about women's basketball history with Bella Alarie and Sandi Bittler Leland, and he was going to run it Wednesday when all this started to unfold. Then he thought about putting  it up yesterday, but it didn't seem right with with the Ivy League announcement of suspending spring events. He was going to put it up today, but again, it just doesn't feel right.

What a week this has been.

When left Sherrerd Field after Princeton defeated Rutgers in men's lacrosse last weekend, the last thing he thought was that he had seen the Tigers for the final time this season. That was six days ago. It seems like a hundred years.

For that matter, it's only been five days since he drove away from Stony Brook University after the women's lacrosse game. He never once on the ride back from Long Island considered that he'd seen his final Princeton athletic event for a long time.

That's how quickly this all moved.

That was the main takeaway for TigerBlog from the message from President Eisgruber. Look at where this situation was two weeks ago and compare it to what it is now in places like Italy and New Rochelle, and then ask yourself what it could be like anywhere else in the next two weeks.

The Ivy League was the first Division I conference to cancel its basketball tournament and its athletic competition for the spring when it made that announcement Wednesday. Since then, pretty much the rest of the college athletics world has followed suit, as the reality of trying to stop the spread of the Coronavirus sinks in.

The inevitable announcement of the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournaments, as well as the rest of the winter and spring NCAA championships, came around 4:15 yesterday. 

It's an awful time for college athletics, and for colleges in general, as they all struggle with what to do next, how to keep educating their students with as little additional disruption as possible, beyond the obvious fact that campuses everywhere will be turning into ghost towns for the foreseeable future.

The No. 1 question TB has been asked the last few days has been if he's ever seen anything like this before. The answer, as he wrote yesterday, is no.

Who could have imagined any of this would happen?

This is, for many, the best time of the year for college sports. March Madness is in full swing. Brackets were set to be revealed. Conference tournaments, including the Ivy League tournament, were to dominate the weekend.

Now that's all gone, in a matter of a few days.

TigerBlog as you know, loves lacrosse, but there's nothing he's even been to that compares to the first rounds of an NCAA basketball regional. It's a huge party all day.

He's been with Princeton to nearly 10 of them. Each one was great.

The NCAA tournament is a big a part of American sporting culture as anything other than the Super Bowl. It's been contested every year since 1939.

Yesterday was more of the surreal, with announcement after announcement trickling in about league's canceling tournaments, teams opting not to play, professional leagues having to suspend competitions, professional athletes who have the virus.

TigerBlog is not an alarmist. It's just that he's never seen anything like this.

He'd like to share this short video with you from Michael Sowers, who is as impressive as a human being as he is as a lacrosse player. He speaks for pretty much every college athlete and student everywhere with his words:

pic.twitter.com/23T6zwdAWf

— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) March 12, 2020

 

And that's it for this week, this crazy, unfathomable, never-to-be-forgotten week.

TigerBlog will be back next week. He'll probably even start out with the women's basketball piece.

He's not sure what else to say today.

Maybe he'll just end with how Michael ended his video.

Stay safe. 

More On Covid-19

TigerBlog had a sense of what was coming before he actually heard the words spoken to him yesterday afternoon.

Even so, in the moment, it was just numbing to hear that the Ivy League presidents had decided that in the face of the uncertainties and dangers of the COVID-19 virus that all spring sports in the league would be cancelled.

An entire athletic department had the same exact feeling as well. That was impossible to miss.

You can read the release HERE.

These are times unlike any other that TigerBlog has experienced here, that's for sure. TigerBlog is, first and foremost, an historian. It dates back to his major in college, and partly from how his mind is wired.

As you know if you read this every day, he is constantly equating one current Princeton athlete with an athlete from the past, or one Princeton moment with a moment from the past. Most recently he did so with Carlie Littlefield and Sydney Johnson, but it's something he does all the time.

He also prides himself on having a great memory. This encompasses dates, scores and stats, since he has a very mathematical side to him. It also takes into account emotions as well.

When he sees a big win, or a crushing loss, it takes him back to similar moments of 20 or 30 years ago. His natural instinct is to equate things now with things from the past, perhaps as a sign of empathy or for hundreds of other possible reasons that he hasn't even considered.

Yesterday, when he searched his inner database for something to equate the numbness he was feeling, he came up empty.

He's been here for tragedies, like the aftermath of 9/11 and when his friend and colleague Lorin Maurer was killed in a plane crash, as well as the death of a student-athlete. Those was horrific occurrences.

This wasn't like that.

Those were punches in the stomach. This was just, as he said, numbness, mixed with uncertainty and, in a blink, a sorrowful feeling for the athletes who compete here and across a league that has always been so special to him.

This is nothing like anything else that has come down the pike, and it has enveloped entire countries in what seems like no time. If you don't understand what he's saying, check out what's going on in Italy right now.

Could that happen in the United States? Ask the people of New Rochelle.

Could it happen here? Nobody has any idea.

This is a virus with no vaccine, and it's a virus that for now is only stoppable by what they're calling "social distancing."

It's a grim reality right now.

How bad will it get? How sick will the average young, healthy person get if they catch the virus? What are the actual statistics? Which expert should you believe?

TB has no answers to any of that. He's just glad he didn't have to be the one making the decisions.

That's the big-picture look. The micro view is of the athletes who were just starting out their seasons who now will be unable to compete with their teammates and friends, of the students - athletes and non-athletes - whose college experience has been so unexpectedly and so unfortunately altered.

If you think you have a sense of just how much athletes invest in their sports here while also balancing their academic rigors, you're probably off by a factor of 10 or so. They do this in ways that have marveled TB for more than 30 years now, and the result of this combination has resulted in some of the most accomplished people TB has ever met.

Also, the athletic competition and athletic identity is hugely important to all of them, whether they are the best player on the team or one of the ones who almost never sees the field. They are passionate about what they do, and today they are simply crushed. So are the people who coach them. 

The people who did have to make these decisions know this full well. They ache for having to have made it. That was crystal clear to TB yesterday as well.

There were questions yesterday all over the place.

Will the spring athletes get an extra year of eligibility? If so what will that mean due to Ivy League rules? Will other leagues follow? Will any students be on Princeton's campus the rest of the year or will the semester have to be done online from now on?

These are all great questions that again TB doesn't have an answer for.

He does know that every Ivy League spring athlete was feeling emotions yesterday that he would never wish on any of them, nor would anyone else who works in the Ivy League.

In TB's world, the most obvious thing to point out was that there are three Ivy League men's lacrosse teams ranked in the top five nationally right now, including Princeton, who is 5-0 and who was as good a story as there was in men's lacrosse so far.

Next up was going to be the first weekend of Ivy League games, with Princeton to host Penn.

When Saturday at 1 rolls around, TB can't imagine what he'll be feeling.

Actually, he'll have no idea.

This is all new to him, and he hated having to hear it.

COVID-19 Updates

These are surreal times, aren't they?

The announcement yesterday of the cancelling of the Ivy League basketball tournaments and the restrictions on fan attendance and out-of-season practices due to the threat of COVID-19 (the Coronavirus) is something new for TigerBlog. He's been trying to think of things that compare, and nothing really leaps to mind.

The week after 9/11 was sort of similar, though that was a reaction to the horrific events of that day. There have also been pending major snowstorms, and possibly Superstorm Sandy, that have elements of the same kind of preparations that are being made now.

Still, nothing is close to the uncertainty of what's coming next. You can read what one expert says and then what another one says, and those two opinions will be 180 degrees from each other.

Princeton is one of many colleges and universities around the country that has altered its normal academic schedule in the wake of the uncertainty. As you have probably read, the University is moving to online classes after spring break next week, with a target of April 5 for a return to on-campus classes.

None of these are easy choices to make, and none of them are made lightly. 

There are so many moving parts as the situation changes regularly. The best thing to do is to continually check the webpage and social media for updates, both the athletic department and main University feeds.

For today, TigerBlog would like to help get the necessary information out to everyone. As of last night, here was the information that was being provided:

Princeton Athletics and Princeton University continue to actively engage in efforts to prepare for and mitigate the impacts from COVID-19 (commonly known as coronavirus). Our top priority is to support the health and well-being of our community.

Princeton University COVID-19 Information & Policies Resources

Future updates pertaining to Princeton Athletics events and competitions will be provided here as available.

2020 Ivy League Basketball Tournaments Update
On Tuesday, the Ivy League announced the cancellation of the 2020 Ivy League Basketball Tournaments which were to be hosted by Harvard. In addition, preliminary policies on postseason competition and limited attendance for on-campus events were announced.

Below are statements from Mitch Henderson, Princeton's Franklin C. Cappon-Edward C. Green '40 Head Coach of Men's Basketball, and Carla Berub, Head Coach of Women's Basketball.

Statement From Mitch Henderson
"We appreciate the Ivy League's concern for the health and safety of the teams, coaches and fans in regards to canceling the Ivy League Basketball Tournaments. I am extremely disappointed for our student-athletes who will not have the opportunity to continue their careers as Princeton Tigers. This is an emotional time for all involved with Princeton Men's Basketball, especially our seniors – Jose, Will and Richmond. They have been outstanding representatives of our program, I am heartbroken that they will not have another opportunity to compete on a national stage for our University."

Statement From Carla Berube
"We understand that the well-being and safety of the teams, coaches and fans was at the heart of the decision made to cancel the Ivy League Basketball Tournaments. At the same time, our team is disappointed to not have the opportunity to compete this weekend alongside our fellow competitors. We were looking forward to showcasing the high-quality caliber of play inside the Ivy League on both the women's and men's sides. I am especially saddened for my colleague, Mitch, and his team. We were all looking forward to a great weekend for everyone involved with Princeton Basketball."

All policies regarding athletics activities are subject to change based on the ongoing review of circumstances.  Further details regarding the impact of coronavirus on Ivy League campuses will continue to be shared through institutional websites.

The Rest Of The Weekend

The weekend in Princeton Athletics was more than just what TigerBlog brought you yesterday, which was the unbelievable performances of the two hockey teams.

To recap, the Princeton women won their first ECAC championship, beating No. 7 Clarkson in the semifinals and then No. 1 Cornell in overtime in the final. The men swept Dartmouth in the opening round of the ECAC playoffs, going 2-0 in Hanover this weekend after winning two league games this regular season.

The women are now in the NCAA tournament at Northeastern, the third seed, in the eight-team NCAA tournament. This is Princeton's fourth NCAA tournament appearance - and second straight and third in four years. It's already something different, since the first three NCAA appearances were all against Minnesota at Minnesota.

The game at Northeastern will be Saturday at 1. The winner of that game gets the winner of Clarkson and second-seeded Wisconsin in the semifinals on March 20.

Cornell is the No. 1 overall seed.

The Cornell men are currently ranked No. 1 in the country. That'll be the next test for the Princeton men, who are in Ithaca for another best-of-three starting Friday night.

While hockey was a huge part of the story this weekend, there was so much more, including:

* five NCAA wrestling qualifiers from the EIWA meet, with individual championships from Patrick Glory (125) and Matthew Kolodzik (149). That win puts Kolodzik into his fourth NCAA meet.

The other three NCAA automatic qualifiers are Quincy Monday, who was the runner-up at 157, Patrick Brucki, who took third at 197 and Grant Cuomo, who was sixth at 165. Princeton is hoping to add an at-large bid or two when those are announced Wednesday.

Princeton finished fifth as a team.

* a history-making two days for the women's basketball team, which finished off a perfect 14-0 run through the Ivy League and won every game by at least 14 points, something no other Princeton women's basketball team has ever done.

Beyond just that, Princeton's game Friday night at Columbia (a 77-52 win) saw two major milestones, as Bella Alarie broke the 30-year-old school record for career points and Carlie Littlefield reached the 1,000-point mark.

Alarie chased down Sandi Bittler Leland's former record of 1,683 and finished the weekend with 1,703. As for Littlefield, she became the 26th Tiger women's basketball player to get to 1,000.

The game reminded TB of the fact that twice before Princeton has had two women's basketball players reach 1,000 points in the same game. First it was Kate Thirolf and Maggie Langlas, and then it was Allison Cahill and Maureen Lane.

This wasn't two 1,000-point scorers, but it was very similar. And very, very historic.

* the men's lacrosse team recaptured the Meistrell Cup with a 16-11 win over Rutgers on Sherrerd Field. Leading the way was freshman face-off man Tyler Sandoval, who won 17 of 29 with 10 ground balls and a goal.
Most importantly, he sparked a 6-0 Princeton run in the third quarter that turned a 6-6 tie into a 12-6 game in less than four minutes by winning the face-off after each of those goals.

* Princeton had four individual fencing champions and two runner-ups at the NCAA regionals. The winners were Julian Knodt (men's foil), May Tieu (women's foil), Daniel Koak (men's saber) and Alexis Anglade (women's saber).

Bids to the NCAA championships will be announced today. 

An Extraordinary Weekend On Ice

TigerBlog was about to leave the parking lot at Stony Brook yesterday afternoon when he decided to check on the women's hockey final score.

He was at Stony Brook for the women's lacrosse game, and he had been keeping on eye on the women's hockey game, including when the Big Red went up 2-0 in less than three minutes of the first period.

The last he'd seen it was 2-2 after two periods between the Tigers and the Big Red, who were not just the ECAC regular season champs but also the No. 1 ranked team in the country.

Then he looked and saw it was 2-2 heading into overtime.

It's a long ride back from Stony Brook, so he didn't want to stay and watch the game before he started to drive. This would have been the perfect time for radio.

Intead, he did the next best thing. He put the game on ESPN+ on his phone, put his phone in the little storage holder next to him and listened to the audio over his Bluetooth.

It would be until he was on NY 347 that the announcers came back on. He was barely on the Northern State when it ended.

Princeton's Mariah Keopple scored the game-winner with 58 seconds gone in the overtime, setting off a wild celebration that TB couldn't see, since he was driving and it would have been bad to pick up his phone.

Actually, the celebration in force was delayed for a few moments while the officials checked to make sure the goal would stand. The announcers, who did a very good job of being neutral during the short time TB listened, said that the ref did a good job of building the drama by not tipping his hand until he was well on the ice.

The goal stood. Princeton was the ECAC champion.

It was the crowing moment of what was an extraordinary weekend of hockey for Princeton, both men and women. The two teams combined to go 4-0 in playoff games, winning three in overtime.

The result was the first ECAC championship the women have ever won and an incredible series sweep by the men, who matched their season-long ECAC win total by taking out Dartmouth two games to none on the road.

The Princeton women are now 4-1 in the postseason over a nine-day span, and three of those five games have gone to a total of four overtimes. Princeton was only able to advance to the championship weekend round by virtue of a double-overtime win in the deciding Game 3 against Quinnipiac one week ago.

That's quite a run.

Princeton's four wins consisted of two against No. 10 Quinnipiac, a 5-1 over No. 7 Clarkson in the semifinals and then the 3-2 win over Cornell yesterday. Princeton is now 26-6-1 on the season and is now NCAA tournament bound for the fourth time ever and second straight year.

The draw was announced last night, and Princeton will be at Northeastern in the first round.

If Princeton has shown anything with its ECAC win, it's that there is no team in the country it cannot beat. This is a really exciting time for Princeton women's hockey.

As for the men, the Tigers went 4-20-5 during the regular season and 2-16-4 in the ECAC, but every team makes it into the league tournament. Princeton, as TB said several times during the season, looked like it would a tough out, and that's exactly what happened.

Princeton matched its league regular-season win total with two more this weekend, sweeping Dartmouth in the first round in Hanover with a pair of overtime wins. The win keeps the Tigers' season going, as Princeton now heads to Ithaca to take on Cornell in the quarterfinals.

The OT winner Friday night came from Reid Yochim 3:36 into the overtime, after Finn Evans tied the game with 2:45 go.

The Tigers looked to be in control in Game 2, up 4-1 with less than nine minutes to go. Then Dartmouth rallied, cutting it to 4-3 and then finally 4-4 with two seconds to play.

With all the momentum heading into the OT, Dartmouth then drew a power play. Anyone else watching probably had the same thought as TB: If Dartmouth wins this one, they're going to win 6-1 in Game 3.

As it turns out, no one will ever know. Princeton killed off the power play, and then drew one of their own, which Mark Paolini cashed in 10:55 into that overtime. Game, and series, over.

Again, just as with the women, it was an extraordinary weekend for the men.

Make that very, very extraordinary.

Or history making.

Either works perfectly.

Feel Good Stories

The Princeton men's lacrosse team is now filled with guys who have no hair.

Why? The Tigers were part of an initiative started by three Brown men's lacrosse players where $1,000 would be donated to the Boston Children's Hospital for every player who shaved his head before March 1. The initiative, called "Lacrosse For Life," was funded by a pool of anonymous donors and ended up raising more than $2 million for cancer research.

It's the kind of feel-good story that college athletics can, and often does, inspire. You can read more about it HERE.

While the subject is "men's lacrosse human interest stories," you can read TigerBlog's feature story on senior  midfielder Connor McCarthy HERE.

If you read it, you'll know that McCarthy has battled back from four surgeries to get off to a great start in his senior year, one that has seen the Tigers go 4-0 and McCarthy score 10 goals, including five last week in an 18-11 win over Johns Hopkins.

You'll also know that McCarthy was in the same second grade class as Princeton women's lacrosse captain Tess D'Orsi in Sudbury, Mass.

McCarthy and D'Orsi grew up less than a mile from each other and went to elementary and middle school together before McCarthy went to Lincoln-Sudbury High School and D'Orsi went to St. Mark's School.

Are there currently in some second grade classroom somewhere two seven year olds who will grow up and play the same sport at Princeton?

The men's and women's lacrosse teams are also connected by two senior captains who attended the same high school in Virginia, St. Anne's-Belfield. Those two captains would be Annie Cory of the women's team and Phillip Robertson of the men's team.

There have probably been a bunch of similar stories like these two through the years here. TigerBlog is just struggling to think of any off the top of his head.

St. Anne's-Belfield, by the way, is a very, very short walk from Klockner Stadium, the home of lacrosse at the University of Virginia. Like a five-minute walk.

It was there just two weeks ago today that the men's lacrosse team went, unranked and somewhat out of the national consciousness in men's lacrosse. Now, after a 16-12 win over defending NCAA champ UVa and the Hopkins win, Princeton is suddenly ranked third in the media poll and sixth in the coaches' poll.

This weekend offers another huge hurdle to climb, as the Tigers host Rutgers in the 98th meeting with their in-state rival for the Meistrell Cup.

The Ivy League season begins next weekend, when Princeton hosts Penn and then travels to Yale. Those two teams, along with Cornell, are also ranked in the top nine in the country.

But first there is Rutgers of the Big Ten. The Scarlet Knights are 2-3 on the year and looking for a big win to turn their season back around. Face-off is at 1.

The women's team is at Stony Brook Sunday, with the opening draw at noon between the sixth-ranked Seawolves and 11th-ranked Tigers. This is the weekend where the clocks "spring ahead," by the way, so if you don't remember to move your clock ahead an hour Saturday night, you'll miss the start of that game.

The women are off to Jacksonville for a spring break game and then back to the Ivy League at Brown on March 21. Then they finally get another home game on Tuesday the 24th, when Florida comes to Sherrerd Field. Florida is another Top 10 team, though one that just lost to Dartmouth this week. The Big Green and Penn are also in the top 15, so Ivy League lacrosse for both the men and women looks absolutely loaded.

TigerBlog spent a lot of time this week talking about Ivy League basketball. Just as a reminder, the men are home against Columbia tonight (7) and tomorrow against Cornell (6), while the women are on the road. Both are headed to Harvard next weekend for the Ivy League tournament, the women as the No. 1 seed and outright champ and the men as either the two or three seed, though possibly with a share of the league title if everything goes well this weekend.

The women's hockey team is at Cornell for the ECAC semifinals, where the Tigers will take on Clarkson tomorrow at 4, after the Cornell-Harvard game. The winners play Sunday at 2.

The men are at Dartmouth in the best-of-three opening round of the ECAC playoffs.

What else is there this weekend?

TB told you yesterday about the EIWA wrestling championships at Lehigh that start today and end tomorrow. There is a wrestling update for you: Patrick Glory was named the Ivy League's Wrestler of the Year, Princeton's first since 1986.

There are also the national individual squash championships and the NCAA fencing regionals, along with baseball (at Ole Miss), tennis (home) and men's volleyball (also home).

In other words, it's just another normal weekend around here.

The complete schedule, by the way, is HERE.

Automatic Bids On The Mat

TigerBlog doesn't use any notes or anything during his podcasts.

He just starts the conversation and sees where it goes. Usually, this makes for a better, more informal presentation. Sometimes it means he leaves out something that he should have included.

Take yesterday for instance. TB had just finished his podcast with Carla Berube when she reminded him of something that he'd meant to bring up (and had mentioned here earlier in the week) and forgot to during the conversation.

Carlie Littlefield is 14 points away from 1,000 for her career.

TB should have included that in the podcast. If Littlefield gets her 14 points this weekend, he'll definitely mention it next week.

Either way, it's a huge accomplishment for the junior point guard from Iowa who was a first-team All-Ivy League selection a year ago. You don't necessarily think offense first for Littlefield, whose all-around game is so strong and whose tenacity has always been what has defined her.

Closing in on 1,000 points by the end of her junior year suggests someone who knows how to score, of course.

In some ways, Littlefield reminds TB of Sydney Johnson, the 1997 Ivy League Player of the Year (and now doing a really good job as an ESPN commentator). Had there been an Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Award back then, Johnson would have won a few of them.

Still, he is also a 1,000-point scorer (1,044, to be exact). At least that's what TB thinks off the top of his head. Let him go check ...

... Yup. 1,044. Why does TB remember that?

Anyway, if you look at the Princeton record book, you'll see that Johnson finished with one more point than Amir Bell did. He's another player in the Littlefield mode - all-around players who are much more than just whatever offensive numbers they put up but who nevertheless reached 1,000 career points.

Actually, you figure Littlefield will get way past just 1,000, with one year to go.

As TB wrote yesterday, this is a big weekend in basketball for the men and women, though next weekend would seem to be bigger at this point, as both teams will be in the Ivy League tournament, playing for automatic NCAA tournament bids.

Speaking of playing for automatic NCAA tournament bids, there's the wrestling team this weekend.

The Tigers, who won the Ivy League championship this year, will be competing for 44 automatic NCAA tournament bids at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association tournament. The event will be held at Lehigh, who is the defending champion.

In addition to the 44 automatic bids, there will also be at-large bids awarded after each conference tournament. 

Princeton has three former champions in its lineup. Patrick Glory was the 2019 103-pound champ as a freshman, and he is currently ranked third nationally at the same weight. Matthew Kolodzik has won two championships at 149, though he didn't win last year. Patrick Brucki won at 197 last year.

Glory and Brucki are top-seeded for the tournament. Kolodzik is the fourth seed at his weight.

Princeton has four other seeded wrestlers, including second-seeded Quincy Monday at 157. There are also two six-seeds (Grant Cuomo at 165, Travis Stefanik at 184) and a seventh-seed (Kevin Parker at 174).

If you want to read some pretty comprehensive previews of the EIWA event, you have two great options - the goprincetontigers.com one HERE and the EIWA one HERE.

The wrestling at Lehigh starts tomorrow at 11, and the finals are Saturday afternoon, all at Lehigh's Stabler Arena.

The wrestling team has already had a magical season, with the Ivy League championship that ended Cornell's 18-year run at the top. Princeton went unbeaten in the Ivy League, and the win over Cornell that clinched it came in front of a huge crowd in Jadwin Gym - and just happened to be the 500th Ivy title for Princeton.

The last few years have seen the Tigers regularly send a large contingent on to the NCAA wrestling championships. This year, the Tigers would love to make a run at the EIWA title along the way, with the top three figured to be Princeton, Cornell and Lehigh in any order.

The NCAA championships will be held in Minneapolis March 19-21.

The Tigers would love to have someone win the big prize there. The road to that best of all possible endings to this dream year begins this weekend at Lehigh. 

More Records

TigerBlog was talking about record-chasers yesterday.

Those were career record-chasers, by the way. One of the best parts about sports is that you never know when someone is going to have a huge game, one that lands that particular person in the record books themselves.

The women's lacrosse team defeated Columbia 19-7 in its Ivy League opener this past Saturday. Sophomore Gaby Hamburger had five assists for the Tigers in that one.

For Hamburger, they were her first five career points. They also left her one assist away from the school single-game record of six, and they left her as one of nine players in program history to have at least five in a game.

Hamburger had five assists in less than 20 minutes, which has to be fairly close to a record, even though such records don't exist. Most impressively, she had assists to five different players - Kari Buonnano, Kyla Sears, Katie Reilly, Grace Taukus and Annie Cory.

That could be a record, assists to five players in a women's lacrosse game. Maybe TB will look that up at some point. 

Speaking of records, TB mentioned yesterday that Bella Alarie of the women's basketball team was closing in on the all-time scoring record for Princeton. As she heads into this weekend's trip to Columbia and Cornell, she has 1,680 career points, leaving her three away from the record of Sandi Bittler Leland that has stood since 1990.

Alarie has played 104 career games, and she has missed 17 games due to injury the last two years. At her scoring  rate the last two years, that would be 267 additional points, which would have her closing in on 2,000, something only three Ivy League women's basketball players have ever done (Diana Caramanico, Penn, 2,415; Allison Feaster, Harvard, 2,312; Hana Peljto, Harvard, 2,109).

Of course, Niveen Rasheed missed half of a season with her own injury and finished with 1,617. Had she been healthy all that time, she might have made a run of her own at 2,000.

And none of that takes into account how many times both Alarie and Rasheed played fewer than 30 minutes of games that were long decided. Still, you can only go by what the actual numbers are.

Alarie is actually going after another record this weekend. Alarie was named the Ivy League Player of the Week again this week, marking the 20th time in her career she has been so honored. The Ivy League record is 21, by Feaster.

By the way, both Alarie and Feaster were Ivy Rookie of the Week nine times each.

TB saw that in the Ivy League record book. He also saw that four times in Ivy women's basketball history, a team has had three first-team All-Ivy League selections. Of those four, Princeton did it three times:
1977-78 C.B. Tomasiewicz, Margaret Meier, Jackie Jackson
2010-11 Devona Allgood, Lauren Edwards, Addie Micir
2014-15 Blake Dietrick,  Annie Tarakchian, Alex Wheatley

The fourth was from Harvard's 1992-93 team.

Princeton has already clinched the Ivy League women's basketball championship and the No. 1 seed in next weekend's Ivy League tournament. Princeton, Penn and Columbia have all clinched Ivy tournament spots, but Princeton could play either Penn, Columbia, Harvard and Yale in the semifinals.

As for the men, Princeton goes into the final weekend of the regular season knowing that it is already in the Ivy tournament. The Tigers could still tie for the league championship with a sweep of Columbia and Cornell at home, a Dartmouth win over Yale, a Harvard win over Yale and a Harvard loss to Brown.

Princeton, Yale and Harvard have all clinched their tournament spots. Penn and Brown enter the final weekend tied, though Penn holds the tiebreaker.

It figures to be an exciting event in Cambridge next weekend. There is no clear-cut definitive favorite on the men's side, and you can make a case for pretty much any of the five teams still in the running.

Before that, you have this weekend.

It's Princeton-Columbia Friday night at 7, and then it's Senior Night at Jadwin Saturday for the Cornell game (tip-off at 6).

It's March now, and you know what that means. It's almost time for Madness, and both Princeton teams are looking to make the most of their opportunities.

Record Chasers

TigerBlog received several emails yesterday that pointed out his math errors regarding the women's basketball team, and to those who corrected him, he says "thank you."

Seriously. If there are errors, they should be corrected.

TB also received some emails yesterday about one of the four goals that Alexander Vardaro scored in the men's lacrosse team's 18-11 win over Johns Hopkins Saturday afternoon. The basic premise of those emails was that Vardaro's goal should not have had an assist on the play.

You can see the goal here:

Loose ball ☑️
Splits D with the toe drag ☑️
Goes top shelf ☑️

Alexander Vardaro really did all that. 😩 @TigerLacrosse pic.twitter.com/RsMf4IF2uo

— Dan Aburn (@Dan_Aburn) March 2, 2020

The play starts with Michael Sowers behind the goal trying to feed the crease, or possibly even Vardaro up top. The ball is tipped, though, and it rolls to Vardaro, who picks it up, splits two defenders and rips it into the cage.

For the record, TigerBlog did NOT give Sowers as an assist on the play. Sowers still had seven other assists on the day, along with two goals, but he did not get an assist on that play.

TB just wanted to clear that little misinformation up. Nobody is padding anyone's stats around here.

As for Sowers, here are two more notes about his amazing start to his senior year, and his career in general:

1) Sowers is averaging 6.46 points per game for his career; the NCAA career record is 6.47, set by Tony Asterino of Siena, who played from 1978-81.
2) Sowers tied the school career record for points with 247 at the end of the second-to-last game a year ago. Since then, he has played five games - and he now has 50 more points than the old record. That's 50 points in five games.

It became clear early on that Sowers was going to destroy the Princeton record book. It's always fun to see athletes who identify themselves from the start as ones who have a shot at all-time records.

As you probably know, Bella Alarie is three points away from the school's 30-year-old career record for points by a women's basketball player. Alarie has 1,680, three away from Sandi Bittler Leland, with a minimum of four more games to go.

TB likes her chances.

Then there are two other Princeton women.

Before that, though, the women's hockey team played an epic series with Quinnipiac in the ECAC playoffs this weekend. Princeton scored four goals in the first 10:53 of the best-of-three quarterfinal. Would this be easy? Hardly. Princeton then scored six more the rest of the weekend, which went more than just three full games.

The Tigers took Game 1 by a 5-1 score, and the Bobcats evened things with a 3-2 win in Game 2 on a goal less than two minutes into overtime.

That set the stage for a winner-take-all Game 3, and that one also went longer than 60 minutes. And longer than 80 minutes.

Princeton actually looked to be in good shape up 2-0 in the third period before Quinnipiac rallied dramatically, making it 2-1 with 3:50 to go and then tying it 2-2 with 1:27 to go.

Then the teams, playing to get to the ECAC final four and the NCAA tournament beyond that, went through all of one overtime and more than halfway through a second before Sarah Fillier ended it on a rebound after a three-on-one break for Princeton.

The series was a bit reminiscent of the one the men's team played against Colgate in 2017, when the Tigers won their opening round series in three dramatic games with each team's getting an OT win along the way.

The details weren't exactly the same - Princeton lost Game 1 in OT and then won Game 2 after tying it with one second in regulation and winning it in OT - but the common denominator was serious drama.

The game-winning goal by Fillier advanced Princeton to the league semifinals against Clarkson at Cornell Saturday at 4. Cornell plays Harvard in the other semi, and the final is at Cornell Sunday at 2.

Fillier now has 111 career points, which leaves her more than halfway to the school's career record of 218, which Kathy Issel set 25 years ago. Extra credit if you know whose record Issel broke, by the way.

Another record-chaser is Kyla Sears of the women's lacrosse team, who went over the 200-point mark for her career this past weekend at Columbia. Sears was the Ivy League's Offensive Player of the Week after her nine-goal, 13-point week in wins over Villanova and Columbia.

Sears now has 202 career points, making her the eighth Princeton women's lacrosse player to reach 200. She is 83 points away from Olivia Hompe's career record of 285, and at her current scoring pace of the first four games, Sears would get to the end of the regular season with 274 - with any possible postseason and then her whole senior season to go.

Oh, and the one whose record Issel broke? That would have been Mollie Marcoux Samaan.

That's One For Carla And 47 For Fred

TigerBlog ran into Andrei Iosivas in the lobby of Jadwin Gym a few weeks ago.

It was one of those moments where you know who it is who is saying hello to you but can't immediately place that person. So you just nod and say "hey," instead of something more personal, like, in this case, "hello Andrei."

It wasn't until Iosivas was out the door of the gym that TB realized who it was. In this case, he has a good reason why - he hadn't seen Iosivas since he'd cut his very long hair, which now was very short. He looked like a completely different person.

Iosivas is a wide receiver on the football team in the fall. TB has a bunch of pictures of him from the fall where his hair flows out of his helmet.

That gives you a sense of what he looked like in the fall.

Here's what he looked like yesterday:

In case you can't make out what the plaque says, Iosivas was the Most Outstanding Field Performer at the Ivy League Heptagonal championships yesterday as he won the indoor Heptathlon championship for the second straight year. A Heps win at the Heps, as it were.

Iosivas had a personal-best 5,534 points in the event, which consists of the 60 meter dash, the long jump, the shot put, the high jump, the 60 meter hurdles, the pole vault and 1,000 meter run. He won by nearly 200 points over his Princeton teammate Gabriele Montefalcone, and they combined to give Princeton 18 points in the event.

The Tigers ran away from the field to win their sixth straight indoor Heps title. Princeton totaled 173 points, followed by Harvard with 116. No one else reached 100 points.

The compete recap of the meet can be seen HERE. Princeton had great performances up and down the lineup, including a meet-record performance in the 60 hurdles by Joey Daniels.

The big number for these Heps was 47, as in the number of Heptagonal championships Fred Samara has now won as Princeton's head coach for either cross country, indoor track and field or outdoor track and field.

Princeton's indoor track and field title this weekend was the 503rd overall in school history. Samara has won 47 of those.

That's 9.34 percent of all of those championships. That's insane.

Title No. 502 went to the women's basketball team, which wrapped things up Friday night with an 81-39 win over Brown and a Yale win over Penn. That gave the Tigers the outright championship and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy League tournament at Harvard.

Princeton then took down Yale 64-49 Saturday night to improve to 24-1 overall and 12-0 in the league. For the second straight time Princeton defeated Yale by double figures after falling behind early by a relatively large number.

In the game at New Haven, Yale led 12-0 before Princeton won 55-39. This time it was 8-0 Bulldogs before Princeton scored.

In other words, Yale led 20-0 in the two games combined, and then Princeton outscored Yale 119-68 the rest of the way.

The Ivy League championship comes in Year 1 under head coach Carla Berube. Princeton has won all 12 of its league games by at least 14 points, and nine of the 12 have been by at least 20.

It's been a dominant season for the women's basketball team to date. The only loss is in overtime at Iowa, who is ranked 18th in the country.

The Ivy League championship is the first step in a process that the Tigers hope will reach the NCAA tournament, where anything is possible.

The game against Yale was also Senior Night, the final Jadwin Gym appearance for Bella Alarie and Taylor Baur. Alarie ended the weekend with 1,680 career points, leaving her three away from tying Sandi Bittler Leland's career record, one that has stood since 1990.

Carlie Littlefield will enter next weekend with 986 career points, leaving her 14 away from 1,000.

Princeton finishes the regular season at Columbia and Cornell, and then it's the postseason. In addition to Princeton, the field of four for the ILT will definitely feature Penn and Columbia, and Yale will be there too unless it gets swept by Dartmouth and Harvard and Harvard also defeats Brown.

It was a two-championship weekend for Princeton.

Whether it's your first or your 47th, they're all special.