Four Titles

Well, that was depressing.

No, not all the Ivy League championships Princeton won Saturday. TigerBlog is talking about the fact that it was pretty much dark by 5 yesterday. Why in the world can't there be Daylight Savings Time all year? 

Oh well.

Those Ivy championships? That was not depressing. How could it be when this past Saturday Princeton teams won three Ivy League championships and finished off an outright championship in a fourth.

Before he gets into that, though, he does want to mention that tonight is opening night for Princeton men's and women's basketball. The men are home against Iona, with tip-off in Jadwin Gym at 7. The women open their season at Duquesne at 5, also on ESPN+.

Basketball season already? 

Meanwhile, back at the Ivy championships on Saturday, it was quite a few hours there for the Tigers.

Pretty Nice Little Saturday.

🧡🖤🏆#BackToTheBest pic.twitter.com/I89mEAl0oT

— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) November 3, 2024

It started at 11 am with a win by the women's cross country team at the Ivy League Heps on the new course at Princeton Meadows. It ended five hours later when the women's soccer team closed out its own outright championship at Columbia. 

In between, the men's cross country also won at Heps and the field hockey team, who had already clinched at least a tie for its Ivy League championship last weekend, finished its regular season at a perfect 7-0 with a 1-0 win over Yale. 

The women's cross country team ended Harvard's streak of four straight championships and in the process won for the first time since 2015. How did the Tigers do it? With four runners in the top 8.

Mena Scatchard, from North Yorkshire, finished second overall and first among the Tigers. North Yorkshire is about three hours north of Shrewsbury, where competitive cross-country running originated in the early 1800s.

Scatchard's time of 20:04.7 was the third-fastest 6K time in women's Heps history. It also left her as the only runner to cross the finish line in a span of 25 seconds, after Columbia's Phoebe Anderson ran the second-fastest Heps time ever (the great Abbey D'Agostino of Dartmouth holds the record).

Anna McNatt was third overall in 20:17.1, followed by teammates Alexis Allen and Meg Madison in seventh and eighth. Princeton's championship was wrapped up when Emma De Jong finished 20th. Princeton had a score of 40; Harvard was in second with 53.

Next up where the men, who finished off their fourth-straight Heps championship with five runners who came in between fifth and 14th: Myles Hogan (fifth), Nicholas Bendtsen (eighth), Connor McCormick (11th), Jackson Shorten (13th) and Harrison Witt (14th). 

Team-wise, that added up to 51 points, 11 better than the Crimson.

The field hockey game started on Bedford Field at the same time as the men's cross country race. Princeton had clinched no worse than a share of the championship a week earlier with a win over Dartmouth, and with that win the Ivy League tournament was headed to Princeton this coming weekend.

At stake Saturday, though, was an outright title for Princeton versus a spot in the Ivy tournament for Yale, who battled all the way before Beth Yeager's penalty stroke goal with 3:14 to go gave the Tigers a 1-0 win.

The rest of the results of the weekend finally sorted out the crowded field, and so here are your field hockey matchups for the tournament: No. 1 Princeton vs. No. 4 Columbia Friday at 11:30, followed by No. 2 Harvard and No. 3 Brown at 2:30. The winners will meet Sunday at noon, with an automatic NCAA bid for the winner.

And that left women's soccer. 

Princeton went to New York City knowing that a win would mean an outright championship, while a tie or Columbia win would mean an outright championship for the Lions. Pietra Tordin's goal off a free kick was all Princeton needed, winning 1-0 and earning the big prizes: Ivy title and Ivy host. 

The women's soccer tournament will also be held this Friday and Sunday, also with the same four teams. The semifinals Friday will have No. 1 Princeton against No. 4 Harvard at 4:30, after the game between No. 2 Columbia and No. 3 Brown. The winners will play at 1 Sunday for the automatic bid. 

Oh, and the men's soccer team? It got two goals from Nico Nee to win at Dartmouth 2-1, forcing its own showdown Saturday at 2 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, which would host the Ivy tournament the following weekend with a Princeton win. A tie or a Penn win sends the tournament to Philadelphia.

1964, 1969, 1989

The last book that TigerBlog read was "Semisweet: An Orphan's Journey Through The School The Hersheys Built."

It was written by Johnny O'Brien, Princeton Class of 1965. His story is an amazing tale of survival, learning, growth, hardship and sorrow, from his time as a pre-school age boy all the way through high school.

When he first attended the school, it was intended for orphan boys. His story hints at his designation as an orphan, and TB doesn't want to give any spoilers. You really need to read this one yourself. 

You can get it HERE on Amazon. It's worth it. Ask yourself what would have become of you had that been your upbringing.

If his name is familiar, that's because Johnny O'Brien made the leap from the Milton Hershey School to Princeton, where he played on the football team. After he left Princeton, he embarked on a long career that eventually brought him back to the school where he grew up, becoming its Headmaster. 

The only time TB ever spoke with O'Brien was in 2005, when he was awarded the Class of 1967 Citizen-Athlete Award for his contribution to sport and society. There have been few more deserving winners. 

TB hopes to see him again tomorrow, when Princeton hosts Cornell at 1 on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. 

O'Brien will be here along with many of his former teammates. If he does get the chance, he'd love to tell him how much his book moved him and how much respect he has for what he's been through and how much he's helped so many others. 

The occasion will be the 60th anniversary of the 1964 football season. That team went 9-0, with four straight shutouts in midseason to boot, and Princeton wrapped up the perfect season with a 17-12 win over Cornell in front of 32,000 at Palmer Stadium.

Led by legendary players like Cosmo Iacavazzi, Stas Maliszewki and Charlie Gogolak and coached by Dick Colman, the 1964 Tigers remain one of the very best teams in program history. You'd be hard-pressed to make a list of the top five Princeton football teams ever without including the 1964 group.

Those Tigers will be honored on their anniversary, but they won't be the only Princeton team in the building. Or, for that matter, on the field to celebrate.

In addition to the 60th anniversary of 1964, this is also a major anniversary for two more of Princeton's 13 Ivy titles.

Colman would coach Princeton through the 1968 season, and he was loyal to his single-wing offense until the end. By then, pretty much every football team everywhere was using what is now known as the T-formation. 

Colman's replacement in 1969 was Jake McCandless, and he scrapped the single-wing, putting the quarterback under center. His first team at Princeton would win an Ivy title as well, finishing in a three-way tie with Yale and Dartmouth.

The 1969 Tigers won their first five Ivy games before falling to Yale 17-14 in the second to last game of the season. Needing a win over Dartmouth to clinch a piece of the championship, the Tigers rolled 35-7, this time with 35,000 at Palmer. 

Dartmouth, by the way, came into the game with a perfect record and had outscored its opponents 285-48. Princeton's 35 points in that one game represented 42 percent of the points Dartmouth allowed all season.

The 1989 team also went its final game needing a win to get a share of a championship. This time, the opponent was again Cornell, who scored first but then saw Princeton answer with three touchdowns in the 21-7 win. 

The first of those touchdowns for Princeton, by the way, came on a fake field goal. That championship would be the first of three for head coach Steve Tosches. 

It'll be a day of great nostalgia and mini-Reunions for Princeton Football. It'll also be a chance for the team that has alternated a loss with a win through five weeks to get back to .500, both in the league and overall. 

Kickoff is at 1. The weather will be perfect. 

Come to the game. 

And read Johnny's book.

Happy Halloween

It's Halloween!!

If anything deserves exclamation points, it's a holiday where the central theme is fun, costumes and candy, right? 

*

When TigerBlog thinks of Will Venable, he'll always go first to that time he drove the baseline and dunked at Cameron Indoor Stadium. That was on Jan. 5, 2005, a game Duke won 59-46.

Here are two stat lines from that game: 

Player A - 39 minutes, 21 points, 3 for 10 from the field, 1 for 3 from three-point range, 14 for 14 from the foul line, two rebounds, two assists
Player B - 39 minutes, 21 points, 8 for 13 from the field, 0 for 1 from three-point range, five for six from the foul line, four rebounds, three assists

Player B is Venable. Player A is JJ Reddick.

Venable was a great all-around basketball player at Princeton, a defensive stopper who scored 1,010 points and who was at his best in the biggest moments. Those are great qualities in an athlete. If you asked TB to list the players he's seen at Princeton who were at their best in big games, Venable's name would be way up there.

Of course, Venable's future was not in professional basketball but instead Major League Baseball, where he played for nine seasons, for the Padres, Rangers and Dodgers. He then became a coach, winning a World Series a year ago in Texas, along with another former basketball/baseball player Chris Young, the Rangers' GM.

It was only a matter of time before Venable became a Major League manager, and that time appears to be here. Venable will be taking over as the head man for the Chicago White Sox.

His task will be not be an easy one. The White Sox are horrible, having set a Major League record with 121 losses last year. 

Still, being a Major League manager is a rare opportunity. And just think where Venable's stock will be if he can bring the Sox back to respectability. 

*

One of TigerBlog's favorite days of the Ivy League calendar comes up Saturday — and TB won't be able to be there. 

The Ivy League Heptagonal cross-country championships will be held on the new Princeton course at the Meadows Campus. The women's race begins at 11, followed by the men at noon.

TB, for his part, will be at the Princeton-Yale field hockey game, which starts at noon on Bedford Field.

The Princeton men have won three straight Heps cross-country titles, as well as five of the last six. The Tiger men are currently ranked 22nd nationally, behind only No. 15 Harvard in the Division I rankings. 

No Ivy League women's team is ranked in the Top 30 nationally. Princeton is fifth in the incredibly loaded Mid-Atlantic Region.

Heps cross country is a great event. As much as anything else in an Ivy League year, Heps cross country combines high-quality athletic competition and a party atmosphere. If you're never been, the weather will be perfect. 

*

There will be an Ivy League championship awarded Saturday in at least one other sport — women's soccer.

In fact, this one is pretty straightforward. Princeton is at Columbia Saturday at 2, and here's how it works for the Ivy title: Princeton gets it with a win; Columbia gets it with a win or tie. 

There is no mathematical chance for a co-championship. Whoever comes out ahead after Saturday's game will also be the host for next weekend's Ivy League tournament. 

The Princeton men are at Dartmouth at 7 pm Saturday. Penn is at Yale, with that game at 5.

Should Penn win or tie and Princeton lose, then Penn would win the outright championship and get to host the Ivy tournament. The same is true if Penn wins and Princeton ties. Anything else and the game a week from Saturday at Myslik Field between the Tigers and Quakers would decide the championship and where the tournament will be.

*

There will also be home events in tennis, women's hockey, women's rugby, men's water polo and rowing (the Princeton Chase) this weekend. Oh yeah, there's also a football game against Cornell Saturday with a kickoff at 1.

The complete schedule is HERE.

In the meantime, have a happy and safe Halloween. 

Save some mini-Three Musketeers for TigerBlog.

New Friends

TigerBlog would like to tell you about his six new friends.

You're going to love this story.

Their names are Christa and her husband Tom, Linda and her husband Bill, Heidi and Lynda. TigerBlog had never met any of them before yesterday.

They were random strangers, thrown together in the name of democracy. How's that? 

TB lives in Pennsylvania, where yesterday was the last day for early voting. He could have gone at any point the last few weeks, and of course, he decided to go yesterday.

To vote early, he had to go to the courthouse in Doylestown. He figured he'd drive past in the early afternoon, see what the line looked like and then wait it out.

Why not just vote on Election Day? That was an option too, though he remembered back to the last Presidential election, when he waited in line for two hours or so.

How long would this take? Even it took that long, it was such a nice day that standing outside didn't seem to be so big a deal.

So, TB parked his car, walked over and got on the end of the line. The first person he met was Heidi, the youngest of the new friends. She was also the one who seemed to be the most dialed in on the process, which turned out to be simple — take a form, fill it out ... and wait. 

And wait and wait and wait. In the end, it would be three full hours between getting on the line and casting his ballot. And you want to know what? 

To quote Crista — "could it be that our little group almost made waiting in line for three hours fun?"

Yes. It was fun. Seriously. It turned out to be fun.

It started out like any long line with total strangers. A nod here, a "hello" there. Everyone had the same question: "How long do you think this will take?" Heidi gave instructions to the newcomers. And then the wait began.

By the way, it's human nature, TB supposes, to look behind when you're in a long line and be a little annoyed that there aren't more people who have to wait as long as you were. 

Lynda, for her part, was the most prepared, as she had brought along a book to read. It started to look like 1) the group would be in the line for a long time and 2) that she would finish her book long before she voted. 

If you're going to wait for that long, you might as well make the most of it. By the time it reached the front, the group of seven people knew what each other's favorite movies were, the best place they'd ever traveled to, that it was Bill and Linda's second marriage and that Christa and Tom had been married for more than 30 years. Lynda was an artist. Heidi was a caregiver. 

Bill had been a teacher and administrator in the Central Bucks School District. Linda was the bookkeeper at a local church. Christa and Tom were also retired; she had been a librarian, and he had  been a high school art teacher. 

It took about 30 minutes to find out that Lynda grew up close to where Bill did in New Jersey, and they both loved the Sloppy Joe sandwich at the Millburn Deli. And that's not Sloppy Joe as in ground beef. If you're from that area, you know the difference.

And, of course, it came out that TB was a writer. And that he'd be chronicling all of this.

The natural follow up question was what kind of writer? When TB mentioned Princeton Athletics, Bill said something about how his sister had been an athlete at Princeton.

When Bill said his last name was "Meier," TB immediately said: "You're Maggie Meier's brother?"

And he was. 

Maggie Meier's brother? TB was in line with Maggie Meier's brother this entire time? At one point about an hour earlier, TB had said that the group was closing in on the moment when "somebody knew somebody's sister." 

As it turned out, TB was right. 

Maggie Meier? How about that? 

TigerBlog wrote a long story about Meier just last year, when Ellie Mitchell was closing in on her longtime record for career rebounds at Princeton. You can read it HERE if you like.

Bill and Linda were amazed that TB was the one who'd written the story. They said it was a big deal in their family, and TB appreciate that. 

Maggie Meier graduated from Princeton in 1978, winning the von Kienbusch Award her senior year as Princeton's top female athlete. No player, male or female, ever had more than her 1,099 career rebounds, and that record stood until this past February, when Mitchell finally broke it.

TB and Bill posed for a photo together, which Linda sent off to Maggie. TB said to say hello. 

The line wrapped around the courthouse. When you eventually got to the front steps, you had to wait until you were allowed inside in groups of 10. Were you there already? Nope. There was still another line to wait on before you were issued your ballot. 

It was great to meet them all. They made the three hours seem more like 30 minutes or so. There were way more laughs and smiles than complaints.

And another great part of their time together? The subject of who was going to vote for whom never came up.

Hey, maybe there's hope after all.

Joy And Sorrow

This past weekend was a very good one for Princeton Soccer, both the men and the women. 

TigerBlog wants to talk about that, how both teams won and what the coming Ivy League tournament might look like.

First, though, he will share with you the feature story that he put up yesterday on goprincetontigers.com. It's title tells a great deal about it: Of Love, Sorrow And Cancer. 

You can read it HERE.

The piece tells the story of three women's soccer players — Esme Rudell, Ally Murphy and Summer Pierson — who have had someone hugely important to them have to deal with cancer. This became pretty personal for both women's soccer head coach Sean Driscoll, who lost his mother Patricia six years ago, and TB himself, whose mother passed away 30 years ago this December. 

Once the story was published, TB began to hear from people who also had been affected by cancer. As Sean says in the story: "Everyone knows someone who has gone through this."

The piece stretches through 4,500 words, and yet it is one of the pictures that was sent to TB that really hits home. Summer's best friend in high school outside of Boston was dealing with bone cancer, and the chemo caused her to lose her hair quickly. 

To show her love and support, Summer shaved her head as well. This is the picture after it happened:

If that doesn't touch your heart, what will? 

TB spoke to the three women before the Tigers played Dartmouth last weekend on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. 

This was the second-to-last game of the regular season. The last game of the regular season comes up this Saturday in New York City, where Princeton will play Columbia at 2.

The Tigers needed to take down Dartmouth to set up what is now a huge game this coming week. Columbia rallied past Yale to win 3-2 Saturday, leaving the Lions at 5-0-1 in the league for 16 points. 

Princeton and Dartmouth were scoreless at the half. A loss to the Big Green with the Columbia win would mean that the Lions would have clinched the league. 

Instead, Pietra Tordin scored twice and Brooke Dawahare and Drew Coomans scored once each after the break, and the Tigers sprinted away 4-0. Princeton is now 5-1-0, for 15 points. 

Both teams have clinched their Ivy League tournament spots. What's at stake Saturday? A Princeton win and the Tigers win the Ivy title and host the tournament. A Columbia win or a tie, and both of those go to Lions.

Who will be the other two teams? One will definitely be Brown, who has also clinched a spot. The fourth team will either be Harvard (if it beats Yale), Yale (if it beats Harvard) or Cornell (if it wins and Harvard and Yale tie). 

The Ivy League field hockey tournament will be in Princeton. Will the women's soccer tournament be there as well? They're both on Nov. 8-10.

The men's soccer tournament is a week later. That one too can be in Princeton. What will it take? 

Princeton defeated Yale 1-0 in the second game on Myslik Field Saturday, scoring the only goal it would need on a Jack Jasinski free kick midway through the first half. The win leaves Princeton at 4-1-0 with 12 points in the league and assured of a spot in the Ivy tournament.

Like the women, Princeton's men can win the league championship and host the tournament by winning out. In this case, Princeton's men have two games left — at Dartmouth Saturday and then home against Penn Nov. 9. 

The only team ahead of Princeton right now is Penn, who has 15 points at 5-0-0. The Quakers are at Yale Saturday.

Penn and Princeton are the only teams to have clinched ILT spots so far. It's possible that the game against Penn will be a winner-take-all game like the women's game this weekend is. 

Dartmouth comes into the game in fourth place with seven points, two behind Cornell and one ahead of Harvard in the race for the other two spots. 

Princeton, by the way, hosts Seton Hall tonight at 7 in its final non-league game. 

It's an exciting time for Ivy League soccer, and Princeton's two teams are right in the middle of it all. 

Before the games, though, check out the feature story. It was very personal for TB to write it — and it's likely that it's personal for most of the people who read it.

An Even More Perfect Senior Day

The game had long since been won. The Ivy title was clinched. The Ivy League field hockey tournament was headed to Princeton.

And yet this was Senior Day, and so in the end Lily Webb and Clare Brennan took a perfect day and made it better. 

Princeton defeated Dartmouth 5-1 yesterday on Bedford Field, and with that win came all sorts of prizes. TigerBlog will get back to those in a moment.

Before that, there was the fact that Princeton's first four goals all came from juniors — three from Beth Yeager and one from Talia Schenck. Had the game ended that way, the celebration still would have a happy one. 

And then the last 20 seconds or so happened. 

Brennan and Webb are both seniors. Brennan took a long pass with 20 seconds to play and brought the ball down the left side and then stopped, pivoted and sent a long pass into the circle to Webb. As time wound down, Webb trapped the ball, made one move to her right and slapped it into the cage.

The clock showed eight seconds remaining.

The perfect end to Senior Day!!! Lily from Ceebs, and the Tigers win 5-1. Ivy title No. 28!!! Ivy tournament to Princeton. pic.twitter.com/fUhbqeixCl

— Princeton FH (@TigerFH) October 27, 2024

If you look closely at the video as Brennan gets the ball, check out the Princeton bench. You can see the excitement begin to build. 

Of course it would. On Senior Day, who wouldn't want to see two seniors combine for a goal to wrap things up?

Meanwhile, back at the prizes Princeton won, as TB alluded to those in the beginning. First, the win ensured Princeton will have no worse than a share of the Ivy League championship. 

For Princeton field hockey, that's Ivy title No. 28. The next-best league total? That's seven. 

More than that, no other Ivy League women's team in any sport has ever won as many (Princeton field hockey began this year tied with Harvard women's squash, with no other team in any sport all that close). 

Princeton also clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy League tournament, as well as the right to host the event, which will be held Nov. 8 and 10 on Bedford Field. 

It was a big weekend for Princeton, who defeated RPI No. 5 Maryland Friday 2-1, with both goals from Yeager. Princeton already had defeated Harvard, RPI No. 10 last week 2-1 in Cambridge, and Harvard then took down No. 4 St. Joe's yesterday 2-1 in OT, a decision that helps Princeton's RPI and therefore its chances at an NCAA at-large bid if it should not win the Ivy tournament. 

The Tigers are now 6-0 in the league, followed by 5-1 Harvard, who has clinched the No. 2 seed. Who else will be in the field? That will come from two of the following five: Yale, Brown, Penn, Cornell and Columbia. 

There is one Ivy game left in the regular season, and the odds that there will be a five-way tie for third place is not that outrageous now. For their part, Princeton plays Yale this coming Saturday, where a win would be the outright league championship.

In other words, there is a long way to go in this season. Princeton is 11-4 overall right now, with five straight wins and two of its losses to No. 1 Northwestern (3-2) and No. 2 North Carolina (2-0). 

No matter where it goes, though, Senior Day 2024 will always be really special. It began before the game in the team room at Class of 1952 Stadium, an hour before warmups. There were funny videos, heartfelt speeches, laughter, tears, hugs — and everything else that team sports bring out in those who compete together. The bond that is created is very strong. 

At one point head coach Carla Tagliente stood in front of the room and talked about what it is that they will all remember about each other — and it's not going to be the specific details of specific games. 

TigerBlog has heard this before. He's heard it in moments like that, when the players might not yet have considered what the next few decades would bring. 

He's also heard it from those decades later. They remember the friendships, the relationships, the times away from the field. The moments in the games? They're usually lost to time.

Not all of them, though. Not the one that came at the end of the game yesterday for Tiger field hockey. 

It was an even more perfect end to Senior Day.

Princeton At Harvard

How much celebrating did the people who run Major League Baseball do when their World Series ended up being the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers?

It couldn't have worked out better. Remember last year's World Series? If you're a Princeton fan you do. That was the all-Princeton World Series, as Texas (with GM Chris Young) defeated Arizona (with GM Mike Hazen).

Princetonians remember it with great fondness. Non-Princetonians probably don't remember it at all.

The Yankees-Dodgers? That's Major League Baseball gold.

It's the most-played World Series ever, with this the 11th meeting between the two. It is two huge market teams. It's Aaron Judge against Shohei Otani. a

What could be better? 

TigerBlog remembers another Yankees-Dodgers Series, back when he was a high school sophomore. His English teacher (who taught TB one of the two most important things he learned in school — grammar; the other was typing) that year made a deal with each student in the class, which was primarily American Literature. 

Here was your option: You could take the Dodgers or the Yankees or not play at all. If you did opt in, though, your next test would add or subtract the number of points that would be the difference between the number of games your team won and the other team won.

TigerBlog took the Dodgers. The Yankees won in six, or four games to two, so TB's next test score was docked two points. 

It was a genius move by the teacher in 1978. Would it get him fired today? 

Can you imagine if those two points had kept TB out of Penn? Phew. Then he'd really, really hate Reggie Jackson.

Game 1 of the World Series is tonight. TB is rooting for the Dodgers, solely because of Otani. If he had a big test coming up, he'd go with the Dodgers and hope not to lose points. 

Now imagine if college football tests could work the same way. If you were Bob Surace and you had a big test at Harvard tomorrow, would you be willing to risk four points for a chance to win four points? TB knows which team Surace is rooting for, and it's not the one with Ohtani.

Princeton heads to Harvard, with kickoff at Harvard Stadium set for 3 tomorrow. Every point figures to matter.

Last week, Princeton faced a team nicknamed "Bears" for the second straight game. This time, Princeton faces a former Surace offensive coordinator for the second straight week. 

Princeton knocked off Brown and head coach James Perry 29-17 last week, squaring its league record at 1-1. This week will be the first matchup between Surace and new Harvard head coach Andrew Aurich, someone else whom Princeton fans find difficult to root against, though they certainly will figure out a way to do so. 

Harvard is 1-1 in the league, having lost to Brown and then having defeated Cornell. Each Ivy team has played two games, and now each is looking at five straight weeks of league games to end the season.

The standings right now are symmetrical, with two 2-0 teams, four 1-1 teams and two 0-2 teams. 

At the end of the weekend, there will definitely be only one 3-0 team and one 0-3 team. The unbeatens are Dartmouth and Columbia, and they meet in New York City tomorrow. The winless teams are Yale and Penn, and they meet in Philadelphia tonight in the ESPNU game.

It was that ESPNU game last week that saw Princeton sprint out 19-0 and then hold off a Brown rally before closing the game out. As TB wrote earlier in the week, the key was turnovers — Princeton committed two, while Brown committed five. Even worse for the Bears was the fact that all five were in Princeton territory.

That sort of thievery would come in very handy tomorrow. Harvard is second in the league in time of possession, which is often an overrated stat. In this case, though, the Crimson have the ball on average six minutes more per game than the Tigers. Brown had a similar edge in possession time last week, but the turnovers neutralized that. 

Harvard quarterback Jaden Craig has thrown 13 touchdown passes and one interception. Princeton is the top passing defense team in the league. 

The forecast in Cambridge for Saturday at 3 is for 64 degrees and zero chance of rain. 

It would be well worth your time to be there. If not, watch it on ESPN+.

The five-week football sprint is about to begin. 

A Soccer Doubleheader In Perfect Weather

So where does TigerBlog go to arrange to have the weather in Princeton be like this year-round? 

Is there an app for that? Are there forms he can fill out?

*

It's a big weekend for Princeton soccer, both the men and the women. There will be a doubleheader Saturday on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, with the women against Dartmouth at 1 and the men against Yale at 4. 

The weather will be perfect. 

The field for the Ivy League women's tournament is officially half set, with spots clinched by Princeton and Columbia. There are two weekends left in the regular season, and there are all kinds of possibilities for the other two spots and the host role for the No. 1 seed.

Right now, Princeton trails Columbia by a single point in the standings, with the Lions at 4-0-1 for 13 points and the Tigers at 4-1-0 for 12. Oh, and Princeton ends the regular season at Columbia Nov. 2 (kickoff at 2).

The next three in the standings have Brown with eight points, Yale with seven and Cornell with six. The remaining games this weekend are Cornell at Brown, Columbia at Yale (the team who defeated the Tigers) and Harvard at Penn.

Should Princeton win out, it would have an outright Ivy title and would host the tournament. The same is true for Columbia. 

In addition to the implications for the women's tournament and championship, the game Saturday for Princeton will be Senior Day and Alumni Day.

Princeton leads the Ivy League in goals scored and fewest goals allowed, which is a pretty good combination. In fact, Princeton's 29 goals are six more than any other league team, and the nine allowed are five fewer than the next-best Ivy team. 

Princeton's RPI is 53, which is the best in the league. Columbia is next at 63.

*

The Princeton men's soccer team also starts the weekend in second place in the league, though on the men's side, there are still three Ivy games to be played. 

Right now, Penn is in first place in the league at 4-0-0 for 12 points, followed by Princeton at 3-1-0 for nine points (with a loss to Cornell). Just as the women, the regular season for the men ends with a game against the team currently ahead of it in the standings, which also means that the men would be the host for the Ivy tournament by winning out, as would Penn.

No other team in the league can say that. 

In addition to the game against Yale this weekend and the home game against Penn Nov. 9, Princeton also has a game Nov. 2 at Dartmouth. The Big Green can't host by winning out, but they do have games remaining against the two teams they trail in the standings, beginning at Penn this Saturday night.

The Big Green have seven points, followed by Cornell with six, Columbia with four and the remaining three with three each. 

When it comes to RPI, Penn is the highest-ranked Ivy at 12, followed by Cornell at 18 and then Princeton at 66. 

*

The new-look NCAA tennis world will have its individual singles and doubles championships in the fall, with direct qualification through the 13 ITA Regionals. Princeton's men competed in theirs last weekend at Penn and came away with qualifiers in both draws. 

On the single side, junior Fnu Nidunjianzan earned his spot by reaching the regional final. On the doubles side, Filippos Astreinidis and Paul Inchauspe won the championship, which also vaults them into the NCAA tournament. 

The Ivy League individual championships will be held this weekend, with the women at Penn and the men at Yale. 

*

The women's hockey team has its first two ECAC games this weekend, as it travels to Yale tomorrow and Brown Saturday. Princeton is 2-0 after 7-1 and 11-1 wins over Robert Morris last weekend. 

The men's hockey team has a scrimmage Saturday night at 7 at Hobey Baker Rink against Waterloo. The opener for the men is still two weeks away, with home games against Harvard and Dartmouth Nov. 7 and 8.

The complete Princeton schedule for the weekend is HERE.

"200" And "One"

Today's numbers are "200" and "one."

TigerBlog starts with "200."

This past Friday night in New York City, Sabrina King earned her 200th career win as the head coach of the Princeton women's volleyball team when her team defeated Columbia 3-0. There were smiles, and flowers, for the occasion. 

If you'll permit a small diversion for a great Pete Carril story, TigerBlog was talking with former local sportswriting legend Mark Eckel the other day, and the story of when Carril won his 500th game at Princeton came up. 

Eckel was one of the reporters who covered that game, and he asked Carril the logical question: What are some of the biggest wins you've had?

Carril named one or two games and then said "and you have to include the Georgetown game." He was referring, of course, to the 1989 NCAA tournament first round game against the No. 1 Hoyas. 

When Carril said that, Eckel looked at TB, who had to point out the obvious: "Uh, Coach, you didn't win that one."

It just goes to show you what an epically historic game like that Georgetown game can do to the memory, no? It certainly felt like a win. 

Meanwhile, the 200 wins for King make for a nice round number, but her resume was already one of the greatest you'll see in Princeton Athletics history. 

Consider all of the following: 

* she has coached Princeton to five Ivy titles
* she is a three-time Ivy Coach of the Year
* she spent seven years as an assistant coach to the great Glenn Nelson, with two more Ivy titles
* she was a three-time All-Ivy Player
* she was the 1999 Ivy Player of the Year
* she won three Ivy titles as a player

That's pretty good, no? TB can't really think of too many others who have had that kind of success as a player, assistant coach and head coach, all at Princeton.

King is in her 14th season as the Tiger head coach and has had only one non-winning season in her first 13. This year's team finds itself in second place in the Ivy League at 6-2, behind only unbeaten Yale. 

The Tigers began the Ivy season with a loss to Penn and have won six of seven since, with the other loss to the Bulldogs. The automatic bid to the NCAA tournament goes to the winner of the Ivy tournament at season's end, and Princeton is in good shape to be in the four-team field. 

Princeton, by the way, does not have an Ivy match this weekend. Instead, Marquette will be in Dillon Gym Saturday at 1:30, after playing a Big East match at Seton Hall Friday. Marquette is 11-6 overall, 7-1 in its league. 

And congratulations to Sabrina. It's always good to get to one of those big round numbers. 

Meanwhile, there's the "one."

The men's water polo team finished its fall break trip west with a win over California. The 11-9 win was the first for the Tigers over the Golden Bears in program history — hence the number "one."

Roko Pozaric scored four times against Cal. Every goal he scores from here on in, of course, just adds to the career record he set earlier in the week against Pepperdine.

Freshman Tas Palcza had three goals. Kristóf Kovács tied his season-high with 16 saves. 

Princeton went 3-3 on its California swing. Considering that five of those six games came against teams ranked in the top eight of last week's poll, that's not too bad. 

The three losses came to the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 teams in the country (UCLA, USC, Pacific), and those three losses were by two, three and one goals. That's impressive stuff. 

The new poll comes out today, and it'll be interesting to see the shuffling that occurs after Princeton's results last week. 

Getting a shot at those schools again will require Princeton to get through the league playoffs and into the NCAA tournament. After a well-earned weekend off, Princeton will head into a huge November that begins with home matches against LIU and Iona and ends with the Northeast Water Polo Conference tournament in DeNunzio Pool.

Nutmeg

So this guy's name is Nutmeg — and he knows exactly what he's doing. 

That picture was taken in the Newton Marriott Saturday morning, before TigerBlog went to the Princeton-Harvard field hockey showdown. 

Nutmeg has perfected the art of looking unignorably (not sure if that's a word) cute. As his owner relaxed in a chair, Nutmeg flashed his eyes and smiled at anyone who would come by. 

This led to a series of moments like this: 

That, by the way, is Princeton field hockey goalie Robyn Thompson to the left and forward Grace Schulze. 

Thompson left something in a conference room and went back to get it, and TB was standing there as she walked back to the center of the lobby. He didn't say a word but simply pointed to the dog, and the next thing you know, she melted. 

So did everyone else who walked by. It didn't matter who it was. And Nutmeg, as TB said, knew exactly what he was doing. 

This wasn't limited to Princeton field hockey. Not in the Newton Marriott Saturday morning. There were college athletes everywhere. 

The Head of the Charles brought rowing teams from all over the country, including Southern Cal and Florida State. The Middlebury women's soccer and field hockey teams were there to play at Tufts. The Cornell men's tennis team was there. The same with Yale. 

For Princeton field hockey, it was quite the business trip. The Tigers were headed to Harvard for a showdown for first place in the Ivy League, and quite likely the host role for the upcoming Ivy tournament.

Before the game ever started, TB was able to take another picture that would make anyone smile. Here it is:

That's Lydia Bills on the left. She's a sophomore of the field hockey team, originally from Chester, England. That's her mother Jane on the right. Jane and Julian got to Cambridge after taking a flight across the Atlantic. 

Even though Lydia knew they were coming, it was a great moment. Ah, but even with the pictures of Nutmeg and the mother/daughter reunion, the best photo of the day was still to be taken — and it wouldn't come from TigerBlog's phone.

No, this time it came from photographer Brian Foley. TB will share it shortly.

First, there was the game itself. Harvard was 4-0 in the Ivy League. Princeton was 4-0 in the Ivy League. They are a combined 77-1 against the other six league teams since 2017. 

The winner of this game would need only win one of its remaining two Ivy games to gain no worse than a share of the Ivy title and, as TB referenced, to be the host of the league tournament Nov. 8 and 10. 

This year's tournament is the second for Ivy field hockey. Harvard defeated Princeton 2-1 in the final in 2023, getting the game-winner with 34 seconds to play in regulation. 

This time, Harvard scored first, late in the first quarter, on its first good chance of the game. It seemed like that goal might be enough, especially when Ottilie Sykes' goal in the third quarter was disallowed after it was ruled it had touched a Princeton player first. 

Finally, early in the fourth, Princeton broke through, scoring when Beth Yeager set up Ella Cashman perfectly on a penalty corner. For Yeager, that was career point No. 99.

The game went to OT. The last time these two had played a regular season game on Berylson Field, Harvard won in a shootout to take the league title pre-tournament. Once again, the difference between the win and the loss would be razor thin.

Princeton would be on the right side of the razor. Again it was Cashman, again from Yeager, again on a corner. For Cashman, it was a two-goal day for the first time in her career. For Yeager, who never came off the field for the entire 64 minutes, it was her 100th career point. 

Oh, and Cashman was the one who scored Princeton's goal in the Ivy final last year. 

Next up for Princeton is Maryland Friday and Dartmouth Sunday, both on Bedford Field. A win over Dartmouth would mean that the tournament officially would come to Princeton.

The game Saturday was an intense one, just like every Princeton-Harvard game seems to be. And with that kind of intensity comes great joy, which was captured in the photo that Foley took of Cashman. 

TB told you it was the best one of the day: