Princeton University Athletics
Tuesday TigerBlog - The No. 3 Seed
November 18, 2025 | Tiger Blog
Duh.
TigerBlog wrote yesterday that Sam Vigilante of the men's soccer team was a first-team All-Ivy League selection while his father Jason is the head coach of the Princeton men's cross country and track and field program and asked the question if Princeton had ever had a similar situation before.
TB said that it was either something really obvious or something unprecedented and left it out that.
He'd like to thank all the people who pointed out that it was, in fact, obvious. Uh, does the name "Tierney" ring a bell?
Yes, Bill Tierney was the head men's lacrosse coach at Princeton and his son Trevor was a first-team All-Ivy League goalie. Together, along with Bill's other son Brendan, they won the 2001 NCAA championship, the sixth in program history.
How in the world could TB have forgotten anything Tierney? TB could say he did it on purpose to see if anyone notice (though that wouldn't be true). He could blame it on the long, busy weekend with a lot of winning. That's better.
Of all the times Princeton has reached the NCAA tournament in lacrosse, both men's and women's, there have only been three times that the teams have been the No. 1 overall seed. For the men, it was 1996 and 1997, both of which ended in a national championship.
For the women, it was 2004, which ended in an NCAA title game loss, ending Princeton's two-year run as national champ.
The 2012 NCAA champion Princeton field hockey team was the No. 2 seed. The 1998 and 2001 men's lacrosse championship teams were also No. 2 seeds. The 1992 and 1994 NCAA champs were both No. 3 seeds.
The 1994 NCAA women's lacrosse champion Tigers did so as the No. 2 seed, as did the 2002 champs. The 2003 champs were unseeded.
Armed with all of this history, TigerBlog watched yesterday's NCAA men's soccer selections, hoping to see Princeton come up as the No. 1 overall seed. Princeton, after all, has only lost once all season, and that was to Hofstra back on Sept. 10.
The Tigers have spent much of the year as the No. 1 team in the RPI, and in fact that's where they are today still. So would they be No. 1?
Nope. That chance went away quickly, as Vermont — the defending NCAA champion — saw its name come up on the No. 1 line as the first time announced. Instead, Princeton flashed under No. 3, drawing the winner of Thursday's opening round game between Duke and FDU, which will be played in Durham.
The winner of that game will be in Princeton Sunday, with kickoff at 4.
So here's looking on the bright side:
* of the 10 NCAA titles in lacrosse and field hockey, seven came when the Princeton team was not the No. 1 seed
* the top four seeds will play at home all the way through the national semifinals as long as they keep winning
* being the No. 3 seed in men's soccer is itself an unbelievable accomplishment and a statement on just what kind of season Princeton has had
* there's always an additional pressure with being the No. 1 seed
Princeton Soccer has made two runs to the Final Four all-time, first by the men in 1993 and then by the women in 2004. In both cases, the teams played all of their NCAA tournament games prior to the semifinals at home, on its old Lourie-Love Field.
Where does this leave Princeton men's soccer 2025?
As TB said, the first game for this team will be Sunday. At this time of year, it has to be said that every game could also be the last of the year.
Sure, you could look ahead in the bracket and see what potential matchups there are ahead. Or you could look back to a year ago, when an unseeded team won it all in a Final Four that also had the No. 1 seed, No. 3 seed and No. 13 seed. And you could notice that the No. 4 seed lost in the opening round.
Princeton has had itself a season for the ages to put itself in a position to play on its home field Sunday, and possibly beyond.
Those last three words? Don't mention them to anyone associated with this team though. There are 48 teams in the field. There will be 32 come Sunday.
All of them are thinking big right now. Nobody is going to be looking ahead of anyone.
As TB said back in today's first word, "duh."
