Princeton University Athletics
Wednesday TigerBlog - Off To California
December 03, 2025 | Tiger Blog
Today begins with a thank you to everyone who was so generous during yesterday's Game Day.
The final numbers for TAGD 12 aren't quite official yet. Still, it's clear from the preliminary information that once again, Princeton's friends, alums and supporters once again proved themselves to be generous, loyal — and more than anything — committed to helping provide the best possible experience for all Tiger athletes.
So yes. Again, thank you very much for all you've done.
Meanwhile, between Thanksgiving and TAGD, there have been a few Princeton stories that have fallen through a bit. For today, TigerBlog is speaking specifically about the two teams who are headed to the NCAA tournament this week.
Both, by the way, are headed to California.
The women's volleyball team is headed to the southern part of the state, where it will take on Southern Cal Friday at 10 Eastern time in the tournament opening round. The winner will then play the winner of the match between BYU and Cal-Poly in the second round.
Princeton won the Ivy League championship and then the Ivy League tournament championship as well. This is from the story on goprincetontigers.com:
Lucia Scalamandre was honored the Ivy Tournament Most Outstanding Player after averaging 3.75 kills-per-set on a .481 hitting percentage in addition to 0.88 blocks. Scalamandre delivered a dominant performance in the Ivy Tournament final, recording a career and match-high 20 kills on a .515 hitting percentage and a match-high five blocks. She was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Valerie Nutakor, who averaged 4.00 kills and 2.75 digs, and Erin McNair, who also had averages of 4.00 kills and 2.75 digs.
You can watch the matches on ESPN+. You can read more HERE.
The 64-team bracket is divided into four sections with eight seeds in each. Those 32 teams are hosting the first and second rounds.
USC is the fourth seed in this side of the bracket. The Women of Troy are 25-6 overall and 15-5 in the Pac 12 Big Ten.
There are 18 players on the USC roster. How many of them are from California? TB would have guessed 16.
The answer is a surprising 11, though TB isn't quite sure what makes that surprising.
Meanwhile, about six hours or so up the Pacific coast and three hours earlier, the men's water polo team takes on No. 2 overall seed UCLA at Stanford in the NCAA quarterfinals. The game begins at 7 Eastern time Friday.
Unlike the women's volleyball tournament, there are only eight teams in the field for men's water polo, and the entire tournament will be played over three days, all at Stanford.
It'll be a big day for all Princeton water polo fans, and that's a list that includes Joanna Dwyer, whose loyalties would really have been divided had Princeton been matched against USC, the top seed.
Yeah, that's Joanna in the pool on the far right after the Tigers won the NWPC championship at Brown. That's five straight for Princeton, by the way, in case you're wondering why they're holding up five fingers.
Joanna has left Princeton and is now starting her new job at USC, working with water polo and swimming and diving and a little women's basketball.
The team she's joining is the top seed and plays the first game of the four games Friday, when the Trojans take on Concordia-Irvine. Game 2 will be fourth-seeded Fordham against San Jose State, and those winners play Saturday in the semifinal.
The bottom of the bracket has Princeton-UCLA and then Friday's nightcap, with the host Cardinal against UC-Davis.
This is from the Princeton preview:
Princeton has four 50-goal scorers this season in Taylor Bell (58), Logan McCarroll (56), Adam Peocz (55) and Enrique Nuno (54), with Finn LeSieur (49) just one away from joining that group. The only other time Princeton had five 50-goal scorers in a season was 2017, with four, and Princeton has never had five 50-goal scorers in a season.
You can read more HERE.
It'll be a big Friday — and hopefully beyond — in California for the Tigers. And you can watch both teams back-to-back.
And once again, on behalf of everyone in the Department of Athletics, TigerBlog thanks you again for your TAGD generosity.
You've invested in the right young people.
