Matson's hat trick leads field hockey to 5-0 win over Dartmouth

For the first 33 minutes, 47 seconds of field hockey's game against Dartmouth, Princeton and the Big Green were locked in a scoreless tie. Both teams came into Saturday's contest at 1952 Stadium undefeated, although the Tigers were heavily favored. For a while, it looked like Dartmouth could perhaps sneak a few goals by Princeton and steal a crucial game from the Tigers.

Actually, the opposite happened.

No. 11 Princeton (5-0 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) scored twice in the last 1:18 of the first half to break a tight game open. From there, the Tigers never looked back, going on to a 5-0 rout of the Big Green (4-1, 1-1).

"We knew that Dartmouth had a good goalkeeper, so we knew our main obstacle was to be getting it past her," head coach Beth Bozman said. "Sometimes you just need to break the seal."

Off an assist by senior attack Melanie Meerschwam, freshman attack Claire Miller punched in the first goal — her fourth of the season — that briefly gave her the team lead in scoring. Though it didn't show up in the statistics, much of the credit for the first score should go to senior attack Hilary Matson, whose charge toward Dartmouth goaltender Brittany D'Augustine drew a crowd and set up the opportunity for Meerschwam to find Miller for the score.

But Matson's efforts did not go unnoticed for long. The senior went on to record a second-half hat trick and an assist on the afternoon.

"It's always nice when Hilary gets rewarded," Bozman said. "And a lot of times, you only get credit when you score, but she sets so much up."

Coast to coast

Princeton's second score of the game came from junior defender Aviva Meerschwam. The Tigers set up for a penalty corner, and Meerschwam, who was in a defensive position, ran downfield to get into the circle of attackers, switching with sophomore defender Emily Townsend. Matson passed the ball in to senior midfielder Kellie Maul, who set up Meerschwam in a position to do damage. The defender flipped the ball high in the air, above the shocked heads of the Big Green defenders and an apparently confused D'Augustine, into the back of the cage.

Until its outburst late in the first half, Princeton had a number of good scoring opportunities, but failed to capitalize, due to a combination of bad bounces and superb goaltending by D'Augustine. Melanie Meer-schwam had a shot that hit the post in the early going, and a few minutes later, D'Augustine sprawled to stop another shot by the senior. Matson tried to convert on the rebound, but the Dartmouth goaltender managed to poke the ball away.

But when Matson got going, she took over the game. With nine minutes left, the senior set herself in an attacking position near the Dartmouth goal, received a pass from Melanie Meerschwam, and then blasted a rocket by D'Augustine. Both attacks hooked up again 1:32 later, as Matson tallied her second score of the afternoon.

Just over 30 seconds later, Matson struck for the third and final time in the contest. Using some fabulous stickwork to get into scoring position, the attack found herself alone in front of the net and blasted a shot past D'Augustine for the unassisted goal.

Princeton outshot Dartmouth 22-5 and also had 16 penalty corners to the Big Green's five. D'Augustine kept the game closer than it should have been, doing all she could to give Dartmouth a chance to counterattack against the Tigers.

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Princeton's win over the previously undefeated Big Green leaves only the Tigers and Harvard — a 1-0 victor over Brown in Providence, R.I. — undefeated in conference play. Princeton also regains any confidence that it may have lost after a poor effort against Columbia on Wednesday. This is especially crucial as the Tigers prepare to take on defending national champion and top-ranked Maryland at 1952 Stadium Friday night.

If Princeton plays its best — as it did against Dartmouth — it should be ready to perform well against a host of national contenders in the next few weeks.