After two mediocre wins last weekend, head coach Beth Bozman wondered if her team could put together two good halves of field hockey. This weekend, No. 7 Princeton not only put together four good halves of field hockey, it did so against two of the nation's best teams.
The Tigers (10-3 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) shut out No. 18 Harvard, 2-0, Saturday, and defeated No. 5 Penn State, 3-1, Sunday, both at 1952 Stadium. Beating Harvard (10-4, 4-1) was the first priority for Princeton, as the Crimson were previously undefeated in the conference. With the victory, the Tigers now have a clear mission — beat Cornell Oct. 31 — to a seventh-straight Ivy title.
But Princeton's best game of the weekend — and for that matter, the season — came against the Nittany Lions (13-4, 4-1 Big Ten). The Tigers came out flying, and did not let up.
"The whole team just played great together," sophomore midfielder Ilvy Friebe said. "We were all really psyched, because they are ranked above us and we knew we could beat them."
Creativity
Friebe and senior attack Melanie Meerschwam hustled around the field Sunday and created a number of opportunities to score early. It was Friebe who was finally able to convert.
Meerschwam passed a ball deep downfield that a Penn St. defender got a stick on, but still rolled past her to Friebe. The sophomore drove to the right of Nittany Lion goalkeeper Annie Zinkavich, drawing her out of the goal. Then Friebe flipped the ball into the air, and it floated just below the post into the back of the cage, 20 minutes into the first half.
Meerschwam was all over the field for the remainder of the first half and much of the second frame. Along with Friebe and senior attacks Hilary Matson and Kellie Maul, Meerschwam also intercepted Penn St. passes all day and seldom allowed the Nittany Lions to set up scoring chances.
Asked about Friebe's much improved play, Bozman joked, "Her parents are here."
When she was asked the same question, Friebe said herself, "My parents are here."
"[Friebe] is getting better every game," Bozman said. "It took her last year to get used to some things, but she's such a talented player that some people expected that she was going to play at that level all the time."
The rest of the team played at a high level as well. Five minutes into the second half, Meerschwam took a pass from Maul and drew a penalty corner, which the Tigers perfectly executed. Matson passed into freshman defender Cory Picketts, who set up a shot for Friebe. The sophomore blasted it past Zinkavich, giving Princeton a two-goal advantage.
The Tigers scored their third and final goal four minutes later off a shot by Picketts on another penalty corner. After the goal, Princeton continued to keep the ball in the Penn St. end, seeming to steal it at will. The Nittany Lions added a late goal, but it was too little too late.
Tough fight
The Tigers did not have nearly as dominating a performance Saturday against Harvard as they did against Penn St. on Sunday. The Crimson matched Princeton's intensity and hustle all day, but the Tigers were able to sneak two goals past goalkeeper Katie Zacarian and capture the victory.
The first score came on a penalty corner with 11:39 left in the half, as sophomore defender Emily Townsend blasted a shot off of Zacarian, but Matson — in one of her first touches of the day — picked up the ball and flipped it into the net.
Friebe then added an insurance goal on heart alone. Falling to the ground, the sophomore got a shot off that beat Zacarian in the right corner of the cage with 7:30 left in the game.
After two big wins this weekend, the Tigers have now won five games in a row, and Princeton appears to be in top form heading into the home stretch of its season.
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