W. hockey prepares for early-season Ivy games against Harvard, Brown

When you get knocked down, you need to just get back up, dust yourself off and hit back.

After a tough 3-1 loss at Yale last Saturday, the women's hockey team rebounded to defeat the Elis the very next day, 2-0, at Baker Rink. Now Princeton (3-3-1 overall, 2-3-1 East-ern College Athletic Conference) hopes to carry the lesson it learned from the loss and the mo-mentum it gained from the win into this weekend.

Normally the Tigers host an annual Thanksgiving tournament, but a mistake in ECAC scheduling gave them two tough road games instead. Saturday Princeton will find itself in Cambridge, Mass., to take on No. 5 Harvard (3-3, 3-1). Then the Tigers travel to Providence, R.I., to face No. 2 Brown (3-1, 2-1).

The Crimson and Bears, perennial powerhouses, pose a number of challenges for Princeton. However, according to head coach Jeff Kampersal '92, the two teams have a similar style of play — aggressiveness on the forecheck — that makes it somewhat easier to prepare for them.

"We'll work on executing our breakouts crisper, penalty kills, power plays," Kampersal said.

The Tigers' toughest tasks against Harvard will be shutting down forwards Jennifer Botterill and Tammy Shew-chuk. Shewchuk was the leading scorer in the ECAC last year — Kampersal refers to her as a "pure goal scorer" — while Botterill was the ECAC Player of the Year last season as a sophomore.

Currently Princeton's strategy for Botterill is to try to "suffocate her," according to Kampersal.

"[We'll] play close on her in the defensive zone. We're not going to shadow her, but we're going to be aware of where she is on the ice all the time."

Iron Woman

Kampersal plans on rotating two or three players — including junior center Andrea Kilbourne — to keep an eye on Botterill, depending on who his personnel is on the ice. Botterill makes this difficult because Kampersal estimates that she plays about 45 minutes a game, making her a veritable workhorse. The Tigers hope that shutting down Botterill will make Shewchuk less effective.

Princeton also has an ace up its sleeve. One of its assistant coaches, Crystal Springer, graduated from Harvard in June and is its former starting goalkeeper.

Alison Kuusisto now fills that role for the Crimson, and the Tigers hope to pick Springer's brain for any possible tips.

A win at Harvard would give Princeton tremendous momentum going into Brown.

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"They always have three to four solid lines. They don't have any superstar power [this year]," Kampersal said. "And we'll have to be careful with [forward Krissy McManus]."

Just a freshman, McManus is quick and tough to defend. However, after trailing Botterill and Shewchuk the day before, the Tigers should have plenty of practice.

Princeton has been working on its patience around the net and the accompanying frustration that flares up when shots do not get through. The Tigers have been consistently outshooting their opponents; it is just a matter of picking the right shots and passing off the puck to open players.

That loss at Yale showed Princeton that it cannot take anyone for granted. This weekend, however, it hopes that its opponents come out slowly so that it can play spoiler.

Ultimately, the Tigers will have to play their game — they have shown flashes of brilliance at different points this season, but have not been able to sustain them. The loss to Yale proved that flashes will not be enough.

"Our attitudes [on the ice] have changed. There's more intensity and more pressure now," sophomore forward Nikola Holmes said. "If we can play how we know how, we have a really good chance of beating both teams [this weekend]."

Holmes hopes the Tigers channel their frustrations from last weekend into something positive — delivering two knockout punches this weekend.

"I don't think we've entirely moved beyond Yale — it was a major blow. I'm going to let it out on Harvard and Brown. We definitely have not forgotten that loss," she said.