Last night against Delaware, the field hockey team broke out of a recent scoring slump, proving its ability to capitalize on scoring opportunities.
Led by senior captain attack Ilvy Friebe, the offense surged in the second half, scoring four goals to lift the Tigers to a 5-1 win over the Blue Hens at the Class of 1952 stadium.
The Tigers came out strong in the first half, controlling the ball and keeping the action on the Blue Hen's side of the field. Delaware, however, was able to score first on one of its few offensive drives.
At five minutes and 33 seconds into the game, Delaware earned a penalty corner, due to an accidental kick by a Princeton defender. After the ball was put in play, the Delaware shooter placed it to the right side of the goal, over senior keeper Kelly Baril to take the 1-0 lead.
The Tigers continued outplaying the Blue Hens, but weren't able to score, despite two penalty corner opportunities and several shots from within the striking circle.
With 20 minutes left in the half, the Blue Hens threatened to score again as they created a fast break opportunity. Baril stepped forward to make the stop, but the Blue Hens earned a penalty stroke during the wild scramble that followed.
Baril made a huge glove save on the free stroke, preventing the Blue Hens from taking a two-goal lead.
"I just try to read it and go," Baril said.
One minute later, the Tigers went back to work on offense. Friebe centered the ball from the left side to junior midfielder Claire Miller, who tapped it in to tie the game at 1-1.
The Tigers threatened to score again with 12:05 remaining in the half. Sophomore defense Kelly Darling came close to scoring with a shot past the Delaware goalie, but a Delaware defender deflected the air bound shot a couple inches in front of the goal.
Despite dominant play by the Tigers during the first half, Princeton was only able to score once, and found itself in a 1-1 tie at intermission.
Last weekend, the Tigers outplayed fourth-ranked Old Dominion, but didn't finish their chances, only scoring one goal in the contest.
With a four goal onslaught in the second half, the Tigers breathed a sigh of relief as they showed their ability to finish.
Junior midfielder Cory Picketts scored first in the second half with a left side shot past the diving Delaware goalie.
With 12:50 left to play in the game, a shot centered by Friebe led to another Tiger penalty corner. Senior defender Emily Townsend took the shot off the inbound, lifting the ball above the Delaware goalie into the back of the net.
Friebe took care of the fourth and fifth goals for the Tigers. Miller assisted Friebe's fourth goal, while her fifth came when she took the ball from outside the shot circle, dribbled past three Delaware defenders and finished it into the right side of the net.
"We've been working on [finishing] during practice," head coach Beth Bozman said. "We knew we had to change our system. We were finally able to turn some of these shots into goals."
In addition to scoring on key opportunities, the Tiger defense shined as they held their opponents to only one goal.
"We communicated really well as a team and covered one another". Baril said. "Everyone did their job well, and this translated to good defense."
Baril made six saves on the night, while the defense held Delaware to just 16 shots.
Princeton next steps onto the field this Saturday at Connecticut and then Boston University in the same place on Sunday.
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