Head coach Beth Bozman and her field hockey team needed to win at least a share of the Ivy League title to qualify for the NCAA tournament. The Tigers have done that, and now they do not want to share the glory with anyone else.
Princeton's final regular season match-up comes tonight at 7 p.m. against Penn at Class of 1952 Stadium, and a Tiger win on senior night will give them an undefeated Ivy season and the outright league title, one game better than rival Harvard.
"We won't be satisfied with just having a share of the title," junior midfielder Claire Miller said. "We're going to play Penn as if we hadn't already clinched the league."
Princeton (10-6 overall, 6-0 Ivy League), as its record shows, has had a tough time with the non-conference schedule but has eaten the Ivy League for lunch. The Tigers have outscored their six conference opponents 40-6 this season, giving up more than one goal only once — in a 5-2 win over Cornell.
Senior attack Ilvy Friebe leads the Ivy League with 22 goals and leads the team with nine assists. Sophomore attack Natalie Martirosian is second in scoring for the Tigers, tallying 11 goals and four assists. Solid goalscoring has also come from senior attack Rachael Becker (7), Miller (6), and sophomore attack Ashley Sennett (6).
Senior goalkeeper Kelly Baril has played nearly all the minutes for Princeton this season. Thanks to a strong defense, she has only faced 98 shots on goal, stopping 69 of them for a 1.87 goals against average overall and a 1.06 mark in the Ivy League.
Penn (6-10, 2-4) does not seem like the top candidate to ruin Princeton's goal. The Quakers come into to tonight's contest riding the momentum of a 1-0 win over Brown but will likely need more than one goal to slam the breaks on the Tiger train.
Generating offense will not be easy. Penn has scored more than three goals only four times this year, averaging only 2.3 per game, and has won just one of six games away from home.
Despite the stats, the Tigers are not looking past the Quakers.
"We never take an Ivy League game lightly," sophomore defender Jennifer Elliott said. "This is preparation for the [NCAA] Tournament."
"Every time we step on the field," we're thinking about the NCAA Tournament and how we can best prepare for that," Miller added. "Penn is no exception."
Forward Liz Lorelli leads the Quakers with 10 goals and is tied for second on the team with four assists. Forward/midfielder Jackie Lange and forward Cecelia Carriquiry have seven goals each, and midfielder Kylee Jakobowski is second on the team in total scoring with six goals and seven assists. Beyond the big four, only one Penn player has scored multiple goals and only two have racked up multiple assists.
The Quakers carry only one goalkeeper on the roster — freshman Amanda Jacobs. She has played every minute of all 16 Penn games this season and has an impressive 1.96 GAA.
"We're expecting Penn to be better than in the past few years," Friebe said. "However, if we play the way we have been, things should go our way."
The NCAA Tournament starts next weekend, and regardless of the outcome of tonight's game, Princeton will have to boost its game for the non-Ivy competition next Saturday. In their non-conference games, the Tigers are being outscored 16-7. Against Ivy foes, Princeton never scored less than four goals in a game and never gave up more than two. Against all others, the Tigers never scored more than two and never gave up less than two.
"We are trying to take it to the next level," Becker said. "All the teams in the tournament will be good, so we need to bring something extra."
The location and opponent for the Tigers' first-round game will not be announced until Sunday, but Elliott said it will probably be in Maryland. Wherever it may be, the Tigers will be ready.
"Penn is doing well," Becker said, "but we're more focused on ourselves. We're working on the little things that come up everyday. Everything is preparation for the tournament."
After the showdown with Penn tonight, Princeton turns its attention to another glory it does not want to share — the national title.
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