Women's hockey will be seeing red this weekend as the Orange and Black take a tour of New York to face the Big Red of Cornell (2-14-1 overall, 0-7-1 Eastern College Athletic Conference) Friday and the Red Raiders of Colgate (10-14-0 overall, 2-6-0 ECAC) Saturday, and they hope to see two wins along the way.
Princeton (12-6-2 overall, 5-3-0 ECAC) had little trouble with either squad when the upstate foes visited Baker Rink in November. The Tigers toppled the Red Raiders 4-1 and trounced the Big Red 6-0.
The Tigers expect no less this time around. "I think, talent-wise, we're better," head coach Jeff Kampersal '92 said. "Cornell is much improved, much more organized from the last time we played them. They're hardworking, pesky teams and we need to pay attention."
Princeton is the highest-scoring of the three teams this season, recording 136 total points, as opposed to 123 for Colgate and just 42 for Cornell.
Senior forward Andrea Kilbourne, recently named to the 2003 U.S. National Team, leads the Tigers in scoring with 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists). Junior forward Gretchen Anderson, who missed time earlier in the season with a wrist injury, is right on Kilbourne's heels with 16 points on a team-high 10 goals and six assists.
The Red Raiders are headlined by a wealth of young talent. The team's top seven scorers — and 10 of their top 11 — are all underclassmen. Forward Allison Paiano (nine goals, six assists) and forward Cheryl Setchell (eight, seven) are tied for the team lead with 15 points each. Paiano's nine goals are a team-high, and forward Carly McNaughton and forward Kristin Cirbus are tied with a team-high 10 assists.
Scoring is hard to find in Ithaca, for the Big Red have managed as a team what Princeton and Colgate have bested with their top three scorers. Forward Jen Munhofen leads the team with eight points and is tied for a team-high three goals with forward Caitlin Warren. Munhofen and senior defenseman Brooke Bestwick share the team lead with five assists each.
Goaltending favors the Tigers as well. Junior Megan Van Beusekom leads the team with 13 games and just under 746 minutes played. She is 7-5-1 with a .920 save percentage, a 2.41 goals against average and three shutouts. Senior Sarah Ahlquist and freshman Roxanne Gaudiel may also see time in net this weekend. Each have appeared in five games; Ahlquist leads the trio with a .931 save percentage and Gaudiel leads with a 1.36 GAA.
Rebecca Lahar has played 21 games in net for Colgate and has racked up a .901 save percentage and a .368 GAA on the way to a 7-14-0 record.
Cornell boasts the latest ECAC Goalie of the Week. Sanya Sandahl earned the award after a solid performance against Maine this weekend. Sandahl has appeared in nine games and has an .864 save percentage and a 4.58 GAA with just a 1-8-0 record. Liz Connelly has also played in nine games for the Big Red, topping Sandahl with a .896 save percentage and a 3.68 GAA.
Princeton, ranked eighth in the country in the latest USCHO.com poll, is trying to rebound after a loss to fourth-ranked Dartmouth in Hanover last Saturday. The Tigers are just 6-4-0 in their last ten games but have not lost to Cornell since Feb. 20, 2000 and have never lost to Colgate in six meetings.
The top of the ECAC standings is loaded with quality teams. Four teams have more conference points than Princeton's 10 — sixth-ranked St. Lawrence (17), fourth-ranked Dartmouth (16), top-ranked Harvard (14), and unranked Brown (11).
Fortunately for the Tigers, all signs point to two more conference wins this weekend, though the team is not taking the upcoming games lightly.
"These are trap games; we need to be careful," Kampersal said. "We've been doing some competitive drills all week."
Princeton is hoping it will see red not just in its opponents' jerseys, but in the goal lamps as well.
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