A new head coach. Seven players lost to graduation. Changes of this magnitude are enough to give any team growing pains.
But out of the gate with a 2-0 receord after a pair of early-season wins, the field hockey team, which recently welcomed a new head coach while bidding adieu to several star players, has shown growth with relatively little pain.
The Tigers opened their season this weekend with a 3-1 win over Virginia, and followed that with a convincing 5-1 win over Drexel.
Despite playing both games at home, in the familiar confines of Class of 1952 Stadium, the team had a noticeably different feel to it than last year's Ivy League winning squad.
Beth Bozman, head coach for 15 seasons, no longer controlled the sidelines. She resigned after last season to take a head coaching job at Duke, replaced in the spring by Kristen Holmes-Winn, a former Iowa sports star, who comes to Princeton from Champions Edge, Inc.
Bozman held a 188-73-6 record at Princeton, and left on a high note, winning her ninth straight Ivy League title last year. In addition to seeing its head coach move on, the field hockey team also graduated seven seniors from last year.
One of the departures that will be missed most is attack Ilvy Friebe '02, the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division I Field Hockey Player of the Year for the past two seasons. Last year, she finished fourth in the nation with 61 points, second in points per game, third with 25 goals, and second in goals per game.
Princeton also lost goalie Kelly Baril and defense Emily Townsend to graduation. Both were named to the All-America team.
Yet in Saturday's season-opener against Virginia, the Tigers showed no early-season rust and little sign of loss.
The statistics showed that Princeton was the dominant team that day. The Tigers earned 15 penalty corners, compared to just four by Virginia. Princeton also outshot its opponent, 16-10.
Despite Princeton controlling play, the Tiger victory was not so easy to come by. Virginia scored the first goal of the game after 21 minutes, forcing the Tigers to play catchup. Junior attack Lizzie Black netted the first Tiger goal of the season with two minutes, 32 seconds left in the first half. Black's goal was the result of a Princeton penalty corner, and was assisted by senior midfield Cory Picketts.
Senior midfield Claire Miller and sophomore attack Lauren Ehrlichman netted goals in the first five minutes of the second half, putting the Tigers up for good.
The game against Virginia highlighted the debut of freshman goalie Allison Nemeth. Nemeth posted five saves, and allowed one goal in her Princeton debut. Nemeth and goalie Juliana Simon are the only freshman additions to this year's team.
Simon got the start on Sunday's game against Drexel, where the Tigers again showed dominance on the playing field.
Princeton only allowed the Dragons to scrape off five shots the whole game, while firing 16 shots of its own.
The Tigers also had an 8-5 advantage over the Dragons in penalty corners earned.
Unlike Saturday's game against Virginia, Princeton wasted no time getting going against Drexel, scoring three times in the game's first 17 minutes.
Miller, junior attack Ashley Sennett, and junior midfield Shahrzad Joharifard punched in the early goals for the Tigers.
Ehrlichman and junior attack Lauren Quinn also added goals to the Tiger cause, leading them to a 5-1 victory over Drexel.
For her efforts in the weekend wins, Miller was honored as the Ivy League Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 7, officially the first week of the season.
Nemeth, who made five saves in the win against Virginia, earned the league's Rookie of the Week award.
Hosting Yale this Saturday, Princeton will show how it match es up against Ivy League competition. The Tigers then face Penn St., ranked fourth in the nation, on Sunday. After just two games, they've already proven that a little change isn't all that bad a thing.
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