The No. 8 women's hockey team hosts a pair of games this weekend, as they face Cornell on Friday and Colgate on Saturday.
Princeton is coming off a spectacular weekend of hockey, in which they defeated Union twice by a combined score of 15-1, raising their record to 14-6-0, with an Easterm College Athletic Conference record of 7-4-0.
Cornell (4-15-1 overall, 1-11-0 ECAC) and Colgate (15-10-2, 6-6-0) both promise to pose stiff challenges for the Tigers. Both teams have made steady improvement this year, despite each having lost their past two games.
Princeton has won seven of its last eight games and, despite a few disappointing losses earlier in the season, has been having an excellent season so far.
'Make Patty Proud'
Senior forward Gretchen Anderson had her third hat trick of the season in the first game this past weekend and on Monday was one of 10 players in the nation nominated for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, given annually to the most outstanding player in women's collegiate hockey.
"Gretchen is certainly deserving of this award," head coach Jeff Kampersal '92 said. "She has a gift, and she's been there for us in every game, every practice when we need her."
The award is named in memory of Patty Kazmaier '85, who led Princeton to three consecutive Ivy League titles in the early 1980s before tragically dying in 1990 at the age of 28 from a rare blood disease.
A sign bearing the mantra "Make Patty Proud" hangs from the east balcony of Baker Rink in her honor.
"It's quite an honor to be nominated," says Anderson, "But there are a lot of deserving candidates, and it's definitely a team game, not an individual thing."
Anderson added that one of the keys to the Tigers' success this year has been the ability of the team to get along well both on and off the ice.
Clawing for position
At this point, Princeton is trying to get back in the top four in the ECAC rankings — they're currently fifth by just two points — to ensure home ice advantage for the postseason, which is only a month away.
Colgate is sixth in the conference, and hopes to give themselves a shot at home ice by knocking off Princeton this weekend.
Past success
When the Tigers last played these two teams, they came out on top against both. When facing Cornell and Colgate in early January, they defeated the Big Red 4-2 and the Raiders 2-1, with both wins coming away from home.
Given all this, the team's confidence is high going into this weekend, but they know that anything can happen.
"Both [Cornell and Colgate] play hard for 60 minutes in every game," says Kampersal, "and from here on in, every game has to be important to us."
The Tigers have had a well-rounded team all season, but have continued to struggle with consistency issues. Maintaining a constant, high level of intensity for the entire game is Kampersal's main goal as the postseason approaches.
This is even more important now, as the tendency for a team coming off of their highest scoring game in eight years may be to relax. It has been clear that the deciding factor in every big game so far this season has been their ability to play consistent hockey for 60 minutes.
Work at hand
For the moment, the team just needs to concentrate on getting a pair of victories this weekend. With ECAC-leader Dartmouth facing second place St. Lawrence, and third place Brown facing fourth place Harvard, now is the time for Princeton to rise to the challenge and put themselves in the postseason position they want as the top teams beat up on each other this weekend.
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