Field hockey crushes Brown, Cornell

The field hockey team aced at least one midterm last weekend. Midway through a season full of ups and downs, the Tigers notched key shutout victories against two Ivy League foes. Princeton upended Brown, 6-0, at home on Saturday and turned around to record a 3-0 win over Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., on Sunday.

"There was a great team effort in both games this weekend, as cliché as it sounds," head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn said. "Our defense was wonderful and had great passing while our offense finally came together and had a lot of different scorers."

Princeton (5-8 overall, 4-1 Ivy League) left Brown (4-7, 1-3) in the dust from the moment the game started. The blistering Tiger offense garnered three goals within the first 20 minutes of the game.

Junior attack Maren Ford scored a beautiful unassisted goal from the top of the circle, which was followed shortly by an amazing length-of-the-field score by senior attack Lauren Quinn. On a Tiger penalty corner, senior attack Lizzie Black's shot beat a diving deflection by Brown goalie Kristen Hodavance. Senior defender Kelly Darling made it 4-0 going into the half when she found the net on a pass from the left post by freshman attack Paige Schmidt.

The Tigers' attack continued its assault in the second half. Schmidt scored on a hard drive from the top of the circle eight minutes into the half. Then, in the final minutes of the game, Darling notched her second goal as she touched in Black's drive off a penalty corner to end scoring at 6-0. Princeton outshot Brown, 47-4, in the game and had 15 penalty corners in comparison to one for Brown.

The win against the Bears marked an important breakthrough in scoring for the Princeton squad. In previous games the Tiger offense was successful at generating shots but failed when it came to finding the net. The Tigers certainly weren't plagued by that problem this weekend, most likely because of their strategy of shifting the position of each player further upfield.

"Earlier in the season the defense was not strong enough to play further upfield," Holmes-Winn explained. "Now they are, which allows the midfield and attack to shift up and attack more efficiently." The Tigers took this same approach to Cornell (2-9, 1-4) on Sunday, and once again it paid off. Midway through the first half junior attack Ali Shames-Dawson came off the bench to score her first goal since 2002. The goal was particularly exciting as Shames-Dawson missed the entire season last year with an injury.

In the decisive second half, Quinn scored her second unassisted goal of the weekend on a lift. On a penalty corner opportunity near the end of the game, junior midfielder Hillary Schmidt's push went to her sister, Paige, who fed the ball to senior midfielder Natalie Martirosian for the score, her first of the season. The Tiger offense outshot the Big Red, 21-3, and sophomore goalie Allison Nemeth was not forced to make a save the entire game.

The Tigers have reason to be optimistic as it appears they have learned from their losses and are finally coming together as a team after a frustrating first half of the season.

"We knew our perserverance would pay off and it finally did," Shames-Dawson said. "We are confident now and ready to finish the season strong."

The wins this weekend give Princeton, the defending Ivy champion, an opportunity to hold onto its title and qualify for the NCAA tournament. Harvard (8-4, 4-0), who currently leads the Ivy League standings and comes to Princeton on Saturday, is now the Tigers' main focus.