Win over Penn would give field hockey Ivy League title

Friday night is about as important for the field hockey team as Tuesday night was for George W. Bush and John Kerry.

With everything on the line, Princeton (7-9 overall, 5-1 Ivy League) will host Penn (12-4, 5-1) in its crucial season finale. If the Tigers beat the Quakers, they will hold the tiebreaker over Harvard and thus will win the outright Ivy League championship and the automatic NCAA tournament bid that goes with it.

"It is a big game emotionally for us, and it will be important not to play into that," head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn said. "We will need to stay poised, control our emotions and just focus on executing our kind of hockey."

This decisive match could not come at a better time for Princeton. After falling to the back of the league race early in the season, the team has finally peaked and is coming off of two impressive victories over Fall Break. Princeton has gained momentum with a thrilling come-from-behind win over No. 18 Harvard and a win over No. 13 William & Mary in double overtime.

An 8-2 loss to No. 7 Old Dominion over break leaves question marks about the team's late-season peak. However, Holmes-Winn is not concerned after viewing the film. The two teams were evenly matched and the stats were very similar, but Old Dominion just executed better. Furthermore, sister standouts junior midfielder Hillary Schmidt and freshman attack Paige Schmidt did not see action in the game. They are set to play on Friday.

The loss to Old Dominion, however, has served as a learning tool for Princeton. The Tigers' corner defense was a bit out of position, which allowed the Monarchs to score several easy goals which ultimately cost the Tigers the game. Princeton has worked on that in practice and expects the problem to be fixed for the Penn match.

Fortunately, Princeton has a good idea of what to expect from the strong Penn squad. The two teams scrimmaged prior to the start of the regular season this year and are well aware of each other's tendencies. The Quakers have a traditional style of play and also boast a solid goalkeeper and a stingy defense. To win, the Tigers must generate a lot of shots against the effective Quaker defense.

Generating shots has not been a problem for Princeton since the team shifted all of its positions further upfield a few weeks ago. The Tigers plan to continue playing upfield against the Quakers so they can create the many quality shot opportunities they will need to topple Penn.

The confidence level of the team is high as they head into Friday night's decisive contest. Despite a season full of ups and downs Princeton now seems to be on a longer upswing and has gutted out gritty wins against quality ranked teams, including Boston University, Harvard and William & Mary.

The Quakers also have plenty to be confident about. Penn handily defeated Brown, 2-0, last weekend, picking up its seventh consecutive win and sixth consecutive shutout. They also boast the past two Ivy League Rookies of the Week in Kelsey Nickles and Melissa Black.

With so much decided by this one match, the intensity in the Class of 1952 Stadium on Friday night should be nothing short of extreme. And ultimately the team that can forget the hype, implement their style of play and get the job done will perservere.

"This game means everything to us," junior attack Lauren Ehrlichman said. "We have been given a second chance to win the Ivy League and earn a bid to the NCAA tournament, and we will fight for that with everything we have."