Flurry of goals in two wins

When sophomore defender Holly McGarvie's shot found the back of the net with just over 15 minutes left to play on Saturday at Cornell, the women's field hockey team finally broke the 0-0 stalemate that it had battled throughout the game. What it did not yet know was that McGarvie's goal would start a torrent of offensive production.

In the remaining minutes against the Big Red (4-3 overall, 2-2 Ivy League), the Tigers (6-3, 4-0) added an additional five goals to coast to a 6-0 victory and stay undefeated in the Ivy League.

Scoring her first goal of the season did not satisfy McGarvie. Her nine-point performance on Saturday included four goals and one assist, tying the record set in 1996 by Amy MacFarlane.

Her tie-breaking first goal came off a rebound 54:48 into the game. She assisted sophomore attack Katie Kinzer on the next goal two minutes later.

The Tigers did not let up their attack. In the last 10 minutes, they scored four more goals. Sophomore midfielder Sarah Reinprecht netted her first collegiate goal to make the score 3-0 on an assist by junior defender Micaela Vie Brock.

McGarvie then closed out the game by scoring three unassisted goals to make the final score 6-0 against Cornell, which could not answer the Tigers' onslaught.

Though it took 55 minutes for the Tigers to get going, they managed to step up and capitalize on their momentum to secure another Ivy League victory and push the team to 4-0 against the Ancient Eight.

"There was a change in our mentality with 15 minutes to go," junior midfielder Paige Schmidt said. "We started really playing with confidence and that definitely showed."

Yet sophomore midfielder Kraftin Schreyer knew it was just a matter of time before Princeton broke free, noting strong play in the first half as well as at the end.

"We dominated the first half, too," she said. "We weren't worried at halftime, but we just couldn't find the back of the net. We knew we were okay though."

Princeton beats Monmouth

But how would the Tigers bounce back on Sunday after their impressive second half on Saturday? When they came out against Monmouth on their home field, the Tigers wanted to play their best the whole game. While Monmouth's 2-8 record might not look intimidating, the Tigers weren't going to rest on their laurels.

"Coming into the game today, we didn't want to underestimate an opponent," Schmidt said. "We knew it was going to be a good game."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

But Princeton didn't want to wait until the second half to strike.

"We wanted to come out from the first whistle and play hard after yesterday so that we would have the momentum and play a great game," Schmidt said.

That is just what they did. Though scoring might have posed a problem earlier in the season, the Tigers came out ready to dominate offensively in a repeat of Saturday's second-half performance.

Less than five minutes into the game, Kinzer struck with her team-leading sixth goal of the season. She scored on a ball deflected into the center after a free hit by junior midfielder Nicole Ng.

Only two minutes later, Reinprecht capitalized on a penalty shot to make the score 2-0, sliding the shot past the Monmouth goalkeeper into the lower-right-hand corner of the goal.

With 12:40 left in the first half, junior attack Sarah Yuki scored her first of three goals of the day by finishing the rebound of Ng's second consecutive shot.

Monmouth struck back 44 seconds later when freshman forward Kelly Crist followed up her attack to beat a sliding senior goalkeeper Juliana Simon.

But Princeton would not let Monmouth gain any momentum. It recaptured its three goal lead when McGarvie, who was just getting back in the action, attacked from the top of the offensive circle, split the defense and sent a slap shot into the back of the net.

McGarvie then executed a successful give-and-go with sophomore attack Leah Hoagland, who scored the fifth goal, before Yuki scored again on a scramble in front of the net to take the Tigers into halftime up 6-1.

The second half was dominated by solid ball control by Princeton in the Monmouth defensive half of the field. The Tigers' defense successfully shut down the Hawks' sporadic attacks. The Orange and Black added two more goals in the second half, one on a Yuki slap shot from an assist by Schmidt and the final by freshman midfielder Kaitlin Donovan to finish out the game.

With this weekend's wins in mind, the Tigers look ahead to one of their biggest games of the season: No. 10 UConn next Saturday. Princeton hopes to capitalize on Sunday's strong victory to help prepare itself for the game.

"Our goal today was to improve as a team," Schreyer said. "We want to play in a style that we could play against the best teams in the country. We are preparing to play UConn next week and want to be at the top of our game."