Postseason, No. 3 ODU come to town

Finishing the season unbeaten in conference play and being chosen as one of four NCAA Championship regional host sites would be the dream of most collegiate teams. For the field hockey team, this dream has become a reality.

Princeton (11-6-0 overall, 7-0-0 Ivy League) will host No. 3 Old Dominion (19-3-0, 8-0-0) at Class of 1952 Stadium at 11 a.m. Saturday.

After a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over Penn last weekend, the Tigers (11-6-0 overall, 7-0-0 Ivy League) concluded a perfect regular season in the Ivy League for the second year in a row and the 11th time overall. With such a dominant league record, the Tigers knew they had put themselves in a good position going into the postseason and awaited the announcement of their fate.

Tuesday night's televised NCAA selection show ended the anxiety as Princeton learned it would face the Monarchs in its first-round matchup on Saturday.

Just as important, the Tigers were also informed of their host-team status for both the first and second rounds. While home-field advantage doesn't guarantee an upper hand, sophomore forward Katie Kinzer believes not having to travel could be a key to Princeton's success.

"It is difficult to travel all day and sleep in an unfamiliar place and then wake up and play the next day on a foreign field," Kinzer said. "It's a very draining process. This way we will get more rest and can focus more on the game, which will be great."

The Tigers will definitely need to have complete focus on the game as Old Dominion has already proven to be a formidable foe, handing the team a 5-0 loss — their worst of the season — back on Sept. 23.

While that statistic might seem to dim Princeton's chances of moving past the first round of play, the team has made great strides since the first two weeks of the season. Most recently, they've been on a four-game winning streak, including a 1-0 victory over another championship contender in American.

In addition to terrific team success this year, several Tigers were awarded individual accolades this past week. Most notably, junior midfielder Paige Schmidt was named Ivy League Player of the Year for the second year in a row while freshman defender Kaitlyn Perrelle was awarded the honor of Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

Senior goalkeeper Allison Nemeth, sophomore defender Holly McGarvie and sophomore midfielder Sarah Reinprecht were all named first team All Ivy.

These recent team and individual successes should bolster the Tigers' confidence heading into the NCAA tournament. If Princeton is to get past Old Dominion, they will face either No. 7 UConn or No. 19 Boston University in the second round.

The Tigers, however, are taking a one-opponent-at-a-time approach to their preparation for this weekend. They have been analyzing every aspect of their previous game against Old Dominion in an effort to pinpoint areas of weakness.

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"We taped the last game ,and our coaches have already analyzed the areas of the game in which we failed last game and where we need to improve this game," Kinzer said. "For example, we have been able to modify our press since we have encountered them already and hopefully this will prove successful on Saturday."

While Princeton dominated its Ivy League competition, the Tigers struggled outside of league play with a 1-5 record against teams still in the tournament, losing to Old Dominion, UConn, Penn State, Richmond and Maryland. The Ivy champs feel that just having had the experience of playing these difficult teams will serve them well going into the weekend.

"To prepare for the tournament, we played ranked teams all season," said Nemeth. "There's no better preparation than experience, so playing the top teams in the country before, especially Old Dominion, can only help us now."

The Tigers will look to use this experience to make the final push towards Princeton's first appearance in the national championship game since 1998. Judging from their regular season play, this could well be the year that the team has both the talent and drive to get there.

Princeton will take on Old Dominion on Saturday at 11 a.m., with UConn and Boston College competing in the second game of the day at 2 p.m. The winners of Saturday's games will meet on Sunday to determine who gets to move on to the national semifinals in North Carolina.