Playing at home is an advantage for any sports team, but for the women's water polo team (9-4 overall, 2-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference), that advantage is huge. In fact, going into this past weekend's games against ECAC Southern Division rivals Bucknell (8-9, 0-2) and Maryland (8-11, 1-1), Princeton had not lost a match at DeNunzio Pool since Feb. 16, 2003.
Eleven months and 15 games after their last appearance at Old Nassau, the Tigers looked right at home. With friendly crowds cheering them on, the Tigers easily disposed of the Bison and Terrapins, cruising to 15-12 and 8-4 victories and extending their home winning streak to 25 games.
Not to say that Princeton didn't give head coach Luis Nicolao a scare. In the opening minutes of the Bucknell game, the Tigers dug themselves into an early 2-0 hole. But when Princeton needed a clutch goal Friday night, it was almost always senior utility player Elyse Colgan who came to the rescue, putting the Tigers on the board with three minutes, 15 seconds left in the first quarter. That score proved to be a turning point in the match, igniting a 12-4 Princeton run. Colgan would go on to net five goals on the night, with at least one in every period.
By the middle of the third quarter, the score was 12-6 in favor of the home team. Late in the third, though, the Tiger offense hit a wall just as the Bison offense was awakening. Bucknell scored four unanswered points, rapidly closing its deficit to two with 6:55 left in the final period.
Star freshman utility player Phoebe Champion got Princeton out of its funk by scoring on an assist from sophomore utility player Kara Murphy to make it 13-10. Champion had four goals on the night, including two in the final six minutes of the game, to cement the 15-12 win.
"[Champion] had some really nice shots," Nicolao said. "She's a heck of a player."
Several Tigers made big contributions in the high-scoring game. Freshman center defender Lauren Sabb chipped in with two goals, while junior goalkeeper Natalie Kim made eights saves.
Kim, a key to the Tigers' recent success, is considered one of the best goalkeepers in the nation. But when the junior was sidelined by an injury before Saturday night's match against Maryland, Nicolao decided to put senior Samantha Shaughnessy in the cage instead. Shaughnessy, normally a lynchpin of the Tiger defense, had only one quarter of collegiate experience in goal heading into the contest.
"I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty nervous," Shaughnessy said. "Our starting goalie is pretty good, so I had some big shoes to fill."
With Princeton's steals leader in goal, Nicolao needed his defense to come up big. And they did, holding the Terrapins to a season-low four goals. Shaughnessy also delivered an impressive performance, recording 12 saves.
"The big thing there was our defensive effort," Nicolao said. "Our defense stepped up, and [Shaughnessy] did a really good job with the shots she saw."
The Tigers dominated momentum and possession from the start, racing to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter. Princeton's shutout ended with 5:05 left in second quarter, when a deflected shot sailed over Shaughnessy's head and into the net. When the halftime buzzer sounded at DeNunzio Pool, Princeton was ahead 3-1.
Fresh off its own win over Bucknell earlier that morning, the Maryland defense played an extremely physical game. Maryland's aggressive play continued to frustrate the Tigers during the second half, while shot after shot for the Terrapin offense missed wide right and wide left. Princeton was scoreless for nearly six and a half minutes until freshman utility player Helen Meigs finally drove the ball past Maryland goalie Ashleigh Jobson with 5:32 remaining in the fourth quarter, widening the Tigers' lead to four, at 7-3. Both teams would add a goal each before time expired.
The win was the Tigers' fifth straight heading into a spring-break swing through California to take on Stanford, Santa Clara and other national powers.
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