Tigers take all three at Maryland Invitational

No. 18 Princeton (6-2 overall) started Saturday with an early-morning contest against St. Francis (1-1). Despite a slow start, the Tigers picked up the offense during the second quarter, tallying six goals. It was a brand new story defensively during the second half, as the Tigers shut out St. Francis for 30 minutes while putting six more goals on the scoreboard, ending the game 13-2.

Sophomore utility Phoebe Champion and freshman driver Sarah Hutchison led the way for the Tigers, posting three goals apiece. Senior goalie Natalie Kim had three saves in the contest, while freshman goalie Christina Michel had one in the fourth quarter.

“We took the opportunity [against St. Francis] to run through new plays and wanted to get a lot of game experience,” sophomore utility Helen Meigs said. “We were running some new defenses, and we were trying to figure out what their plans were instead of what we were going to do against them.”

Following the morning game, the Tigers reloaded and prepared for their most challenging contest of the day against Marist (3-4). This was the first time the Orange and Black had met the Red Foxes, and the game was a challenge through the first three quarters.

The Tigers suffered a slow first quarter, falling behind 3-2, but recovered in the second and to tie at four.

Throughout the first half, Marist used clever picks from the perimeter to create multiple opportunities on offense. Along with being unable to defend against the picks, Princeton had trouble putting away five-meter opportunities, going 1-4 throughout the match.

“We were getting all sorts of opportunities, but we couldn’t make anything happen,” Meigs said. “Once we adjusted our defense, and to the reffing, everything came back into place, and from that point it was just about making the score reflect that.”

During the last two quarters, the Tigers went back and forth against Marist, but their adjustments on defense were noticed when they limited the Red Foxes to one goal in the fourth.

With only a few minutes left in the game and the score tied at eight, it was freshmen driver Lauren Brunner and utility Tanya Wilcox who answered the rallying cry and put the final two goals in the back of the net, clinching the game 10-8 for Princeton.

The Tigers used their whole lineup against the Red Foxes, with eight different players contributing to the scoring and the freshman making a noticeable contribution

“Marist was our best game of the weekend, especially from what we got out of it,”

Meigs said. “We had never seen them before, and it was good experience. Everyone kept playing through the full game; no one gave up, or let them get in our heads.”

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After the Marist game, the Princeton rounded off its triple-packed Saturday against Iona, dominating the game 12-6. The Tigers pulled ahead early, keeping a two-point advantage throughout the first half, and then sealed the deal in the fourth quarter, as they shut out the Gaels and managed to put two more shots in the back of the goal.

“Iona was a long game, and we took advantage of it to practice our fundamentals,” Meigs said. “The three games in a day was great conditioning for us.”

Sophomore center defender Lauren Sabb had had four goals, followed by junior utility Claire Jacobson, Brunner and Meigs, who each contributed two goals.

Despite the long triple header, the Tigers took advantage of the game play and relatively easy difficulty level of their opponents to gain some more experience and lock in their own style of play.

“The take-home message, especially for Marist, was that even when we’re down we can put it together, not to panic and know that we can pull it out in the end,” Meigs said. “Now that we have these games under our belt we’re starting to come together as a team.”