Tigers tally two huge wins, fell top-20 opponent

The field hockey team cruised along on its longest road trip of the season, adding two wins over the weekend.

Saturday, the No. 15 Tigers (7-1 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) steamrolled Yale (2-4, 0-2), recording an impressive 6-1 victory in New Haven to extend the Tigers’ recent domination of the Bulldogs. It has now been 24 meetings since Yale last came away with a win over Princeton.

Journeying to Albany, N.Y., on Sunday, Princeton dealt the No. 18 Great Danes a 6-3 defeat. The Tigers moved above .500 against top-25 teams to cement their status as one of the elite teams of 2008.

Having been forced to come from behind last Wednesday against Penn State, the Tigers focused on starting strong this weekend. The team’s hard work was apparent in both wins.

On Saturday against Yale, Princeton drew first blood as freshman midfielder Katie Reinprecht scored just over five minutes into regulation. Sunday, the Tigers started even stronger: Freshman attack Kathleen Sharkey scored only 58 seconds into the game.

“Overall, we want to be consistent with how we start,” head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn said. “We try to make an impression within the first five minutes.”

After Reinprecht’s early score, the Bulldogs capitalized on one of just three shots to knot the score at one. Two minutes, 28 seconds later, senior midfielder and tri-captain Candice Arner connected with senior attack Katie Kinzer to put the Tigers ahead for good. Kinzer’s goal was the first of the senior’s two goals on the afternoon.

From that point on, Reinprecht took control. Scoring three additional times, Reinprecht matched the Princeton record for goals in a game. Senior tri-captain and defender Holly McGarvie was the last Tiger to accomplish the feat, with her four-goal game two years ago.

Princeton’s offense was impressive as a unit, showcasing sharp ball movement and utilization of the whole field.

“We played a very disciplined game,” Holmes-Winn said, “a really great team effort.”

The Albany matchup was the biggest showdown of the weekend, as the Great Danes and the Tigers fought to climb in the national rankings.

Leading the squad’s charge was McGarvie. The senior recorded three goals in the contest, including the go-ahead goal. McGarvie’s contribution, however, was greater than the stat sheet reveals.

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

“On top of [her three goals], she really played tremendous defense,” Holmes-Winn said. “[With] both Yale and Albany, their best players in my opinion were their right midfielders. Holly just really got the better of them in both games. She really was fantastic.”

McGarvie, Sharkey and junior defender Kaitlin Perrelle all capitalized on penalty corners throughout the afternoon. Princeton, which has struggled in the past on penalty corners, converted on three of eight opportunities against the Great Danes. In contrast, Albany was only able to muster two goals from 10 corners.

The Tigers mixed up their personnel on corners. Over the course of the weekend, Princeton used its penalty corners to generate shots for six different players: McGarvie, Reinprecht, Sharkey, Perrelle, Arner and senior midfielder Kraftin Schreyer.

Taking a 4-1 lead into the half, Princeton appeared to be in control. The Tiger defense, however, yielded five penalty corners within the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Thankfully for Princeton, junior goalkeeper Cynthia Wray — who has split time with sophomore Jen King — was rock-solid in goal and recorded seven saves on the day.

“We played brilliant hockey,” Holmes-Winn said. “We had a couple of defensive meltdowns but were able to weather the storm well. To be able to put them away with three unanswered goals was really great.”