Field Hockey: ‘Warrior weekend’ ends with ‘W’

Senior midfielder Sarah Reinprecht christened these mid-October contests “Warrior Weekend” to help the Tigers regain their focus.

“After our Maryland game, we knew we needed to regroup and re-energize,” senior attack Kristin Schwab explained. “Sarah Reinprecht came up with the idea.”

“We wanted to have a theme for the weekend,” senior attack and tri-captain Leah Hoagland said. “So we are coming back and are ready to show what we’ve got. Maryland was a big loss, but we’re going all the way.”

The Tigers began their weekend strong, dismantling a Brown squad that has struggled all season. The Tigers racked up an unheard-of 49 shots in the contest while allowing just five from the Bears’ attack.

All three tri-captains recorded goals for the first time all season. Senior midfielder Candice Arner scored once, senior defender Holly McGarvie scored twice, and Hoagland, returning from injury to play her first game of the season, scored just seven minutes after entering the match.

“Today we just wanted to take out our frustration on Brown and come together as a team,” junior attack Tina Bortz said. “We looked at a lot of game film and were able to review the problems that we were having in our press. Seeing that really helped us make adjustments for today.”

Considering that the Tigers had so many quality opportunities, it is a testament to Brown’s defense that only seven goals found the cage. Princeton generated 13 penalty corners, which translated into five of its seven goals.

“When we are in the circle, we need to make the most of our opportunities, and we were able to do that today,” Reinprecht said.

The real excitement of the weekend, however, came Sunday, when the Villanova Wildcats came to Class of 1952 Stadium. Warrior Weekend — a nice idea to help the bounce-back mentality — took on a whole new meaning.

Throughout the game, Princeton dominated. The Tigers consistently kept the ball on the offensive side of the field. Through 15 minutes, however, six quality shots and two penalty corners were all turned away.

Nineteen minutes into the game, freshman midfielder Katie Reinprecht made a run into the attacking circle, drawing one of Princeton’s 18 penalty corners. Off the insert, Reinprecht sent a low, hard shot toward the left post. Coming from the far left, Arner dove toward the ball, deflecting it over Villanova goalkeeper Maura McCormick’s outstretched stick and into the cage.

A minute later, the Wildcats earned a dubious penalty corner and evened the score, as the shot off a direct corner sailed over junior goalkeeper Cynthia Wray.

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The Tigers went right back to their original style, controlling the ball and pushing the pace to generate shots. Less than two minutes elapsed before freshman attack Kat Sharkey intercepted a pass at midfield. Starting a run, Sharkey found the younger Reinprecht, who generated another penalty corner.

In what became a precursor for many subsequent corners, junior defender Kaitlyn Perrelle’s insert was mishandled. Reacting quickly, Schwab controlled the loose ball and found Arner. Arner then passed the ball back to Perrelle, who was left uncovered after the insert and smacked the ball into the open net.

Though Princeton maintained possession for much of the remaining 20 minutes, Villanova withstood additional penalty corners and trailed just 2-1 at halftime.

Heading into the second half, the Tigers continued to do all the little things right except for finding the back of the net. For the first 30 minutes of the second half, Princeton outshot Villanova 12-0, including eight penalty corners, but the score remained 2-1.

In the 65th minute, Villanova forward Meg Ryan made a run into the circle, streaking left, then backhanded a shot that knotted the score at two.

Rather than folding in the face of adversity, the Tigers’ warrior mentality came out after head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn called a timeout to help the team regroup.

“I told them that we have to keep doing the little things that are giving us those opportunities,” Holmes-Winn said. “They will fall eventually. The goalkeeper can only make so many saves. Just keep playing our style of hockey and do not get sucked into their frenetic approach.”

The pep talk worked, and Princeton came out with a vengeance. Katie Reinprecht intercepted a pass and found McGarvie making a run down the left side. McGarvie was stopped in the circle but earned a penalty corner for her effort. After a Perrelle insert and a deflected shot by Reinprecht, freshman midfielder Allison Behringer flipped the rebound over the Wildcat goalkeeper to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead just one minute, 20 seconds after Villanova’s goal.

Yet the excitement was far from over. With just under two minutes remaining, a rare defensive miscue allowed for a Wildcat breakaway. Though she repelled an earlier breakaway opportunity, Wray was unable to block the backhand shot to the top corner, and the score was again tied, 3-3.

After a flurry of Princeton offense at the end of regulation, the score remained unchanged, and the teams headed into overtime.

In field hockey’s overtime period, the number of players on each side is decreased, and the first goal wins.

“In overtime, we have a lot of space, so playing seven [against] seven is to our advantage,” Schwab explained. “We’ve had an overtime game before and have definitely built off of that.”

In overtime, the Tigers’ speed and skill became overwhelming. Katie Reinprecht’s early steal moved the ball into Villanova territory. After two saves off penalty corners, Princeton earned a third corner after only four-and-a-half minutes. Katie Reinprecht inserted the ball to older sister Sarah, who sent the ball directly back to Katie by the left goalpost. The younger Reinprecht flipped the ball past McCormick to end the whirlwind contest with a 4-3 win.

“These are our first games back after losing to Maryland on Tuesday,” Sharkey said. “We are really starting to look forward towards the playoffs, and we need to play each game that we have left this season with the same intensity we had in the Maryland game. We need to play each opponent as if we are playing for the national championship to really start preparing ourselves for those high-level games that are coming up.”