The weekend’s contest against the Big Red (5-2 overall, 1-1 Ivy League) will mark the first of seven consecutive games against Ivy League opponents — a stretch that will start and finish in less than a month.
Princeton (6-1) will be taking on a Cornell team that has hit its roughest spot of the season. The Big Red limps home after dropping consecutive games to Loyola and last year's national runner-up, Penn (7-0, 2-0). The Quakers trounced Cornell in humiliating fashion, to the tune of a 14-2 throttling.
The Big Red will undoubtedly be looking to rebound emphatically: There could be no better cure to embarrassing defeat than knocking off the No. 6 team in the country.
If the Tigers execute their game plan, however, they should be in good shape.
“You can never control for what situation the other team is in. You just have to play as well as you can,” head coach Chris Sailer said. “It’s our first Ivy League game, and we want to start off our Ivy League season with a great game. We know Cornell is a younger team and they’ve had two setbacks, but … we know they are going to come out strong and hungry.”
If the late trends bear any significance, then Princeton should certainly have the edge: The Tigers are flying sky-high after a 13-4 victory Wednesday night over hapless Temple. The Orange and Black raced to an 8-0 lead before Temple could punch a hole in Princeton’s staunch defense.
It was the Tigers’ fourth straight victory, a stretch that includes wins over three other top-20 programs. The marquee win of those four has to be Princeton’s impressive 8-7 road thriller over then-No. 7 Virginia.
The Tigers will look to the usual suspects to keep the fire stoked. Princeton boasts a balanced attack: Five players have double-digit goals on the season.
Drumm leads the offensive charge with 16 goals. Junior attack Kristin Morrison, senior midfielder Kristin Schwab and senior midfielder and tri-captain Holly McGarvie all have 11 tallies, while senior attack Christine Casaceli has found the back of the net 10 times.
Backstopping the Tigers’ net is sophomore goalkeeper Erin Tochihara, who heads into Saturday’s contest with a .586 save percentage and a pair of defensive Ivy League Player of the Week awards. Tochichara has been nothing short of spectacular as of late, as she has taken home both her awards in the last two weeks.
Senior midfielder Jessica Wiegand and junior attack Kate Dewey lead the Big Red on the offensive half of the field. Both players have scored 11 goals on the season. Freshman attack Jessi Steinberg has found net 10 times.
Cornell, which shared the Ivy League Championship with Princeton in 2006, is a young team: Only four of its players are seniors.
Despite the back-to-back losses, the Big Red remains undefeated at home, where it has a posted a perfect 3-0 record.
The key for Princeton will be to not underestimate Cornell and to get off to a good start. Playing on the road has been no problem for the Tigers this season.
Victories over Virginia and James Madison University both came on the road, and the Tigers’ lone loss — to Duke — was a nail-biter in which Princeton fell just short.
“This game we’ve got a little riding on it, too, because we want to get the Ivy season off to a good start,” Sailer said.
Sailer said he believes it’s also a chance for the Tigers to develop.
“I don’t know that we’ve played at our best yet. I think our best is yet to come. We are pretty much a work in progress.”
That’s good news for Princeton, which has shown itself to be more than capable of competing with some of the country’s elite.
Still, the only way for the Tigers to secure a bid into the NCAA tournament is to reclaim the Ivy League crown, a piece of hardware that Penn has claimed the past two years.
“All games are equal, but it definitely is more important because we want that trophy; we want that Ivy League championship,” Drumm said.
To acquire that coveted title, Princeton will have to take advantage of every opportunity to pick up league victories.
The Quakers are currently tied for the No. 3 ranking in the country, and they have already picked up a pair of Ivy League wins against Yale and Cornell.
“You obviously take every game in the same way, but the Ivy is our league,” McGarvie said. “There is definitely a kind of energy and pride that we take when we head into the Ivy League season, and I can’t wait to head up to Cornell this weekend. Our team is very excited about starting against Cornell.”
The campaign begins this Saturday.
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