Field Hockey: Sharkey to lead squad in Saturday showdown

If the field hockey team ever has a chance to prove itself to be the Ivy League’s elite squad, it comes this weekend.

The No. 7 Tigers (6-1 overall, 0-0 Ivy League) started their season with an impressive five-game winning streak before falling to unheralded No. 19 Providence on Sunday. Now, after handling Penn State on Wednesday, the team is out to affirm its place as the cream of the Ivy crop. The four-time defending champions kick off their league schedule Saturday against a Yale team that will be aiming for a considerable upset.

The Bulldogs (4-2, 1-0) will certainly be motivated for Saturday’s clash, coming off three straight victories, including one over Harvard in New Haven, Conn. As excited as Yale may be, though, the weight of history is on Princeton’s side. The Tigers have not lost to Yale in recent memory, and they topped the Bulldogs 6-1 in Connecticut last season.

Princeton head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn was hesitant to reveal too much of the Tigers’ strategy for Saturday.

“I know that Yale reads all this stuff, so I don’t want to go into too much detail,” she said, but she did acknowledge that Princeton’s high-powered offense would come into focus.

Sophomore striker Kathleen Sharkey, the defending Ivy League Rookie of the Year, leads the team with eight goals. She figures to be featured prominently Saturday with two of the players directly behind her in the scoring leader board. The Reinprecht sisters, sophomore midfielder Katie and freshman midfielder Julia, each have four goals this year, having both started every game. Katie is the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year.

But Holmes-Winn noted that the offense has been too goal-oriented at times this season, failing to slow down and observe the field before attacking.

“We’re a very attack-minded type of team,” she explained. “We like to go forward; we like to go fast. [But] we need to be smarter when we’re choosing to go forward or to go around.”

Indeed, the team will be implementing a different strategy than it has in previous games, but will still be keying in on the contributions of its star attackers.

“Expect to see Katie and Julia Reinprecht getting more touches,” Holmes-Winn said. “And hopefully we can free up some of our strikers.”

Yale, too, boasts a powerful offense, headlined by two players Holmes-Winn identified as dangers to Princeton’s defense. Forwards Dinah Landshut and Ashley McCauley have shown themselves to be potent attackers, leading the team in shots with 19 and 35, respectively. McCauley has converted seven goals this season, enough to lead the squad.

Saturday’s matchup, then, looks to be an offensive show. Much of the defensive pressure will fall on the capable shoulders of junior goalkeeper Jennifer King, who has amassed an impressive 1.06 goals-against average this season. On the other side of the field, Yale boasts a goalkeeping tandem that has allowed just over three goals per game this season, keeping the Bulldogs above the .500 mark so far.

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Yale has played only one ranked team this year — No. 18 Northwestern — and it lost that game in overtime. On the other hand, the highly ranked Tigers dispatched No. 6 Syracuse early in the year before falling to Providence in an upset. All indications point to weekend success for the Princeton squad, which has not lost at home since last October, when it fell to eventual national champion and current No. 1 Maryland.

Still, Holmes-Winn remained wary of the start of the Ivy schedule.

“We only have 17 games, so every game is exciting, and every game means everything,” she said. “And certainly in the league, there’s a do-or-die mentality.”

With a rival like Yale coming to town and a set of national expectations weighing it down, the team will not be taking any aspect of the game for granted.

“You can’t lose the game,” Holmes-Winn said. “We have to make sure that we’re taking care of business.”