Women's Hockey: League opener gives shot at revenge

“Team cohesiveness” is the women’s hockey team’s mantra going into the regular season this weekend.

With a strong preseason behind them, the Tigers (1-1 overall) are looking for revenge in their game against Rensselaer (2-4-2) on Friday at Baker Rink. It is an important weekend for Princeton, as it will play its first two intra-conference games.

Last year, during the second round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs, the Engineers eliminated the Tigers after a 1-0 victory in Game 2 of a three-game series. The Tigers are looking to redeem themselves from last year and log a win against the team that sent them packing from the postseason.

Junior defender Sasha Sherry has specific goals for Princeton.

“This weekend, we are looking to play hard for a full 60 minutes,” Sherry said. “Over the rest of the season, this is what we need to keep striving for.”

Rensselaer is going to be a difficult team to beat.

“They are a young and quick team,” senior forward Melanie Wallace said. “We need to go out there ready to play hard.”

Friday’s game at Baker Rink is the first league game for both teams, and Princeton is looking to come out strong.

“We want to show up to battle every night and give our all,” senior defender and captain Stephanie Denino said.

“For these two teams, it is like looking in a mirror,” head coach Jeff Kampersal ’92 said. “They are both very talented and quick teams.”

On Saturday, the team will play Union (2-4) at Baker Rink. Though this team does not share the same competitive history with the Tigers, it is still important that they go into the game with a competitive mindset.

“Union’s coach, Claudia Asano, has recruited hard, so they have some good players who play aggressive and try to provoke mistake-making,” Kampersal said. “So our goal is to throw a lot of shots at goal and really control the puck throughout the game.”

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Wallace added that the Tigers should go into every game with the same approach.

“We should play every team the same regardless of who they are,” she said. “Focusing on gaining that competitive edge early on and carrying that through to the very end will set the tone not only for this weekend, but for the rest of our conference games.”

The team will remain on campus over Fall Break to work on solidifying plays with the younger players and preparing for their big weekend on the road. Coming out of Fall Break, the team will travel to Yale and Brown over the weekend of Nov. 6.

Kampersal noted that Fall Break will provide his team a chance to focus on the basics.

“Since this is only our third and fourth games of the season, many of the teams are ahead of us already,” Kampersal said. “So over Fall Break it is really important we slow down and look at the fundamentals. We are really going to work on our special teams.”

These games will be very important, as the current seniors have not yet won an Ivy League championship and are looking to do that this year. Two weekends ago, the Tigers scrimmaged Yale and Brown, and the team knows that both will be tough opponents.

“Those Ivy League rivalries never truly disappear,” Wallace said. “They are definitely going to come out and match our intensity, and we need to be ready.”

The team is taking the season weekend by weekend and just looking for the wins that will, hopefully, result in a chance at the ECAC Hockey title again.

“There is a lot of experience in the defense and a lot of variety in the offense,” Sherry said. “Regardless, when it comes down to it, it is all about execution.”

Princeton is looking for the incoming freshmen and the sophomores to perform these next two weekends as they are asked to step up and become more crucial parts of the team.

“We really try and break down the class hierarchy,” Denino said. “If you are good, you will play.”

Looking to this weekend, the team is searching for the lines that work well together. Denino noted that there is no set first or second line established yet.

“If one line is working, we roll with it,” Denino said. “We have a team of 19 contributors. We do not look to any one player.”

Though the team is looking for some retribution for the loss in last year’s playoffs, the Tigers are, more importantly, hoping that these next four games will set the tone for a winning season.