Field Hockey: Princeton bound for NCAA Final Four

After back-to-back four-goal victories at Class of 1952 Stadium this weekend, the field hockey team is headed to the NCAA Final Four. It will be the Tigers’ fifth Final Four appearance in the program’s history and their first appearance in eight years.

On Saturday, the No. 4 Tigers (16-2 overall, 7-0 Ivy League) made quick work of No. 14 Stanford (17-6, 5-1 NorPac), besting the Cardinal by a 4-0 margin. Stanford, which has not been shutout in 34 games, was held scoreless by Princeton’s dominating defense.

“[The victory] was a total team effort in terms of our defense,” head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn said. “Every [defensive] line on the field was very detailed, and our counter defense was really good because we were sustaining attack for a lot of the game.”

The Tigers’ relentless attack resulted in four goals, which were all scored by four different players. The first goal of the game came off a sister-to-sister connection with five minutes, 20 seconds remaining in the first half. Sophomore midfielder and co-captain Katie Reinprecht one-touched a pass from freshman midfielder Julia Reinprecht. The elder Reinprecht’s shot reached the back of the cage.

In the final seventeen seconds of the first half, Katie Reinprecht dribbled the ball into the arc, drawing Stanford goalkeeper Alessandra Moss out of the cage. Then, Katie slipped the ball past Moss to senior striker and co-captain Christina Bortz, who tapped the ball into the net. This goal gave Princeton a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.

Ten minutes into the second half, senior midfielder Kaitlin Donovan controlled the ball at the left side of the cage and dribbled it around the goalie. She then passed the ball to freshman striker Michelle Cesan, who found the back of the cage with 24:44 remaining in the game. Cesan’s goal gave the Orange and Black a comfortable 3-0 lead.

Sophomore striker Rachel Neufeld notched the Tigers’ final goal of the game, scoring after Julia Reinprecht blasted the ball near the net with 7:22 left on the clock.

Last year, the Tigers beat Stanford 8-2 in their NCAA play-in game, only to fall to Syracuse 3-2 in overtime in the quarterfinals. With its 4-0 victory on Saturday, Princeton advanced to the quarterfinals for the second straight year. Once again, the Tigers were matched up against Syracuse. The Orange had bested No. 9 Boston College, 6-2, in the opening round of the tournament.

On Sunday, the Tigers trailed No. 8 Syracuse (18-4, 6-0) by the score of 3-2 at halftime.

“We came out a little bit flat in the first half,” Katie Reinprecht said.

The Tigers drew first blood in the game. Donovan found the ball amid congestion inside the arc and successfully hit it into the net, giving Princeton a 1-0 lead just 3:03 into the game. Just 1:46 later, Syracuse forward Lindsey Conrad tied the game by slipping a ball inside the near post.

At the 14:42 mark, sophomore striker Kathleen Sharkey scored her first goal of the night. She received the ball from Katie Reinprecht at the 25-yard line and weaved her way past the Syracuse defense into the arc. Once inside the arc, Sharkey blasted the ball into the cage with a reverse sweep, giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

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But Syracuse tied the game and took the lead with two retaliating goals. The first score came off a corner play at 27:34. Syracuse passed the ball in, stopped it and passed it to back Amy Kee, who drag-flicked the ball into the top right corner of the net with textbook precision.

Syracuse took the lead with 4:24 left in the half. Junior goalkeeper Jennifer King came up with a save, but Syracuse midfielder Martina Loncarica got the rebound and controlled the ball at the top of the arc. She then dribbled the ball in the air a few times, before tapping it to her left side and chipping it into the cage, giving Syracuse a 3-2 edge.

For Princeton, the second half was a totally different story.

“We wanted it so bad,” Katie Reinprect said. “We came out [and] we were all in it, every single one of us. We just didn’t let up the whole half.”

In a span of 10 minutes of the second half, Sharkey scored three goals, putting the Tigers comfortably back in the lead.

“She’s a winner,” Holmes-Winn said of Sharkey. “That’s how I characterize all these girls. They’re winners. They have this will to be excellent that really pervades everything they do.”

The game-tying goal showed the Tigers’ passing prowess, which makes them lethal when in the circle. Katie Reinprecht passed the ball to Julia Reinprecht on the left side of the circle. Then, Julia Reinprecht crossed the ball to Cesan in the middle of the arc. Cesan shot the ball to the left side of the cage and Sharkey tapped it in, knotting the score at three apiece at the 39:36 mark.

Nearly two-and-a-half minutes later, Princeton took the lead when Julia Reinprecht dribbled the ball up the left side of the field and passed it to Donovan. Then, Donovan threaded the ball to Cesan, who had back-doored her defender and was one-on-one with the goalie on the left side of the cage. Instead of shooting, Cesan passed the ball back to Sharkey, who was left wide open at the top of the arc. Sharkey chipped the ball into the back of the net.

Sharkey scored her third consecutive goal, and her fourth of the game, off a penalty corner. Cesan inbounded the ball to junior back Alexandra Douwes, who stopped the ball for Sharkey. Sharkey then blasted the ball into the back of the cage, giving the Tigers a key 5-3 advantage at the 49:21 mark.

Donovan scored Princeton’s sixth goal of the game at the 58:09 mark, off a pass from Julia Reinprecht. The final goal of the game came off a three-on-one opportunity that started when Sharkey stripped the ball from a defender and found Cesan in the circle. Cesan dribbled the ball to the left and slid it into the cage at the left post at 66:08. The Tigers’ 7-3 lead drew enthusiastic cheers of “football score” from fans in the bleachers.

“Once we got ahead by one goal – even once we tied it – we knew that winning by one goal wasn’t enough,” Sharkey said. “They were a strong team and we knew they’d be able to come back from that so we wanted to keep putting the ball in the back of the net.”

Princeton’s four-goal victory was by a much more convincing margin than the earlier meeting between the two teams. On Sept. 6, the Tigers beat then-No. 3 Syracuse 3-2 in overtime.

“We’ve gotten so much better since we played them the first time,” Bortz said.

The Tigers are hoping the same will be true when they play No. 1 Maryland at Wake Forest on Friday in the semifinals. The Tigers fell to the Terrapins, 3-2, in overtime on Oct. 7.

Holmes-Winn said she holds the Tigers’ upcoming foe in high regard.

“[They are] a really classy team,” she said. “They play really sophisticated hockey. We’ll be watching film and having a strong look at what we did against them the first time and what they did against us.”

Sharkey echoed her coach’s sentiment.

“We almost beat them in the regular season, so we’re kind of familiar with them,” Sharkey said. “We’re going to try and bring the intensity we brought today to Friday and the Final Four.”

Bortz said that anything is possible heading into the matchup against the Terrapins.

“We’re so driven this year,” Bortz said. “I don’t think that anything can stop us.”