From now on, it’s all business for the field hockey team.
After suffering another loss to No. 4 Connecticut on Sunday, the No. 5 Tigers (10-3 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) are working on revamping their practice methods.
Princeton is 3-3 since it burst out of the gate with a 7-0 start, having dropped three of its last four matches against ranked opponents.
“I think we haven’t been training hard enough in practice, and it’s completely the staff’s fault,” head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn said. “I always say that practice needs to be tougher and more challenging than what they’ll face in the match, and I don’t think that we’ve been creating that environment, so we’ve made that change.”
The Huskies (13-3) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in Sunday’s game, and while the Tigers were able to battle back and tie the game with 15 minutes left, Connecticut emerged with a 4-2 victory.
“We just struggled a bit,” Holmes-Winn said. “I think teams are defending with a lot of numbers, and they know our counterattack is lethal, so they’re taking away that piece of the game from us.”
Since its disappointing performance on Sunday, the team has been focusing its intense practices on shoring up holes in its play.
“We have to figure out ways to get around pressure and keep better possession in critical areas,” Holmes-Winn said. “We’re giving up the ball unnecessarily or cheaply, and I think we need to be able to hold onto the ball a little better and let our shapes take form.”
The Tigers are also preparing for this coming weekend, as they will square off with Harvard (3-10 overall, 1-3 Ivy League) in Class of 1952 Stadium on Saturday afternoon before traveling to battle No. 11 Penn State (10-4) on Sunday.
Penn State represents the last ranked team Princeton will face before the NCAA tournament, as the squad will finish out its regular season against two more Ivy League foes. Since the Penn State game is the toughest remaining challenge on their schedule, the Tigers know playing well is crucial for reclaiming momentum as they head into the tournament.
“We need a dominant performance against [Penn State],” Holmes-Winn said. “There’s no way around it. I don’t mind saying it, and the girls know it.”
The Tigers come into the match with a spotty history against the Nittany Lions, owning a three-game winning streak against the squad but having fallen eight times in the two teams’ 13 matchups since 2000.
The Lions will challenge Princeton with a defense ranked No. 17 in the nation and an attack ranked No. 13 in penalty corners per game. The Tiger defense will be keeping an eye on Lion forward Kelsey Amy, who boasts the ninth-highest goals per game average in the country.
Nevertheless, the Tigers will be focusing inward in an attempt to rectify the mistakes they have made over the past few weeks.
“We have to come out playing Tiger field hockey and playing with our Tiger mentality, and we haven’t really done that in the last three weeks,” Holmes-Winn said. “It’s been very inconsistent, and if we want to perform in the tournament, we have to put it on the line.”
Harvard, meanwhile, is in for a difficult game against a Princeton team that has dominated the Ivy League, outscoring the rest of the Ancient Eight 29-3 thus far.
The Crimson has scored just four goals in its four games of conference play, and its last victory against Princeton came 17 years ago.
Despite the team’s setbacks, Holmes-Winn said she is confident that the Tigers will recover to their full strength with the reinvigorated practices.
“The girls have it in them,” she said. “Their mentality is amazing, and I think we need to give them opportunities in practice to express that mentality. It just doesn’t happen on game day; you have to train and do it over and over again.”
With a momentum-deciding game on the line against Penn State, the Tigers’ new routines could make all the difference.
“I think we’ve made the right changes, and hopefully we’ll see the results that we want,” Holmes-Winn said.
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