Field Hockey: Princeton beats Penn, wins 7th Ivy League title

For a seventh consecutive season, the field hockey team is atop the Ivy League.

Though the Tigers’ road to the championship has looked easy in the past, things were not so simple this year. Due to the absence of some key players and tough competition in the conference, Princeton (9-7 overall, 6-1 Ivy League) entered Philadelphia on Friday needing a win over Penn (4-13, 2-5) to secure the title. The offense, which has been streaky this year, came alive at the right time, giving Princeton an impressive 3-0 win and a berth in the NCAA Play-In Game.

The next day, Yale beat Brown 7-0 to share the Ivy League title with Princeton at 6-1, the first championship for the Bulldogs since 1980. But because the Tigers defeated the Bulldogs earlier this season in a 3-2 home victory on Sept. 24, the Orange and Black will receive the league’s automatic bid to the play-in game.

Defense prevailed in Friday’s first half, though both teams put offensive pressure on each other. Princeton took seven shots on goal to Penn’s three, but all were blocked by sophomore goalie Christina Maida and her Quakers counterpart Kieran Sweeney. The Tigers earned a whopping 11 penalty corners in the half, but a tough Penn defense kept them from capitalizing even once.

Both sides played tough defense in the second half, but the Tigers pulled ahead in the 53rd minute when junior defender Amy Donovan got the ball to sophomore defender Amanda Bird, who scored on Princeton’s 15th penalty corner. Donovan kept up the attack with another shot on goal after yet another penalty corner three minutes later, but Sweeney, who had 10 saves for Penn, protected the net.

For the game, the Tigers took 18 shots and earned as many penalty corners, while Penn had only three corners and took six shots, just one of which came in the second half. Maida and the Princeton defense worked hard in Princeton’s third shutout victory of the season, blanking a Penn squad that had scored in all but one of its games prior to Friday. Sweeney and the Quakers could not stop a final offensive onslaught. The Tigers brought the heat in the last 10 minutes, and Bird scored her second goal of the night off of a penalty corner. Soon after, on the Tigers’ final corner, junior midfielder Molly Goodman slapped two shots at Sweeney. The second went in the cage with just 12 seconds left in the game, giving the Tigers a 3-0 victory and assuring them their seventh consecutive Ivy League title.

Princeton was in position to clinch the championship after thrashing Cornell (7-10, 1-6) 6-1 at home on the previous Sunday. The game, originally set for Saturday, was postponed due to snowy conditions, forcing a cancellation of Sunday’s scheduled rematch against No. 4 Connecticut.

The Tigers’ postseason begins on Tuesday with the play-in game. Princeton will host nearby Rider, the Northeast Conference champion, with one of 16 spots in the NCAA Tournament on the line.

Princeton is no stranger to the tournament, having reached at least the quarterfinals in each of the last three years. The last time the Tigers appeared in a play-in game was 2008, when they pulled off an impressive home victory, beating Stanford 8-2.

If the hosts defeat Rider, they will learn their postseason fate quickly, as the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Selection Show begins at 8 p.m. Tuesday night. The first-round tournament games will be played on Saturday.