No. 6 Tigers down Yale, outlasted by No. 3 UConn

After taking another step toward once again sweeping its Ivy opponents Friday, the field hockey team held its own but fell to one of the top teams in the nation Sunday.The No. 6 Tigers (5-3 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) hosted Yale (2-5, 0-2) on Friday before heading north to face another Connecticut school: No. 3 University of Connecticut (9-0, 1-0 Big East).

Princeton has traditionally dominated Yale — the series record stands at 38-2-3. After beating the Bulldogs 8-0 last year, the Tigers won by a less lopsided but comfortable score of 2-0 this time, outshooting Yale 25-5 and earning 16 penalty corners to their opponent's three. The second match — in which UConn held the advantage in shots on goal 8-4 and penalty corners 11-6 – resulted in a 1-0 defeat for the Princeton squad.

Princeton's offense ran smoothly against Yale, holding possession in its opponent's half for almost the entirety of the first five minutes before earning a penalty corner that resulted in a shot by sophomore back Teresa Benvenuti that went wide right of the goal.

Halfway through the first period Yale earned a penalty corner. Bulldog Georgia Holland's shot was deflected into the back of the net, but it was found that it had ricocheted off of one of her teammate’s feet and the shot had come from outside the circle. These double infractions dampened the visitors’ celebration of what would be their best chance of the game.

With just under 10 minutes remaining in the first period, junior striker Allison Evans took on the Bulldogs' defense and beat the keeper to open up scoring for the Tigers.

Earning corner after corner, Princeton occupied the Yale semicircle to great effect in the second half. The second goal came more than 30 minutes later off of a second consecutive penalty corner, as senior back Amanda Bird's shot was redirected by senior midfielder Julia Reinprecht to put the Tigers up 2-0. "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen was played in celebration.

Head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn described her team’s performance as “fairly dominant.”

“We were able to do what we wanted to do with the ball,” she said. “So we were really happy with how we connected between lines.”

Holmes-Winn was frustrated, however, with the failure to capitalize more often.

“We were not happy, obviously, with the lack of finish in the front field,” she said. “To generate 25 shots and 15 penalty corners and only get two goals from that is a bit frustrating. But we were able to identify what was going wrong with our attack penalty corners so we should see better results there.”

UConn posed a far greater challenge than Yale. The Huskies are one of only seven teams against whom Princeton does not boast a record of .500 or above after having competed in five or more contests.

“We just want to play our best — I think that’s our mindset — and clean up some of the areas that haven’t been going well for us. We’re very focused in on making improvements. When you play the top teams, you have to do that,” she said before the game. “We want to know where we’re at. And since [our loss to No. 5] Syracuse — and I’d put Syracuse and UConn in a similar realm in terms of ability and level of talent — we want to hopefully see we’ve improved.”

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Scoring opportunities were scarce in the first period. Twenty-one minutes in, UConn had one shot on goal — saved by sophomore keeper Anya Gersoff — and two penalty corners. Shortly thereafter, freshman striker Cat Caro saw her shot go wide as the Tigers began threatening the Huskies circle. With 24 minutes elapsed, the Tigers earned their first corner, leading to a shot by Benvenuti saved by the opposing keeper.

The teams remained scoreless at halftime and the scoreboard was not put to use until more than halfway through the second period.

A barrage of shots by the Huskies starting at the 56th minute — four of which were saved by Gersoff in under 10 minutes and five of which were consecutive penalty corners for UConn — led to a goal for the home team.

Princeton earned a corner just over a minute later, earning a chance to equalize with less than 10 minutes remaining. Benvenuti’s shot — the Tiger’s last — went wide, and the Huskies soon celebrated a narrow victory.

The Tigers will host Columbia on Friday before perhaps the toughest test of their season so far: a match against No. 2 Maryland in College Park on Oct. 11.