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Field hockey concludes season with trip to NCAA Quarterfinals

The 2015 season came to a close for the field hockey team this past weekend in the NCAA Tournament, as they took down the Maryland Terrapins this past Saturday and fell to the Syracuse Orange the following day.

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Traveling to Syracuse, N.Y., to kick off their postseason, No. 16-ranked Princeton (11-7 overall, 7-0 Ivy League) knew they still had hills to climb to get into the later rounds of the tournament. The Terrapins (19-4, 8-0 Big Ten) had had the Tigers’ number in recent years. Maryland, ranked No. 7 in the nation going into the game, had knocked the Tigers out of the NCAA Tournament in both 2013 and 2014, and had shut the Tigers out 0-3 in College Park in the teams’ lone matchup this season.

The Tigers, however, apparently had no plans to repeat the experiences of recent years. They were the first to get on the scoreboard, with junior midfielder Cat Caro picking up the goal in the 22nd minute off a rebound from a shot by sophomore striker Ryan McCarthy. Freshman striker Sophia Tornetta would add to the lead in the 31st minute, taking a lofty pass from senior back Kate Ferrara and sending it in. The Tigers’ play did not lack strong defensive showing — as the Terps came close to scoring in the final seconds of the half, senior midfielder Debi Jantzen made an athletic save to keep them out of the Tiger net. Her efforts allowed Princeton to go into the second half up 2-0.

Tornetta doubled her goal count in the 59th minute, giving the Tigers what proved to be an insurmountable lead. A late score by Maryland’s Julie Duncan proved to be futile as the Tigers took down their longtime rivals and moved onto the NCAA Quarterfinals.

Syracuse, however, proved to be a much tougher foe. Playing with the advantage of their home turf, the No. 1-ranked Orange (19-1, 6-0 ACC) dealt the Tigers their first shutout since September. The Orange were overwhelmingly the aggressors in the game, with 28 shots on the game to the Tigers’ six.

With this trip to Syracuse, the Tigers conclude another season of Ivy League dominance, and with more than a few accolades to their name as well. The weekend before the tournament, senior striker Maddie Copeland finished as the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year. Her teammate Tornetta earned Rookie of the Year honors and freshman defender Elise Wong was named (along with her two teammates) to the All-Ivy first team. McCarthy, Caro and senior striker Teresa Benvenuti were named to the All-Ivy second team, and senior goalie Anya Gersoff earned an All-Ivy honorable mention. Head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn, to cap it off, was named Coach of the Year for the league.

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