Princeton suffer first conference loss to Crimson

Princeton field hockey was beat by Harvard in overtime, 3-2. The Tigers started slowly in the first half and saw a sequence of shots on corners, which were blocked by freshman goalkeeper Grace Baylis. However, by the 13 minute mark, the Orange and Black were down one as the Crimson's Marissa Balleza touched in a pass from her teammate. The Tigers saw their best opportunity of the half from freshman midfielder Taylor Nolan, who found space in the circle, but shot wide of the goal. Several minutes later, Harvard pushed the ball past Baylis from a mishit in the circle; the goal stood, and the Crimson doubled their lead.

The Tigers came out far stronger in the second half. Sophomore midfielder Jane Donio-Enscoe dribbled along the left side line and slipped a pass to senior captain Cat Caro. She slapped the ball on goal, and last year's Rookie of the Year, sophomore striker Sophia Tornetta, managed to reach her stick out to knock it past the Harvard goalkeeper. As the Tigers piled on the pressure for the Crimson, the games started to become emotional, with both sides trying desperately not to slip up. With six minutes on the clock, Caro deflected the ball from a short corner hit by freshman midfielder Maddie Bacskai and Princeton equaled the score line. The final six minutes remained rather frantic, with neither side managing to get a shot on target. The game headed to overtime.

Just one minute into overtime, Harvard's Kathleen Young beat the Princeton defence down the right baseline to face Baylis in a 2-on-1 advantage. Young calmly pushed the ball past Baylis on her near post as Baylis went to go down early to try and intercept a ball across the face of goal. The Harvard team beat Princeton and thus remains the only Ivy League team to be undefeated in conference play. An understandably emotional Princeton team was devastated by the results of the game, which has likely cost them an Ivy League championship title for this season. The Tigers can now only hope that Harvard loses in their two remaining games against Dartmouth and Columbia. That being said, Princeton has to brush off the dust and move on, because the Tigers are back in action against Cornell this weekend.