Princeton University Athletics
Field Hockey Advances To Second-Round of NCAA Tournament
November 11, 2000 | Field Hockey
Nov. 11, 2000
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Senior attack Hilary Matson (Marathon, N.Y.) led the Tigers to a 4-2 win over Penn State in the first round of the NCAA tournament with two goals on Saturday afternoon in College Park, Md. With the win, the Tigers advance to the second-round game against host Maryland who defeated New Hampshire 9-1.
Penn State took control of the game early as Maegan Galie scored the first goal of the game to put the Nittany Lions up 1-0. Teammate Jill Martz was credited with the assist as she fed Galie on the breakaway.
Princeton tied the game 1-1 as Matson scored on a breakaway off a feed from Ilvy Friebe (Bonn, Germany) at the 21:35 mark in the first half. Senior Kellie Maul (Marlton, N.J.) rounded out the first half attack and put the Tigers up 2-1 as she scored an unassisted goal with 8:42 on the clock. "We played a good first half and came out strong like we wanted to." said head coach Beth Bozman. "We made a couple defensive mistakes that cost us the first goal [Penn State], but played well overall.
To begin the second half, Matson scored her second goal of the game and team-leading 16th of the year unassisted, just 29 seconds into play. Senior Melanie Meerschwam (Amstelveen, Netherlands) tallied Princeton's fourth and final goal with 19:22 remaining in the game to put the Tigers up 4-1.
Traci Anselmo netted an unassisted goal at the 17:15 mark to bring the Nittany Lions within two, and had an opportunity to cut the Tiger lead to one on a penalty stroke with 10:32 to play, but the stroke attempt was high and wide left.
Princeton goalkeeper Kelly Baril (Peabody, Mass.) made three saves in the game, all in the second half. Annie Zinkavich took in five saves for Penn State and allowed three of the for Princeton goals before being relieved by Heidi Leuchte 39 seconds into the second half. Leuchte made one save in the game and allowed one goal. This afternoon's win marks the third-straight win over Penn State, the first of those wins was in 1998 as the Tigers defeated the Nittany Lions 3-1 in the second-round of the NCAA tournament. The Tigers then repeated the 3-1 victory earlier this season on October 22.
Prior to the Princeton win in 1998, Penn State had defeated the Tigers in all 14 meetings. Penn State holds the all-time series advantage 14-3.
"Penn State is a strong team and we were able to take them out of their game today." Said Bozman. "We need to put two strong halves together tomorrow [vs. Maryland]. Nobody wants this to be their last game."
Tomorrow, Princeton will take on Maryland at 2 p.m. at Maryland's Artificial Turf Facility. A win over the Terps would advance the Tigers to their fourth Final Four. Princeton appeared in the Final Four in 1996, 1997 and 1998, and were the runner-up in 1996 and 1998.
Records - Princeton (14-3), Penn State (17-6)
1st Half Scoring - PSU: Maegan Galie (Jill Martz) 30:07, P: Hilary Matson (Ilvy Friebe) 21:35, P: Kellie Maul (unassisted) 8:42.
2nd Half Scoring - P: Hilary Matson (unassisted) 34:31, P: Melanie Meerschwam (unassisted) 19:22, PSU: Traci Anselmo (unassisted) 17:15.
Shots-- PSU: 10, P: 15.
Corners-- PSU: 5, P: 2.
Saves-- PSU: Annie Zinkavich 6, P: Kelly Baril 3.
Defensive Saves -- PSU: 2 (Janelle Long, Traci Anselmo), P: 2 (Emily Townsend, Bridget Marchesi)