Princeton University Athletics
Field Hockey Visits Harvard a Win Away From Ivy Title
October 21, 2005 | Field Hockey
Oct. 21, 2005
Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton field hockey team needs just one win in its final two league games to clinch its 14th Ivy League championship and its 11th title in a 12-year span. The team will look to get that win on Saturday afternoon when they take on Harvard at 12 noon.
The Tigers (6-8, 5-0 Ivy) are the only team in the league that controls its own destiny. Princeton's record puts it a game ahead of Cornell (4-1) and two up on Brown (2-2) and Dartmouth (2-2). Having defeated all three teams already season, in the event of a tie Princeton would hold the tiebreaker for the NCAA Tournament bid, although the teams would be considered co-champions. Penn is 1-2, while Harvard, Yale and Columbia all have three losses and are eliminated from the race for the league's title.
The game marks Princeton second league game on the road in as many weekends. Last Saturday, on a rainy day in Providence, the Tigers jumped out to an early lead and never Brown back into the game in posting a 3-0 win. The shutout was the third this season for Princeton in Ivy play and in five league games, Princeton has outscored its opponents 17-2. In other Ivy Action this weekend, Columbia visits Dartmouth, Brown is at Cornell and Yale travels to Penn.
After the win at Brown, Princeton traveled to 19th-ranked Boston University and fell 2-1 in overtime to the Terriers. That leaves Princeton's overall record at 6-8 entering action this weekend. The Tigers have three regular season games left. In addition to Saturday's game, Princeton hosts Rutgers and visits Penn in the coming weeks.
Sophomore Paige Schmidt continues to lead Princeton offensively and received her second Ivy League Player of the Week Award this week. Schmidt scored four of Princeton's five goals as the Tigers played three times in six days. On Saturday, she notched Princeton's first and second goals in the Tigers' 3-0 win at Brown. In all she had nine points last week as she assisted on the only goal that she did not score in that span. Her other goals came in road losses at No. 2 Maryland and No. 19 Boston University. Her goals gave Princeton a 1-0 lead in both games. She currently ranks first in the Ivy League in goals (8) and points (21) and has scored three game winners. Princeton is 27-6-2 all-time against Harvard and is 11-4-2 in game played in Cambridge. The Tigers have won 11-straight games in the series. Last year Princeton fell behind 1-0 to Harvard in the game's 51st minute, but two Princeton goals in the final two minutes lifted the Tigers to the win. Senior Hillary Schmidt assisted on the game-tying goal and scored the game-winner for the Tigers.
Harvard enters the game on a seven-game losing skid, most recently dropping games at Cornell, Yale and Boston College. The Crimson is 5-8 overall and has wins this year over UMass, Penn and UConn.
Princeton returns home for its final regular-season home game next Friday night when local-rival Rutgers visits Class of '52 Stadium.