Princeton University Athletics
Field Hockey Hosts Rutgers Friday on Senior Night
October 27, 2005 | Field Hockey
Oct. 27, 2005
Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton field hockey team hosts Rutgers on Friday night at Class of '52 Stadium in its final home game of the 2005 season. The game will mark the final game appearance at Princeton for the four members of its senior class: Lauren Ehrlichman, Maren Ford, Liz Miller and Hillary Schmidt.
Last Saturday Princeton wrapped up its 11th Ivy League title in a 12-year span with a 2-1 overtime win at Harvard. The championship was Princeton's 14th overall in field hockey. The Tigers won the championship and game in dramatic fashion when freshman Candi Arner scored her first collegiate goal in overtime.
The Tigers are 7-8 overall and 6-0 in Ivy League play. Princeton will shoot for the .500 mark with a win over Rutgers. Following that Princeton has one final league game remaining next Friday night at Penn before the NCAA tournament begins on Nov. 12.
Princeton is 6-0 and alone atop the Ivy League standings. Cornell is second with a 4-2 record, while Dartmouth and Brown are tied for third with records of 3-2. Princeton has outscored its Ivy opponents 19-3 and plays Penn (8-6, 2-2) to close the league schedule.
Arner was named the Ivy league field hockey Rookie of the Week for her game- and championship-winning goal last Saturday at Harvard. Hillary Schmidt also scored in the game. She now ranks second on the team with 15 points on four goals and a team-leading seven assists. Her sister, sophomore Paige Schmidt has 22 points on eight goals and six assists. Junior goalkeeper Allison Nemeth was in goal for Princeton's win at Harvard. She is now 6-6 on the year with a 1.74 goals-against average. Friday night's game will be Princeton's first at home in three weeks since a loss to Hofstra on Oct. 7. Since then, Princeton has played four game in a row away from home and went 2-2 in that stretch, defeating Brown and Harvard and dropping games at Maryland and Boston University.
Princeton and Rutgers have met 20 times in field hockey with the Tigers 16-3-1 in the series. Princeton is 11-1-1 in the series at home and has won the last seven games. The two teams did not face last season, but Princeton topped the Scarlet Knights 3-1 in 2003 on two goals by Maren Ford.
Rutgers is 7-10 overall and 0-5 in Big East play. The Scarlet Knights enter tonight's game after a 2-1 win on Sunday against Radford. Prior to that Rutgers had dropped five-straight games. Princeton and Rutgers have five common opponents this season. Both teams are 1-4 in those games as each team has a win over Albany. The losses are to Villanova, Maryland, American and Connecticut.
The game will be the final home game for the Princeton field hockey class of 2006. The class of four student-athletes has a 38-30 record leading up to tonight's game and has won three Ivy League Championships. The class is 25-2 in that span in league games.