Tigers Head to Harvard With Chance to Clinch League Title

Princeton vs. Harvard

GAMETIME: Saturday, Oct. 20 at 12 noon
SITE: Jordan Field (Cambridge, Mass.)
2007 RECORDS: Princeton (9-4, 4-1 Ivy); Harvard (7-6, 3-1 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads 29-6-2, is 12-4-2 at Harvard
LAST MEETING: Princeton won 3-1 on Oct. 21, 2006 in Princeton
STREAK: Princeton has won 13 straight

The Princeton field hockey team visits Harvard on Saturday afternoon in a battle of the league's top teams. Princeton, winners of five-straight games, sits percentage points ahead of Harvard in the league standings. A Princeton win on Saturday will clinch at least a share of the Ivy League championship for the third-straight season.

Princeton enters the weekend having won its last five games. Since falling to Cornell 21 days ago, the Tigers have defeated Richmond, Connecticut, Brown, Providence and Lehigh to run their overall record to 9-4 overall and 4-1 in league play. Princeton has also climbed in the national rankings, re-entering the national polls at No. 20 this week, while the Tigers' RPI ranks 11th in the country.

In its last outing, the Tigers defeated Lehigh in non-league action on Wednesday evening by a score of 4-2. The Tigers raced to a 4-0 lead in the game before Lehigh scored two goals in the final seven minutes to close the gap. Sophomore Christina Bortz scored two goals and had an assist to raise her team lead in goals to eight and points to 20. Also scoring for Princeton in the game was junior Holly McGarvie and sophomore Katherine Cape.

Bortz's 20 points is a new career high for the sophomore, who had 14 a season ago, and matches McGarvie's team-leading points total from a season ago. Bortz has recorded points in four-straight games, while junior Katie Kinzer, who assisted on Princeton's first goal on Wednesday, has points in three of four games.

Princeton sits at 4-1 in the Ivy League, and is just ahead of second-place Harvard, which has a 3-1 record. Cornell sits alone in third place with a 3-2 record, while Columbia, Yale, and Penn are all 2-2. In addition to the Harvard-Princeton game on Saturday, the other league games this weekend feature Yale at Penn, Columbia at Dartmouth and Brown at Cornell.

Harvard enters the weekend 7-6 overall following a 3-2 loss on Wednesday night to 12th-ranked Boston College. The Crimson has lost two-straight, including a double-overtime loss at Yale last Saturday. The Crimson has league wins this season over Penn, Brown and Cornell.

Princeton is 29-6-2 all-time against Harvard and has a 12-4-2 record in the series in games played in Cambridge. Princeton has won the last 13 meetings in the series, including a 3-1 triumph at home a season ago in which McGarvie, Bortz and junior Leah Hoagland all score goals. Princeton won 2-1 in overtime the previous season in Cambridge with then-freshman Candice Arner scoring the game winner in overtime.

Following the Harvard game, Princeton returns home for a non-league game next Friday night against Virginia Commonwealth.

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Players Mentioned

Candice Arner

Christina Bortz

Katherine Cape

Leah Hoagland

Katie Kinzer

Holly McGarvie