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Donovan's OT Goal Wins It For Field Hockey At Harvard, 1-0
October 20, 2007 | Field Hockey
Princeton spent the entire day peppering the Harvard net and forcing penalty corners. Finally, with just a few minutes left in overtime, the Tigers were rewarded for their perserverance. And part of that reward is an Ivy League title.
Sophomore Kaitlin Donovan redirected a shot by Paige Schmidt on Princeton's 14th and final penalty corner with 3:12 left in overtime, giving the Princeton field hockey team a 1-0 win over the Crimson and at least a share of its third straight Ivy title and 13th league title in the last 14 seasons.
The Tigers (10-4, 5-1 Ivy) will likely have to beat Penn Nov. 2 at Franklin Field to earn the Ivy's berth into an NCAA play-in game against the winner of the Atlantic 10 conference, but Princeton is now the only team with just one league loss after Saturday's win.
Princeton's fourth penalty corner of the 15-minute OT period proved to be the decisive one. Schmidt's initial shot was deflected by a Harvard defender, but Donovan tipped the deflected ball into the net to set off the Tiger celebration.
"It seems like it's this kind of game every time we come up here," said Princeton head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn, who has led the Tigers to four Ivy titles in her five years as head coach. "But I had confidence that something good would happen in overtime after all the chances we were creating during the game."
Princeton had 19 shots in addition to its 14 penalty corners, compared to just six shots and three corners for the Crimson (7-7, 3-2 Ivy), but the game went to overtime scoreless after a final penalty corner attempt in regulation went just wide for the Tigers.
Schmidt also had a good opportunity to score for Princeton on an earlier penalty corner situation in overtime, but her drive from the top of the circle was kicked away by Harvard goalie Kylie Stone, who had nine saves to help keep the game scoreless until the winning goal.
Cynthia Wray had two saves for Princeton, which won its sixth straight game overall. The Tigers limited Harvard to just one shot in the first half.
The Tigers will host non-league games against VCU next Friday and Monmouth Oct. 30 before the big regular-season finale at Penn.