Princeton University Athletics
Princeton Announces 2010 Field Hockey Schedule
June 29, 2010 | Field Hockey
LINKS: Complete Schedule
PRINCETON (6/30/10) - The 17-game 2010 Princeton field hockey schedule was recently announced. The Tigers' schedule includes seven Ivy League games, 10 home contests and six NCAA Tournament teams from last season.
Princeton was 16-3 a season ago and reached the NCAA semifinals for the first time since 2001. Princeton enters the 2010 campaign looking for its sixth-straight Ivy title, its 19th overall and its 16th in the last 17 years.
Princeton will meet six NCAA tournament teams from last season, including national finalist Maryland, semifinalist Virginia and quarterfinalist Syracuse. The other three tourney teams the Tigers will face are American, Connecticut and Richmond. Princeton will also face two additional teams that finished 2009 ranked in the final coaches poll.
Princeton will take on 13 opponents that it faced last season and four that it did not.
Following a preseason scrimmage with Drexel, the season opens against one of the four on Sept. 5 when the Tigers host Bucknell at Class of '52 Stadium in the second meeting between the schools and the first since the 1989 season. The Tigers' first game away from home comes the following Friday afternoon at Richmond.
Princeton's season-long three game homestand begins two days later against VCU and continues the following weekend with the Ivy League opener on Friday, Sept. 17 against Dartmouth as Princeton opens its quest for a sixth consecutive Ivy League title. Two days later Princeton hosts Syracuse. The teams have played three times in the last two seasons, meeting in the 2008 and 2009 NCAA Quarterfinals, with each team winning once at home. Princeton won a regular-season meeting last season at Syracuse.
The schedule continues with an Ivy game at Yale and a midweek game against Maryland in a rematch of last year's NCAA semifinals. Princeton faced Maryland twice last season, falling 3-2 in overtime during the regular season and 7-5 in the NCAA tournament.
Princeton visits Columbia and hosts American the following weekend, before facing two new opponents the second weekend of October. On Friday, Oct. 8, Princeton visits NCAA semifinalist Virginia in the first meeting between the schools since the 2004 season. Two days later the Tigers return to Class of '52 Stadium for their first-ever meeting with Louisville, a team ranked 16th in the final poll last season that narrowly missed qualifying for the NCAA tournament.
Princeton returns to Ivy action the following Saturday against Brown and visits Connecticut a day later. The following weekend the Tigers host Harvard and visit Penn State. Princeton wraps the season with single games the next two weekends at Cornell and at home against Penn.
The champion of the Ivy League will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The first and second rounds take place Nov. 13-14 at campus sites. The national semifinals and championship will be held the following weekend at Maryland.