Princeton Travels To Delaware For Friday Night Matchup

Friday, September 17

Newark, Del.

6:00 PM

Princeton University

#19 Delaware

Claire Donovan and the Tigers are at Delaware Friday (6).

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Princeton Travels To Delaware For Friday Night Matchup

September 16, 2021 | Field Hockey

No. 18 Princeton (0-3) at No. 22 Delaware (2-4)

Friday, Sept. 17, 20201 • 6 p.m.
Fred P. Rullo Stadium • Newark, Del.
Series History • Tied 15-15-3
Most recent meeting • Princeton defeated Delaware 1-0 (Oct. 1, 2019)
Next Princeton Game - Home against Boston University Sunday (1 p.m.)

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If there are two teams who are not used to having sub-.500 records, it's the two who meet Friday night on the turf of Rullo Stadium. Princeton and Delaware, who are much more used to playing in the NCAA tournament than trying to get back to even, meet Friday night as both continue their brutal early-season schedules.

Princeton vs. Delaware
Five Storylines

Series history
Princeton and Delaware meet for the 34^th time. The only non-Ivy schools Princeton has played more than Delaware are Penn State (41^st meeting will be Oct. 17) and Maryland (36^th meeting will be Tuesday).

How close has this series been? It depends on how you look at it. On the one hand, Princeton and Delaware have each won 15 games, with three ties. On the other hand, Delaware went 9-0-3 in the first 12 games of the series, so Princeton has had the better of it since. Maybe the best way to look at it is that the teams are 5-5 against each other in the last 10 meetings.

The first two games between the teams in fact ended in draws, with a 0-0 game in 1973 and then a 1-1 game in 1982. The teams played at least once per season every year from 1982 through 2002, did not play in 2003, played again in 2004 and then did not meet against until 2012. Since then, the teams have played every regular season and in the 2016 NCAA Final Four.

Princeton defeated Delaware 1-0 in 2019 in the last meeting between the two. Hannah Davey scored the game's only goal with 2:09 to play, assisted by Ali McCarthy.

Strength of schedule
Princeton and Delaware might be a combined 2-7 so far this year, but that's a bit misleading. All seven of the losses between the two are against teams ranked in the top 20 of this week's NFHCA poll. Princeton's losses are to No. 5 Louisville, No. 6 North Carolina and No. 17 Duke. Delaware's four losses are against No. 8 Penn State, No. 11 Virginia, No. 13 Harvard and No. 20 Monmouth.

Princeton still has games remaining against No. 7 Maryland, No. 8 Penn State, No. 10 Rutgers, No. 13 Harvard, No. 16 UConn and No. 20 Monmouth.

Near and far
Delaware goalie Lizzie Gaebel was a high school teammate of Princeton's Claire Donovan, who made her first career start in the game against Duke. Donovan and Gaebel played together at Unionville High School in Pennsylvania, which is 16 miles from the Delaware campus.

The teams also have their fair share of players who came to school from far away. Delaware has seven international players, five from Europe and two from Argentina. Princeton also has seven international players (six from Europe and one from Australia).

Youth movement
Princeton has no seniors on its 2021 roster. The Tigers have scored four goals in the first three games, of which one is from sophomore Grace Schulze and the other three are from rookies Beth Yeager (two) and Lily Webb.

History lesson
Delaware has made 14 appearances in the national tournament (10 NCAA tournaments, four AIAW tournaments). Princeton has made 25 NCAA tournament appearances and before that made seven more AIAW tournament appearances. In fact, Princeton's first NCAA tournament game was against Delaware in 1982 (a 3-2 Delaware win).

Princeton (2012) and Delaware (2016) are both recent NCAA tournament champions and in fact are the only FCS schools in the last 35 years to win the NCAA championship.