No. 17 Princeton Hosts Yale Friday, No. 16 UConn Sunday

Friday, October 1

Princeton, N.J.

5:00 PM

Princeton University

Yale

Photo by: Greg Fiume

No. 17 Princeton Hosts Yale Friday, No. 16 UConn Sunday

September 29, 2021 | Field Hockey

ESPN+ vs. Yale
ESPN+ vs. UConn
ESPN International
LiveStats (same link both days)
Yale FH twitter
UConn FH twitter

The Princeton field hockey team heads into the fourth of the five Friday/Sunday game combinations on its schedule. Like the one a week ago, this one begins with an Ivy League game Friday and then a Top 20 opponent Sunday.

Princeton will be home for both games, beginning Friday at 5 against Yale and then continuing Sunday at noon against UConn. The Huskies will begin their own Friday/Sunday weekend with a game at home against Providence.

Princeton vs. Yale
Princeton vs. UConn

Five storylines

The Ivy League race
Each of the eight Ivy field hockey teams has played one league game to date. Princeton, who defeated Penn 5-1, is joined by Yale, Harvard and Cornell at 1-0. Yale opened its Ivy season with a 2-1 win over Brown.

Princeton has won 26 Ivy League championships all time. No other team has won more than eight, and every other Ivy team besides Princeton combined has won 24.

Series histories
Both the Yale and UConn games in 2019 went into overtime, as UConn won 2-1 and Princeton defeated Yale 4-3. Those games were not played on the same weekend.

Though Princeton holds a 44-2-3 lead in the series with Yale, the last two meetings in Princeton have been one-goal decisions that needed a McCarthy for the winner. The 2019 game that went into overtime was won on Ali McCarthy's goal, and her sister Ryan scored twice in the final 2:38 – including a penalty corner after the clock read 0:00 – in a 3-2 win in 2017.

UConn leads the series with Princeton 17-10. The teams have split the last four meetings, including two games in 2019, the 2-1 UConn regular season win and then a 2-0 Princeton win the NCAA quarterfinals, on goals from MaryKate Neff and current Tiger Hannah Davey.

Repton Reunion
Each of the three teams who will play on Bedford Field this weekend has a player from the Repton School in England.

Yale's Ellie Barlow has started all seven games and scored her first collegiate goal in the win over Brown last week. UConn's Maddy Wray has started 31 career games for the Huskies.

As for Princeton, the Repton connection is junior Hannah Davey, a 2019 first-team All-Ivy League selection and second-team All-American and second-team All-Ivy selection as a freshman in 2018.

Fresh start
Beth Yeager has had quite the start to her Princeton career. Through eight games, Yeager leads the Ivy League in goals (with eight), assists (with six) and points (with 22). She is also in the top six nationally in all three stats, including third in Division I in points per game, behind only Sofia Southam of Michigan and Erin Matson of North Carolina.

Yeager's eight goals in the first eight games of her freshman year match the total of Kathleen Sharkey in her first eight games, back in 2008. Sharkey went on to finish her freshman year with 15 goals and then scored 92 more her final three years to set the Princeton record of 107.

Scoring balance
Princeton has gotten at least one goal from nine different players through eight games, while three other players have no goals but at least one assist.

Claire Donovan ranks second on the team (behind Beth Yeager) with three goals, which matches her previous career total prior to this season. Grace Schulze, Ali McCarthy, Bridget Murphy, Sammy Popper and Lily Webb have two goals each. Peggy Winterborn and Zoe Shephard have one each.

Hannah Davey has three assists, while Ophelie Bemelmans has two and Sam Davidson has one.