Princeton Falls In Season Opener To Three-Time Defending NCAA Champ UNC

Friday, September 3

Princeton, N.J.

2:30 PM

Princeton University

(0-1)

#9 North Carolina

(1-2)

North Carolina

Princeton

Grace Schulze had Princeton's goal in a 4-1 loss to UNC.

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Princeton Falls In Season Opener To Three-Time Defending NCAA Champ UNC

September 03, 2021 | Field Hockey

Box Score

The Princeton field hockey team technically played its second straight game against North Carolina when it opened the 2021 season Friday afternoon in front of a huge crowd at Bedford Field. Before that, the last time the Tigers played a game was back in November of 2019, in the NCAA championship game against UNC.

The result was the same both times – North Carolina won, by a 4-1 count in Friday's season opener – though they were two dramatically different Princeton teams on the field. The current Tigers have no seniors and two classes of players who had never played in a game before this year, and it's going to be something a learning process for Carla Tagliente's team.

"There were a lot of good things," Tagliente said after the game. "Obviously when you're playing North Carolina, you're playing a great team and the best countering team in the country. It wasn't going to be easy for us, but we love the challenge. We're looking forward to getting better and playing some more good teams."

The next chance comes up Sunday afternoon at 1:30, when the Tigers will play Louisville on the second day of an unofficial Ivy League-ACC challenge. Louisville defeated Penn 3-1 in the first game Friday, and it'll be the Tar Heels and Quakers Sunday at 11 on Bedford Field as well.

North Carolina is the three-time defending NCAA champion, including one in the 2021 spring season. The Tar Heels were 65-1 from 2018 through this past spring, but they started out 0-2 with losses to Top 5 teams Michigan and Iowa last weekend. It wasn't the easiest way for a team to start out a season, against a hungry powerhouse, but Princeton always challenges itself.

The game started off on an unfortunate note for the Tigers when sophomore Bridget Murphy, in her college debut, was drilled in the leg six seconds into the game. Princeton was still reeling from seeing a teammate taken off the field on a cart when UNC scored a little more than four minutes into the game.

From there, the Tigers regrouped and swarmed, led by freshman Beth Yeager, already a member of the U.S. National Team. Yeager showed off her dazzling skills, and only three tough saves from UNC goalie Abigail Tayler kept Yeager from getting her first career goal (or goals).

Yeager did set up Princeton's goal, which came midway through the second quarter. Yeager, creating for herself in the box, sent a shot towards the cage that Taylor deflected, but an alert Grace Schulze pounded on the loose ball and knocked it in to tie it at 1-1 for the first of her career.

North Carolina answered 1:22 later though, and it was a 2-1 game at the break. The Tar Heels added single goals in the third and fourth quarters for the final.

UNC had a 16-12 edge in shots, including 9-3 after Princeton's first two shots of the third quarter. Both goalies – Taylor and Princeton's Robyn Thompson in her first collegiate appearance – made seven saves.