No. 8 Princeton Heads To Cornell In Key Ivy Game

Saturday, October 15

Ithaca, N.Y.

11:00 AM

Princeton University

Cornell

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

October 14, 2022 | Field Hockey

PRINCETON (9-4, 3-0 Ivy League) vs. CORNELL (6-5, 2-1 Ivy League)

Dodson Field • Ithaca, N.Y.
Saturday, Oct. 15 • 11 am

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The Princeton field hockey bus rolled out of the parking lot in front of Caldwell Field House at 11 am Friday morning, exactly 24 hours before the eighth-ranked Tigers were to take on Cornell in Ithaca. By the time the bus returns, the Ivy League race will look drastically different, one way or another.

Princeton at Cornell
Five storylines

The league race
Princeton is 3-0 in the Ivy League, with wins over Penn, Yale and Dartmouth. Harvard, who defeated Dartmouth 3-2 Friday afternoon to get to 4-0 in the league, are lone Ivy unbeatens. Cornell, who has lost to Penn, is 2-1. Every other league team has at least two league losses.

Should Princeton defeat Cornell and Harvard defeat Dartmouth, then it becomes almost mathematically a two-team race. If Cornell defeats Princeton, then regardless of the outcome of the Harvard-Dartmouth game it is definitely a three-team race.

Princeton hosts Harvard next Sunday, and Harvard plays Cornell in the final game of the regular season. Princeton, Harvard and Cornell all enter this weekend knowing that if they win out, they'll win the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid.

Princeton has won 26 Ivy League field hockey titles, more than every other team in the league combined.

Series history
This will be the 43rd meeting between Princeton and Cornell, and the Tigers hold a 34-6-3 edge to date. Princeton is 19-2 against Cornell this century and has won 12 of the last 13, including a 3-2 OT win a year ago on Beth Yeager's game-winning goal.

Princeton and Cornell first met in the 1978 season, in a game that Princeton won 4-0 in Ithaca in the first game in goal for the great Sue Kohler, then a freshman, who would go on to win the von Kienbusch Award in 1982. Of the three ties, two of them came on back-to-back 0-0 games in 1985 and 1986.

Scoring offense
Princeton has the highest scoring offense in the Ivy League, averaging 3.23 goals per game. The Tigers are also seventh in Division I in scoring offense.

Princeton has three of the top nine players in the Ivy League in goals per game (Beth Yeager second, Sammy Popper fourth, Sam Davidson ninth) and three of the top 10 in points per game (Yeager first, Popper fourth, Grace Schulze 10^th).

Princeton has had the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week each of the last three weeks (Beth Yeager twice, Grace Schulze once).

The RPI
Princeton is ranked 10^th in RPI, with wins over No. 3 (Maryland), No. 11 (UConn), No. 12 (Syracuse) and No. 17 (Rutgers). Of Princeton's four losses, three have come against No.1 North Carolina, No. 4 Northwestern and No. 7 Louisville, all by one goal.

Miscellaneous
Ophelie Bemelmans is one of eight players in Division I to have reached double figures in assists … Grace Schulze has three goals and six assists in the last four games … Sam Davidson is 4 for 4 on penalty strokes this season and 6 for 6 for her career … Ali McCarthy leads all current Princeton players with 29 career goals and 71 career assists; Sammy Popper is second with 26 goals and 65 assists … Princeton enters the game with nine wins on the season; the Tigers have reached double figures in every season Carla Tagliente has been the head coach … Gabby Andretta has started all 71 games Princeton has played in her career