No. 8 Princeton Takes On Delaware To Start Five-Game, Ten-Day Home Stretch

Friday, September 16

Princeton, N.J.

4:00 PM

Princeton University

Delaware

Photo by: Tom Gilbert

No. 8 Princeton Takes On Delaware To Start Five-Game, Ten-Day Home Stretch

September 15, 2022 | Field Hockey

PRINCETON (2-2) vs. DELAWARE (1-5)

Bedford Field • Princeton, N.J.
Friday, Sept. 16 • 4 pm

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Welcome to the start of a pretty interesting 10 days for the Princeton field hockey team. Between now and Sept. 25, Princeton will play five games, going Friday-Sunday-Tuesday-Friday-Sunday, all at home.

When it's over, Princeton will be past the halfway point of its regular season games. It will also have played the No. 1 and No. 3 teams in the country, a recent NCAA champion, its Ivy League opener and a team that came within a goal of the NCAA tournament last year.

It starts Friday at 4 when Delaware comes to Bedford Field.

Princeton vs. Delaware
Five Storylines

The next 10 days
The Princeton-Delaware game starts the most difficult stretch of the season for the Tigers. After Princeton plays Delaware, it will turn around and play No. 1 Northwestern Sunday, No. 3 Maryland Tuesday, Ivy rival Penn Sept. 23 and then Lafayette, the Patriot League runner-up a year ago, Sept. 25.

That's five games in 10 days against some pretty tough competition. Princeton is 2-2 on the season, having played two games each of the last two weekends. After this 10-day run, Princeton will have played nine of the 17 regular-season games on the schedule.

After playing Lafayette, Princeton will be off until the following Saturday, when a game at Yale will start the second half of the year, during which Princeton will play eight games in 37 days.

Series history
The Princeton-Delaware history has been a pretty competitive one. This year's game will be the 35^th meeting between the two, and Princeton leads 16-15-3.

Since 2001, only three schools not from the ACC or Big Ten have won the NCAA tournament, and Princeton and Delaware are two of them. Princeton will be celebrating the 10^th anniversary of its 2012 NCAA title on Oct. 8, and Delaware won the 2016 championship, defeating Princeton in the semifinals.

Princeton defeated Delaware 3-2 a year ago when Claire Donovan scored the game-winner with six minutes to play. Princeton's other goals came from Sammy Popper and Beth Yeager.

Oh, and the other team not from the ACC and Big Ten to win one since 2001? That would be UConn in 2017, when the team's goalie was current Princeton assistant Sarah Mansfield.

Player of the Week
Princeton goalie Robyn Thompson was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week after back-to-back eight-save performances in wins of 5-1 over Syracuse and 4-1 over Rutgers.

Thompson has made 21 saves in four games this season after having 31 saves in 10 games a year ago. The junior has a .694 save percentage through four games after a .608 percentage a year ago.

Rankings
Princeton was ranked 13^th in the preseason and then dropped to No. 17 after falling 4-3 to No. 2 North Carolina and 2-1 to now-No. 4 Louisville.

After defeating Syracuse, who was No. 7 last week, and Rutgers, who was No. 15, Princeton has now moved up to No. 8 this week. Princeton's nine-spot jump was the biggest of any team in the country this week.

Looking ahead
Princeton and Northwestern have met just once, and it was a long time ago, as the Tigers defeated the Wildcats 5-1 on Sept. 16, 1981.

Northwestern is the defending NCAA champion. The Wildcats' 2021 championship team featured two Princeton grad transfers, Maddie Bacskai and Clara Roth.