Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
LIU
Tuesday Visit to LIU Up Next for Women's Hockey Team
December 03, 2023 | Women's Ice Hockey
In what will be the Princeton women's hockey team's second-to-last game of 2023, the Tigers will head to East Meadow, N.Y. on Tuesday to take on LIU.
at LIU, Tuesday, 2 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats
In the Rankings: Princeton was No. 12 in both the USCHO poll and the USA Hockey/The Rink Live poll last week. ECAC Hockey had seven teams in each poll, giving the league nearly half the teams in the poll. Colgate was fourth in both, Clarkson fifth, Quinnipiac seventh, Cornell ninth in USCHO and eighth in USA Hockey/The Rink Live, St. Lawrence eighth in USCHO and ninth in USA Hockey/The Rink Live, Princeton 12th in both, and Yale 14th with USCHO and 13th in USA Hockey/The Rink Live.
Team Effort: Princeton has seen 13 players score goals this season with Sarah Fillier's nine goals leading the way and Issy Wunder (5G/11A/16P), Emerson O'Leary (5G/9A/14P), Fillier (9G/4A/13P) and Sarah Paul (6G/5A/11P) all with 10-plus points. Already, 19 Tigers have scored a point, the most in a season for the team since the 2021-22 season, when 20 players had a point. Among Princeton's leading scorers, Wunder, a sophomore with 16 points, is close to surpassing her rookie-year point total of 18, fueled by 11 assists that have already surpassed her nine from last year. O'Leary has followed the same path, with nine assists and 14 points outdoing her four helpers and 11 points from last year, and Paul has bettered her totals in goals, assists and points, with 2-3-5 last season and 6-5-11 already this season.
Fillier Climbs the Charts: Sarah Fillier has the rest of this season to further cement her place in the Princeton record books. Her 164 career points are sixth, six back of a tie for fifth, and a stand-alone fourth-place position is 13 points away. With 36 more points, she'd become the fourth player in program history with 200 career points, and Katherine Issel '95 holds the record at 218. Fillier's 72 career goals are 13th, four out of what would be a three-way tie for 10th, and with 24 more goals, she'd become Princeton's highest-scoring player of this century, surpassing former teammate Maggie Connors '23 (78), Gretchen Anderson '04 (87) and Bullock (95). Kelly O'Dell '84 holds the record at 121 and is one of three players in program history to score 100 goals. Fillier's 92 assists are fourth all-time, and stand-alone second place is five assists away. With eight more assists, Fillier would join record holder Issel (121) as the only players in program history with 100 career assists.
The Staff: Head coach Cara Morey is in her seventh overall year and sixth competitive season (2020-21 lost to the pandemic) leading the program. Her 96 career wins are second-most in program history to predecessor Jeff Kampersal '92 (327). With five more wins, Morey would become the second Princeton women's hockey coach and sixth hockey coach between the men's and women's programs to reach 100 wins. The four men's coaches who have reached 100 are Richard Vaughan (158 from 1935-59), Jim Higgins (130 from 1977-91), Don Cahoon (122 from 1991-2000), and Guy Gadowsky (105 from 2004-11). Along with Dan Gould, who returns and coaches the goaltenders, Morey has two new assistant coaches in Jamie Lundmark, who played professionally from 2001-18 including parts of six seasons in the NHL with the Rangers, Coyotes, Flames, Kings and Maple Leafs, and Melissa Samoskevich, who stands among the highest-scoring players in Quinnipiac history after graduating in 2019.
Series History: Princeton and LIU met on Jan. 3, 2022 at Baker Rink, a 1-0 Tiger win. Mia Coene had the lone goal, and Tindra Holm made 38 saves for LIU. Princeton has only two other games against NEWHA teams in its history, sweeping a two-game series against Saint Anselm in January 2020. The Tigers haven't alloewd a goal to a NEWHA team, winning the three games a combined 16-0.
On LIU: Jeannie Wallner leads LIU's 13 goal scorers with 10 goals and has a team-high 14 points. MIkayla Lantto (12), Sarah Rourke (11) and Grace Babington (10) also have 10-plus points. Tindra Holm has played most of the minutes in goal, holding a 1.79 GAA. LIU has won 12 in a row, all against NEWHA teams, since opening the season with four games against Northeastern and Minnesota-Duluth, all defeats.
Stat Rankings: Entering last weekend's games, Princeton stood third in the nation in faceoff winning percentage (.573), and the Tigers' next-best ranking was 12th, in power-play goals with 10. Individual top-25 rankings included Sarah Fillier's 10th-best 0.78 goals per game, Fillier's and Issy Wunder's 13th-best three power-play goals, Uma Corniea's 15th-best two shutouts, Corniea's 22nd-best .922 save percentage, Wunder's 22nd-best .75 assists per game, Corniea's 23rd-best .500 goalie winning percentage, and Corniea's 24th-best 2.179 GAA.
Against the top 10: Princeton's Nov. 18 win over then-No. 6-ranked Cornell was the 16th win over a top-10 team under Cara Morey, who is in her sixth competitive season as the team's head coach. It was Princeton's third top-six win of calendar year 2023, as the Tigers beat No. 4 Quinnipiac on Jan. 23 at Baker Rink and No. 3 Colgate to open the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals on Feb. 24 in Hamilton.
