Princeton Hosts Cornell Friday To Start Busy Ivy Stretch

Friday, September 29

Princeton, N.J.

4:00 PM

Princeton University

Cornell

Photo by: Joshua Sukoff

Princeton Hosts Cornell Friday To Start Busy Ivy Stretch

September 28, 2023 | Field Hockey

The Princeton field hockey team will play nearly half of its Ivy League schedule in an eight-day period that begins Friday afternoon, when Cornell comes to Bedford Field. If that stretch isn't enough, Princeton then plays its final non-league game of the year two days after that, when it hosts Syracuse in a rematch of last year's NCAA tournament opener.

The game is also part of Umpire Appreciate Week and Princeton's Pride Game.

Princeton vs. Cornell
Five storylines

Busy bodies
Princeton hosts Cornell Friday at 4 to start a huge stretch of four games in nine days, the first three of which are Ivy games. The Tigers will also host Penn Wednesday at 4 before heading to Brown next Friday at 3.

The stretch ends with the final non-league game of the year at home Sunday, Oct. 8, against Syracuse. Princeton defeated Syracuse in the regular season last year but lost to the Orange in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

Against the Lions
Princeton defeated Columbia in its Ivy League opener 2-1 on Ava Dempsey's game-winning goal. Cornell has also defeated Columbia, by a score of 3-1. Princeton outshot Columbia 22-5 in its game, while Cornell was outshot 7-6 but made its six shots count, converting half of them.

Princeton drew 14 penalty corners against Columbia, while Columbia and Cornell each had one in their game.

The Tigers and Big Red have one other common opponent, UConn. Cornell defeated the Huskies 2-1; Princeton fell 3-1 to the Huskies in a game that was scoreless after three quarters.

Ivy standings
Cornell is 2-0 in the league, with the win over Columbia and a 6-1 win over Dartmouth last Friday. Cornell followed that with an 8-0 win over Sacred Heart. Caroline Ramsey scored seven of those 14 goals and earned NFHCA Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Cornell and Harvard are both 2-0, while Princeton and Penn are 1-0 each. Brown and Yale are 0-1 each, and Dartmouth and Columbia are 0-2 each.

As a reminder, the top four teams in the standings will advance to the first Ivy field hockey tournament.

Old friends
Princeton's Ottilie Sykes, a freshman who has played every minute of every game to date, came to Princeton from Repton School. Cornell has two Repton grads: freshman Martha Broderick, who has started all seven games in goal and has played 432:58 of the team's 453:44 minutes, and Georgia Kelly, a sophomore who has started four of the seven games.

Ramsey, along with her freshman sister Julia and junior Gabby Volpe, attended New Jersey powerhouse Oak Knoll, which also sent current Tigers Bridget Murphy and Clare Donovan to Ivy League field hockey.

There are also other former high school teammates who will compete against each other in this game: Hanke Govaert (Cornell) and Ellie Manriquez and Olivia Caponiti (Princeton) of Sacred Heart of Greenwich, Antonia Packard (Cornell) and Grace Schulze (Princeton) from Greenwich Academy, Meadow Maguire (Cornell) and Grace Anne McCooey (Princeton) from Rumson-Fair Haven.

In goal
Robyn Thompson is seventh in Division I in saves per game and 18^th in goals-against average. She had a career-high 14 saves in the game at Northwestern last Sunday, a total that was four better than the 10 she had against North Carolina.

Other notes

* Cornell is ranked 20^th in this week's NFHCA coaches' poll. The Tigers have a win over No. 8 Maryland and losses by one goal each to No. 2 North Carolina, No. 5 Louisville and No. 6 Rutgers, in addition to its loss to No. 3 Northwestern.

* Princeton is ineligible to be ranked in the coaches' poll because its record is below .500, but the Tigers have an RPI of 16, second in the league behind No. 11 Harvard and four spots ahead of Cornell.