Thompson's Extraordinary Heroics Give Princeton 3-2 Shootout Win Over Cornell

Friday, September 29

Princeton, N.J.

4:00 PM

Princeton University

(4-5, 2-0Ivy)

Cornell

(5-3, 2-1Ivy)

Cornell

Princeton

Princeton celebrates its 3-2 shootout win over Cornell. Goalie Robyn Thompson (1) turned away six of the seven shots she faced in the shootout after stopping a breakaway in the second OT.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Thompson's Extraordinary Heroics Give Princeton 3-2 Shootout Win Over Cornell

September 29, 2023 | Field Hockey

Box Score

If Robyn Thompson was surprised that a Cornell attacker was headed in her direction with no Princeton defender around in the second overtime, she was definitley used to it by the seventh round of the shootout. Thompson, Princeton's senior goalie, was extraordinary when her team needed her most, stopping a rare field hockey breakaway to force then shootout and then turning away the last six shots she saw after Cornell had scored on its first effort.

In the end, Princeton needed every single one of those saves from Thompson, as Cornell goalie Martha Broderick was almost as sharp when it was her turn. Ultimately, Helene Große's goal to start the seventh shootout round was the winner, and Princeton could finally exhale when Thompson turned aside one more after that, closing out a 3-2 win over the Big Red in a big early season Ivy League game.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Princeton played its best first half of the year and led 2-0 at the break after completing shutting down the Cornell offense. The deadly Big Red penalty corner game was non-existent, as the Tiger defense repeatedly kept the ball out of the circle, and Princeton cashed in two chances of its own off corners, the first on an Ottilie Sykes blast and the second when Ella Cashman tipped in a drive from Ava Dempsey.

Cornell, who has one of the top offenses in Division I, chipped away, getting one late in the third and then tying it after a great run by Olivia Friedberg that led to an equally beautiful tip in from Antonia Packard, making it a 2-2 game with 5:42 to go.

Both teams had chances, including penalty corners in the two overtimes, but nobody broke through. Cornell then got its breakaway on a steal from Ashley Plzak, but Thompson was able to just knock it away before Plzak could end it. When Ella Cashman deflected away a blast from Caroline Ramsey, the reigning Division I Offensive Player of the Week, on a corner in the final minute of the second OT, it was off to the shootout.

Both teams scored on their first attempts, with Cornell's Claire Wolf answered by Princeton's Talia Schenck. After that, it went miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss to end the regulation part of the shootout and then miss, miss in the first extra round. GroSe then got Broderick to commit and patiently waited to zip it in the goal, and Thompson turned one more aside to end it.

THINGS THE BOX SCORE DOESN'T TELL YOU
* Bridget Murphy set up the first Princeton goal with hustle plays to draw the penalty corner.
* Sam Davidson had the best game of her career.
* Cornell had scored 14 goals in its last two games, seven of which came from Ramsey.
* You have eight seconds in the penalty shootout to get your shot off.

UP NEXT
Princeton is now 2-0 in the Ivy League. The Tigers host Penn Wednesday at 4 and then play at Brown two days later, so they'll be more than halfway through the league schedule at that point. The top four teams in the league will play in the Ivy League tournament for the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid.