Princeton University
Harvard
Princeton Heads To Harvard With First Place On The Line
October 17, 2024 | Field Hockey
PRINCETON (8-4, 4-0 Ivy League; No. 15 NFHCA)
vs.
HARVARD (10-2, 4-0 Ivy League; No. 10 NFHCA)
Saturday, Oct. 19 • noon
Berylson Field • Cambridge, Mass.
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A - About
The 2024 Princeton field hockey team has 24 players — 15 returnees from last year’s team, seven freshmen, one returnee from the 2022 team (who happened to play in the Summer Olympics this year) and one returnee from the 2022 team who was hurt one minute into Game 2 a year ago (and who happened to be the leading returning goal scorer heading into last season). There are 12 American players and 12 international players (10 from England; one each from Australia and Germany).
B – Big Game
Princeton and Harvard are both 4-0 in the league, while every other league team has at least two losses. The winner of the Princeton-Harvard game would hold the tiebreaker over the other and need to win only one of its remaining two Ivy games to clinch the top seed and host spot for the league tournament.
C – Clemmie
Freshman Clem Houlden has played more minutes than any other Princeton field player this season. Houlden, a defender who had her first career goal in the win over Brown, has played every minute of eight of the last nine games.
D – Defense
Princeton and Harvard have both allowed 16 goals this season, which ties for the fewest allowed in the league.
E – Every Year Since 1993
The last time that neither Princeton nor Harvard won at least a share of the Ivy League title was back in 1993. Since then, only three times has another team even won a piece of the championship: Brown and Princeton in 1999, Penn and Harvard in 2004 and Princeton and Yale in 2011.
F – Freshmen
Princeton has started at least three freshmen in every game.
G – Grace
Grace Schulze scored all three Princeton goals in the 3-2 win over Rutgers, including two goals less than a minute apart in the final five minutes of the game. Schulze had six goals and 12 assists for 24 points in 2022, when she was a second-team All-Ivy League selection, but had not scored a goal in 681 days dating back to her goal against Syracuse in the 2022 NCAA tournament. Schulze was Princeton’s leading returning scorer for 2023, but her season ended 45 seconds into the second game of the year with a broken collarbone that required surgery and caused her to miss the rest of the year.
H – Harvard
Princeton leads the all-time series with Harvard 43-10-2, though Harvard beat Princeton twice last season — 4-0 in the regular season and 2-1 in the Ivy League tournament final when Lara Beekhuis scored with 35.7 seconds remaining on a shot that barely made its way across the Tiger goal line.
I – Ivy League
Princeton and Harvard are a combined 77-1 against the rest of the league since the start of the 2017 season.
J – Just Three
Princeton has started the same three on defense all season — Clem Houlden, Gracie McGowan and Ottilie Sykes. The last time Princeton had three defenders start every game in a full season was 2016.
K – Korners
Okay, penalty corners are technically spelled with a “C,” but in the statcrew program, the code is a “K.” Princeton scored six goals last weekend in two wins, and all six came on penalty corners. In fact, Princeton had more goals in penalty corners last week than it had all year prior, as Princeton was 5 for 52 on corners before last weekend and then 6 for 24 in the two games. For the year, Princeton is 11 for 76; its opponents are 8 for 63.
L – League Leaders
Harvard leads the Ivy League in scoring offense (3.22 goals per game). Tessa Shahbo of Harvard (1.21) and Robyn Thompson (1.31) of Princeton are 1-2 in the league in goals-against average, and Thompson leads the league with four shutouts. Princeton’s Beth Yeager leads the league in goals, assists and points.
M – Maryland
Princeton’s next game after the Harvard game will be at home Friday against Maryland, who is currently No. 9 in the RPI. The last eight Princeton-Maryland games have all been decided by one goal.
N – National Rankings
Princeton is ranked 15th this week in the NFHCA coaches’ poll. Harvard is ranked 10th. More importantly, Harvard is also ranked 10th in the RPI, while Princeton is 16th. The Tigers have four losses, to No. 1 Northwestern, No. 2 North Carolina, No. 11 Syracuse and No. 15 Penn State.
O – Ottilie
Ottilie Sykes earned Ivy Defensive Player of the Week honors this past week. In addition to being a mainstay on the defensive end, she also scored two goals, including the game-winner in the second OT against Delaware. Sykes shared the Ivy Rookie of the Year award last year with Harvard’s Sage Piekarski, and both were first-team All-Ivy selections.
P – Points
Beth Yeager has 98 career points, leaving her two away from becoming the 12th player in proram history to reach 100 points. If she gets to 103 points, she would move all the way up into a tie with Allison Evans for eighth place.
Q – Quarterly
There have been 30 total goals scored in Princeton’s 10 games this season between the Tigers and their opponents. Of those 30, there have been 10 scored in the first and second quarters, 19 scored in the third and fourth quarters and one scored in overtime.
R – Robyn
Goalie Robyn Thompson is sixth all-time at Princeton in career wins with 34 and seventh all-time at Princeton is career shutouts with 12, one away from tying Allison Nemeth for fifth.
S – Shots
Harvard has taken 184 shots through 12 games. Princeton has taken 152 shots through 12 games. Brown (200) and Yale (189) are 1-2 in the league.
T – Titles
Princeton field hockey has won 27 Ivy League championships, which is more than the other seven league teams combined. It’s also tied with Harvard women’s squash for the most Ivy League championships won by any women’s team in any sport. Harvard has won the second-most number of field hockey titles, with seven.
U – University
Princeton has been ranked as the No. 1 academic university in the United States by US News and World Report for the past 14 consecutive years, including in the new rankings that came out for this year.
V – Veterans
Princeton’s senior class features six players: Clare Brennan (F), Aimee Jungfer (M), Gracie McGowan (D), Grace Schulze (F), Robyn Thompson (G), Lily Webb (F). Those six have combined for 322 games played, with 139 starts between them.
W - Wildcats
Princeton and Harvard both have lost to No. 1 (RPI) Northwestern, both by a 3-2 score. Northwestern has allowed seven goals in 13 games, this season, of which four were scored by the Tigers and Crimson.
X - X factor
Beth Yeager has scored four overtime goals in her career, most recently against Miami (Ohio) earlier this season.
Y – Yeager
Beth Yeager was a first-team All-American and the Ivy League’s Offensive Player of the Year in each of her first two seasons before taking the 2023-24 academic year off from Princeton to compete with the United States national team in Olympic qualifying and then the Olympic Games, where she started every game for the USA.
Z – Zinged
Princeton has scored 23 goals this season. Beth Yeager has either scored or assisted on 16 of them.
