Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Fairfield
No. 2 Seed Princeton Hosts Fairfield In NCAA Tournament Opener
November 13, 2025 | Field Hockey
NCAA TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
No. 2 PRINCETON (15-3) vs. FAIRFIELD (16-5)
Friday, Nov. 14 • Noon
Bedford Field • Princeton, N.J.
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A – About
Princeton and Fairfield meet in the first round of the NCAA tournament, followed Liberty and Syracuse. The winners meet Sunday at 1, with a trip to the Final Four at Duke for the winner. Princeton is the No. 2 seed in the tournament.
B – Bedford
Princeton hosts the NCAA tournament for first time since 2018. Princeton has won its last five NCAA games on Bedford Field.
C – Consecutive
Pru Lindsey has at least one point in 10 consecutive games, during which she has six goals and nine assists. Prior to that, Lindsey had no points this season and one goal and three assists last year as a freshman. The last time a Princeton player had a 10-game scoring streak was a year ago, when Beth Yeager had a point in 15 straight games.
D – Defense (Ours) vs. Offense (Theirs)
Princeton is fourth in Division I in goals-against, at 0.88 per game, and has held its opponents to an average of 7.4 shots per game this season, the lowest season total for the Tigers since 2018 (6.0). Fairfield ranks fifth in Division I in scoring offense at 3.55 per game while averaging 20.7 shots per game, nearly three times as many as Princeton allows.
E – Eleven
Princeton enters the NCAA tournament on an 11-game winning streak, its longest since a 13-game run to the 2019 NCAA final. Princeton has not trailed at any point of those 11 games. Fairfield has won 13 of its last 14, with only a loss to UConn in that stretch.
F – Field
Princeton has played eight games against teams in the NCAA tournament and has gone 5-3 in those games. Princeton’s three losses on the season are all against NCAA teams — North Carolina, Syracuse and Harvard (regular season) — while the wins have come against Northwestern, Harvard (Ivy tournament), Yale (twice) and UConn.
G – Goals
Princeton has scored 48 goals this season, of which 12 came in the first seven games (1.7 per game, four wins, three losses) and then 36 have come in the last 11 (3.27 per game, 11 wins, 0 losses). Princeton has had 26 goals come from freshmen and sophomores and 22 come from juniors and seniors. Of Princeton’s last 11 goals, nine have come from freshmen or sophomores.
H – History
Princeton is making its 27th appearance in the NCAA tournament, with an all-time record of 30-26, nine Final Fours, four appearances in the finals and one NCAA title (2012). Princeton’s 30 NCAA wins are tied with Iowa for the sixth-most, one behind Wake Forest’s 31.
I – Ivy History
Princeton (No. 2 seed), Harvard (No. 3 seed) and Yale (unseeded) are all in the NCAA tournament field, marking the first time there have been three Ivy League teams.
J – Just The Facts
Beth Yeager leads the Ivy League in points this season with 33 (12G, 9A). She is also one of two Princeton field hockey players ever with at least 56 career goals and 34 career assists (Kirsty Hale is the other). Yeager ranks fifth in career goals at Princeton (56, four behind Amy MacFarlane for fourth) and sixth at Princeton in career assists (34, one behind Kathleen Kelly and Julia Reinprecht for fourth). Yeager and Ryleigh Heck of UNC are the only two active players in Division I with at least 56 goals and 34 assists. Yeager has done this despite being slowed most of the season by a broken bone in her left hand suffered at the Pan Am Cup this August while competing with the USA National Team, an injury that required surgery three weeks before the season began. Yeager also started every game at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
K – Know This
Princeton is 30-9 since the start of the 2024 season, with one Ivy League championship, one Ivy League tournament championship, two NCAA appearances and one quarterfinal appearance.
L – Leaders
Princeton is led by three captains for the 2025 season: seniors Ella Hampson and Beth Yeager and junior Ella Cashman. Yeager is now the 18th player in program history to be a two-time captain.
M – Most Outstanding
Beth Yeager was named the Most Outstanding Player at the Ivy League tournament last week. Grace Schulze, who graduated from Princeton last year as is now a grad student who is playing at Northwestern, was the Most Outstanding Player of the Big Ten tournament.
N – Nicely Done
Princeton had seven players earn All-Ivy League honors when the teams were announced this week. Beth Yeager became a four-time unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection, and she was joined on the first team by junior Ella Cashman (now a three-time All-Ivy pick, including first team the last two years) and sophomore Clem Houlden, who has been a first-team All-Ivy pick each of her first two seasons. Princeton had three second-team selections: junior goalie Olivia Caponiti, defender Ottilie Sykes (now a three-time All-Ivy pick) and freshman forward Caitlin Thompson. Helena Große was the team’s Academic All-Ivy selection.
O – Olivia
Princeton goalie Olivia Caponiti ranks fourth in Division I in goals-against average at 0.88. Caponiti, a second-team All-Ivy selection, played in three games for a total of 46:19 in her first two seasons and has now started the last 17 games and played 1,055:03 this season.
P – Player Of The Week
Princeton has had six different players earn at least one Ivy League Player of the Week honor this season: Olivia Caponiti, Ella Cashman, Pru Lindsey, Izzy Morgan Ottilie Sykes and Beth Yeager. Caponiti and Yeager earned two each, and Caponiti also had one Division I National Defensive Player of the Week Award.
Q – Quite A Stat
Princeton starts only one senior, Beth Yeager. Princeton’s starting 11 has three freshmen (Gabriella Anderson, Saylor Milone, Caitlin Thompson), four sophomores (Anna Faulstich, Clem Houlden, Pru Lindsey, Izzy Morgan), three juniors (Olivia Caponiti, Ella Cashman, Ottilie Sykes) and one senior (Yeager).
R – Right At The Top
Princeton has two of the top four leaders in the Ivy League in assists (Beth Yeager and Anna Faulstich, tied for second with nine) and three of the top seven (Pru Lindsey in a three-way tie for fifth with eight).
S – Series History
Princeton and Fairfield have met only once, back in 2013, in a game Princeton won 4-3.
T – Tigers
Princeton has seven players who have started every game of their career: Ella Cashman, Anna Faulstich, Clem Houlden, Saylor Milone, Ottilie Sykes, Caitlin Thompson, Beth Yeager.
U – USA
Princeton was well-represented with USA Field Hockey this past summer. Beth Yeager, a 2024 Olympian, won a silver medal at the Pan Am Cup in Uruguay, scoring four goals in the tournament. Talia Schenck also won silver and also scored four goals, at the Junior Pan Am Games in Paraguay. Assistant coach Pat Harris was a silver medalist with the USA men’s team at the Pan Am Cup.
V – Vietnam
Princeton’s Clem Houlden and Molly Nye spent the summer in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam as part of the Coach For College program. Houlden taught biology and coached volleyball to middle schoolers, while Nye taught English and coached volleyball at a different middle school.
W – Woj
Lilly Wojcik scored her first career goal in Princeton’s 3-0 regular season finale win over Columbia.
X – X-Factor
Princeton had six players on the NFHCA preseason Watchlist: Ella Cashman, Anna Faulstich, Clem Houlden, Talia Schenck, Ottilie Sykes, Beth Yeager.
Y – Youth Movement
Princeton has started at least two freshmen in every game since the start of the 2023 season.
Z – Zinger
Fairfield enters the game with three straight shutouts and has not allowed a goal in its last 208:14, dating to a first quarter goal by St. Francis on Oct. 31.
