Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Northwestern
Princeton, Northwestern Square Off In NCAA Championship Game
November 22, 2025 | Field Hockey
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
No. 2 PRINCETON (18-3) vs. NORTHWESTERN (21-1)
Sunday, Nov. 23 • 1 pm
Williams Field at Jack Kraft Stadium • Duke University • Durham, N.J.
ESPNU
A – About
Princeton and Northwestern meet for the NCAA championship. Northwestern enters the game with a record of 21-1, with its only loss by a 3-2 count to Princeton in Evanston on Oct. 13. Princeton is 18-3 and has won 14 straight games since a 4-3 start; the streak is the second-longest in program history and longest in the course of one season (Princeton won 17 straight from 2012-13). Princeton has not trailed at any point during its current winning streak.
B – Back In October
Princeton defeated Northwestern 3-2 on Oct. 12 at Northwestern, with goals from Ottilie Sykes, Molly Nye and Beth Yeager. Sykes scored 5:35 into the game off a penalty corner before Piper Borz answered, also on a penalty corner, midway through the second quarter, evening it at 1-1 at the break. Nye and Yeager scored their goals to make it 3-1 Princeton with 11 minutes to, but Ashley Sessa cut the lead to one with 4:32 remaining. Northwestern then had three penalty corners in the final 30 seconds with a chance to tie but couldn’t, as Tiger goalie Olivia Caponiti made two of her six saves that stretch.
C –Champs, Defending
Northwestern is the defending NCAA champion after defeating St. Joe’s 5-0 in the 2024 final in a game that was 3-0 after the first quarter. In fact, the Wildcats are 25-1 in their last 26 games, with the only loss in that stretch the game against Princeton on Oct. 13 in Evanston.
D – D Plus
Northwestern (0.77) and Princeton (0.85) rank 3-4 in Division I in scoring defense, behind only UMass and Harvard.
E – Even More D
Princeton has allowed 17 shots in three NCAA tournament games. Northwestern averages 18.4 shots per game and took 18 in the regular-season game for the most Princeton allowed all season. Princeton has allowed 7.0 shots per game for the season, its lowest total since allowing 6.0 in 2018.
F – Finally
Princeton is playing in its fifth NCAA championship game and is 1-3 in the first four. Princeton lost 3-0 to UNC in the 1996 final, lost to Old Dominion 3-2 in the 1998 final, defeated North Carolina 3-2 in the 2012 final and lost to North Carolina 6-1 in the 2019 final.
G – Grace
Northwestern’s Grace Schulze, the team’s second-leading scorer with 14 goals, is a Princeton alum who was a two-time All-Ivy League selection.
H – Hammo, Cash, Beth
Princeton has three captains — Ella Hampson, Ella Cashman and Beth Yeager.
I – Izzy, Caitlin, Pru, Anna
Izzy Morgan, Caitlin Thompson, Pru Lindsey and Anna Faulstich had a combined one goal and five assists (0.86 points per game) in the first seven games, in which Princeton went 4-3. Those four have combined for 21 goals and 23 assists (3.14 points per game) in the last 14 games, all wins.
J – Jade
Ella Cashman is a two-time first-team All-Ivy selection who had started every game of her career before tearing her ACL in the Ivy League tournament final two weeks ago. After missing the first two NCAA games, Cashman played nearly half of the NCAA semifinal win over Harvard, despite the injury. Cashman, who will have surgery in the next week or so, worked extensively with Princeton athletic trainer Jade Hennessy to be able to get onto the field.
K – Know This
Princeton is making its 27th appearance in the NCAA tournament, with an all-time record of 34-26, nine Final Fours, five appearances in the finals and one NCAA title (2012). Princeton’s 34 NCAA wins are fifth all-time.
L – Liv
Princeton goalie Olivia Caponiti ranks fourth in Division I in goals-against average (0.81), and she has a 0.67 GAA in the three NCAA tournament games. Caponiti has started the last 20 games and played 1,189:44 minutes this season after playing a total of 46:19 in her first two seasons combined. Caponiti made a season-high six saves against Northwestern in the regular season.
M – Mentor
Princeton head coach Carla Tagliente was the associate head coach at Northwestern in 2009 and 2010, under current Wildcat head coach Tracey Fuchs; both were assistant coaches at Michigan from 2006-09. Tagliente, Fuchs and Princeton associate head coach Dina Rizzo were also teammates on the U.S. National Team.
N – NCAA Career Scoring
Princeton has six players who have scored goals in NCAA tournament games: Beth Yeager with three and Izzy Morgan, Pru Lindsey, Anna Faulstich, Caitlin Thompson and Ella Hampson with one each. Morgan also has two career NCAA tournament assists, while Lindsey, Yeager and Faulstich have one each.
O – Offense
Princeton has scored 55 goals this season, of which 12 came in the first seven games (1.7 per game, four wins, three losses) and now 43 have come in the last 14 (3.07 per game, 14 wins, 0 losses). Princeton has had 30 goals come from freshmen and sophomores and 25 come from juniors and seniors. In the NCAA tournament, Princeton has scored seven goals, of which three have come from seniors (Beth Yeager two, Ella Hampson one), three from sophomores (one each for Izzy Morgan, Pru Lindsey and Anna Faulstich) and one by a freshman (Caitlin Thompson).
P – Pros
Carla Tagliente and Dina Rizzo are in their ninth season together at Princeton with a record of 118-54, seven NCAA tournaments and now two NCAA finals and three Final Fours.
Q – Quite A Stat
The team scoring first is 20-1 in Princeton’s 21 games so far this season. The only time a team scored first but didn’t win was in Princeton’s 3-2 loss to North Carolina back on Sept. 7, when Princeton scored the first goal.
R – Record Book
Beth Yeager (58G, 35A) is one of two Princeton field hockey players ever with at least those career numbers (Kirsty Hale is the other). Yeager ranks fifth in career goals at Princeton (58, two behind Amy MacFarlane for fourth) and fourth at Princeton in career assists (35, three behind Hilary Matson for third). Yeager and Ryleigh Heck of UNC are the only two active players in Division I with at least 58 goals and 35 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.
S – Series History
Northwestern leads the all-time series with Princeton 3-2, with a Princeton win in Princeton in 1981 and then three straight Wildcat wins the last three years — 2-1 in Princeton in 2022, 4-0 Northwestern in Evanston in 2023 and 3-2 in Princeton a year ago — and the Princeton win this year.
T – Ten Of Each, At Least
Beth Yeager (14G, 10A) is one of seven players in Division I with at least 10 goals and at last 10 assists. She’s also one of three players in Division I to do so each of the last two years, along with Northwestern’s Ashley Sessa and UNC’s Ryleigh Heck. Yeager is one of four Princeton players to have double figures in both in the same season and one of three to do it twice (Katie Reinprecht, Michelle Cesan both did it twice each; Clara Roth did so once).
U – USA
Princeton’s Beth Yeager was teammates with Northwestern’s Ashley Sessa and Maddie Zimmer on the 2024 United States Olympic team in Paris.
V – Very Good
Beth Yeager is a four-time Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, the first in Ivy history (shared honors with Harvard’s Sage Pierkarski this year), and a four-time unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection, as well as the Most Outstanding Player at the Ivy tournament. Should she earn first-team All-American honors again, she’d be the first Ivy player to do so four times. Princeton had three first-team All-Ivy players (Yeager, Ella Cashman, Clem Houlden) and three second-team players (Olivia Caponiti, Ottilie Sykes, Caitlin Thompson). Yeager, Cashman, Sykes and Pru Lindsey were on the Ivy League all-tournament team. Yeager and Harvard’s Bronte-May Brough became the seventh and eighth field hockey players to be four-time first-team All-Ivy League selections.
W – Winning
Princeton is 11-0 when leading at the half and 0-1 when trailing at the half. The other nine games were tied at the half.
X – X-Factor
Ottilie Sykes has played every minute of 20 of 21 games this season. Clem Houlden has played every minute of 17 of 21 games.
Y – Youth Movement
Princeton has started four freshmen in both of its NCAA tournament games this season: Gabriella Anderson, Saylor Milone, Caitlin Thompson, Tabby Vaughan. In fact, Princeton has also started four sophomores in both games: Anna Faulstich, Clem Houlden, Pru Lindsey, Izzy Morgan.
Z – Zinger
Princeton is 32-9 since the start of the 2024 season, with one Ivy League championship, one Ivy League tournament championship, two NCAA quarterfinal appearances and now an NCAA championship game appearance.
