Princeton University Athletics
Monday TigerBlog - Through The Tears, Reasons To Smile
November 24, 2025 | Tiger Blog
There were tears flowing freely from Olivia Caponiti's eyes, and on this day, there would only be two options.
Tears, or euphoria. There would be no middle ground, not with these stakes, not with this margin for error.
For one team, there would be the sheer, unimaginable joy of winning the NCAA field hockey championship. For the other team, there would be the sheer, unimaginable agony of having come sooooo close to the big prize.
In the end, it was Northwestern, who cashed in a penalty corner in the second overtime for a 2-1 win, who got to experience the joy. And that left Princeton with only one available emotion, and as such, hence the tears.
They didn't form only in the eyes of Olivia Caponiti, of course. The finality of such a loss in such a situation is brutal, and pretty much everyone in a Princeton uniform had the same reaction as Caponiti.
It's just that Caponiti was standing closest to TigerBlog near the Princeton bench afterwards, and her tears were the first ones TB saw.
He wanted to say something to make it better. He wanted to tell her that she had played a remarkable game in the Tiger goal, that there was no way that the game would have gone as long as it did without her. He wanted to tell her that she had made some extraordinary ones among her career-high eight saves, the kind that only the elite of the elite would make.
Liv says no again and now has seven saves. We're off to the second 10-minute OT. A goal means the NCAA championship; no goal in 10 more min means a shootout to decide it.
— Princeton FH (@TigerFH) November 23, 2025
?? https://t.co/c3pRMcmSxi (ESPNU) pic.twitter.com/YSTDGaHnwU
He wanted to tell her that, as a junior, she'd be back next year. He wanted to tell her that she had gone from a two-year backup to one of the best goalies in the country, and that this glorious run to late November would have never happened without her, both in the cage and everywhere else she was as part of this team.
There was no team gathering where her voice, her laugh, didn't rise about the din. There was no team member who, or even season-long observer, who didn't feel better about things when Caponiti was around.
Of course, in the moment, none of that would have made any difference to her. Or to any of the other Tigers.
It'll take some time, actually. And when it does, what will stick out are moments that put them in position to have it hurt this badly.
TigerBlog had a front row seat for all of it. He saw first-hand how a team can gel and go from a win-some, lose-some 4-3 start to the season that included a home loss to Harvard on Sept. 26 that essentially meant the Ivy League championship to a team that learned how to win and did so 14 straight times until yesterday.
Along the way, there were two wins over Harvard — a team that went 19-0 against the rest of Division I — including in the Ivy tournament final and then the NCAA semifinals. There were countless wins over the top of Division I, including a 3-2 regular-season win at Northwestern that is the Wildcats' only defeat in their last 27 games.
Could the Tigers repeat that?
Oh, did they come close. They led 1-0 after three, scoring with two minutes to go when Beth Yeager scored her 59th and final goal as a Tiger, fittingly on a drag flick penalty corner shot. Through it all, Northwestern continued to pressure Princeton's defense in a way that no other team could this year
Princeton allowed only 13 shots in its first three NCAA games. Northwestern threw 16 at Caponiti and her defense; the only other game where the opponent had more shots was the first meeting with Northwestern, where the Wildcats had 18.
You cannot defend any better than Princeton did this weekend. The Tigers wiped out Harvard, allowing five shots and no goals in the 2-0 semifinal win. This time, Princeton kept Northwestern — the third-highest scoring team in Division I — off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter, when the game was tied off one of the 10 penalty corners. It was another penalty corner that won it in the second overtime.
What can you say about Princeton's defense? Ottilie Sykes might as well have been a roadblock. The same is true of freshman Gabriella Anderson. And sophomore Clem Houlden. And freshman Tabby Vaughan.
They were ferocious, limiting Northwestern's swarming offense. Oh, and then there was Ella Cashman, a junior.
Does it get tougher? She tore her ACL, completely, in the Ivy tournament final. She missed the first two NCAA games. There was no way she was missing the Final Four, and she didn't. Somehow, Cashman and athletic trainer Jade Hennessy pieced her together just enough to play about half of each game this weekend. And play well.
Princeton started four freshmen and four sophomores. It's a young team with an incredibly bright future. And a present of which they should all be incredibly proud.
Yesterday afternoon, that didn't really matter much in the brutal moment when the ball hit the back of the cage to end it.
You wanted to be the team in the dogpile on the blue turf at Duke.
Instead, you were the team whose tears fell to that turf.
In the moment, no words would help. In the long run?
They'll be as proud of themselves as TigerBlog is of them. Thanks for the front row seat.
You are one amazing team.
