MOP Yeager's Redemption Gives Princeton Ivy Tournament Championship

Sunday, November 9

Cambridge, MA

12:00 PM

Princeton University

(15-3, 6-1Ivy)

Harvard

(17-1, 7-0Ivy)

Princeton

Harvard

Photo by: Geoffrey Bolte

MOP Yeager's Redemption Gives Princeton Ivy Tournament Championship

November 09, 2025 | Field Hockey

Box Score

Third quarter. Tie game. Ivy League tournament final. Princeton, with a 10-game winning streak. Harvard, the lone unbeaten team in Division I.

Up steps Beth Yeager for a penalty stroke to put her team on top. Whistle. Shot ... and saved.

Sometimes, redemption never comes. Other times, it comes two minutes later. That's how long it took for Princeton to draw a penalty corner and to have Yeager do what she does best, drag flick a rocket into the back of the cage. This time, it was for what proved to be the winner, as Princeton knocked off host Harvard 2-1 in an absolute thriller.

Yeager's redemption earned her tournament Most Outstanding Player honors. She was joined on the All-Tournament team by fellow Tigers Ella Cashman, Pru Lindsey and Ottilie Sykes.

Two minutes after being stopped on a penalty stroke, Beth Yeager earned her redemption with this. Tigers up 2-1 late third.

?? https://t.co/ABbxxzNBrY (ESPN+) pic.twitter.com/o4xevaNQ38
— Princeton FH (@TigerFH) November 9, 2025

Princeton and Harvard have now played in the championship game of all three Ivy tournament finals, and all three have been 2-1 scores, with Harvard's having won the first two. Harvard also defeated Princeton 3-1 on Bedford Field earlier this season.

With the Ivy tournament championship, Princeton earns the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, whose seeds and pairings will be announced Sunday night at 10. Princeton and Harvard were both locks to be in the field, what with their top three RPIs, and they both are very likely to be hosting the first and second rounds this coming weekend.

Still, that didn't stop them from playing a classic, one that was in doubt to the final whistle.

Princeton maintained its one-goal lead through a five-minute yellow card that ended with 7:08 left in the fourth. Harvard pulled its goalie two minutes later, and though Princeton was controlling possession after that, you just knew that the Crimson would have one more push.

And that came in the final 56 seconds. In fact, for the first 59:04 of the game, the Crimson managed five shots. They got four more in the last 56 — but could not get the equalizer. Had the game gone another 10 or 15 seconds, Harvard probably would have been able to get off a few more shots.

Yeager set up the first Tiger goal with a long run that drew a stroke in the second quarter, and Lindsey knocked it in to make it 1-0 Tigers. Harvard tied it when Lara Beekhuis ripped a reverse in to the far corner three minutes later, and it was 1-1 at the break.

Linde Burger, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, knocked aside the stroke attempt from Yeager, which was set up by Lilly Wojcik's run into the circle, with 4:43 gone in the third. At that point, Harvard had all the momentum.

It didn't last.

Yeager ripped the penalty corner flick into the cage, assists to Wojcik and Izzy Morgan, exactly two minutes and nine seconds later. That's what the great ones do — put disappointments behind them and earn their redemption. And their Most Outstanding Player award.