No. 10 Princeton Falls To No. 2 Maryland In Yet Another Shootout

Tuesday, September 29

4:00 PM

Princeton University

(4-4)

Maryland

(10-0)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Maryland	2	0	0	1	1	4
Princeton	0	1	0	2	0	3

September 29, 2026 | Field Hockey

Box Score

This is getting ridiculous.

For the fourth time in eight games and third time in a row, the Princeton field hockey team lost a game in a shootout, this time to unbeaten and second-ranked Maryland, 4-3 on Bedford Field. This follows consecutive shootout losses to UConn and Harvard, who along with Maryland are a combined 23-2 and are ranked seventh and eighth. That makes it three shootout losses to top eight teams, along with one against another national power, North Carolina.

Princeton is now 4-4, with four regulation wins to go with the shootout losses. The game against Maryland saw Princeton tie it after twice trailing by two goals, finally evening the score with a pair of goals 1:29 apart late it the fourth. The loss also overshadowed an extraordinary afternoon from Ottilie Sykes, the defender who played all 75 minutes and scored two of the three Tigers goals, including the tying score on a penalty stroke with 3:25 to go, a little more than a minute after Anna Faulstich banged in a rebound to cut the Maryland lead to 3-2.

The teams came into the game ranked 1-2 in Division I in scoring defense and then had six goals scored in regulation. The first two came from Maryland, including the first goal allowed by the Tigers in the run of play all season to make it 1-0 and then a second on a penalty corner. Sykes reversed a rebound into the cage in the second quarter, making it 2-1 at the break, and then Maryland built it back to two with a penalty stroke goal early in the fourth before Princeton rallied to tie it.

How about two goals in 1:19? Ottilie ties it on the penalty stroke. Suddenly 3-3, late second. pic.twitter.com/uAoBRgefUa
— Princeton FH (@TigerFH) September 29, 2026

Maryland got a stop and score in the first round of the shootout, and Faulstich converted her attempt to even it at 1-1 in the second round. Princeton would not convert again, and Maryland got the winner in the fifth round, after Olivia Caponiti had made three great stops in rounds two through four.

Princeton and Maryland have now played 11 straight one-goal games. The loss snapped a four-game Tiger winning streak in the series.

Princeton has played four shootout games this season after playing two total (in 30 games that went to overtime) in the last 10 years.

Princeton will be home Friday against Yale (5) and then Temple Sunday (noon).