Field Hockey: Familiar non-league foes visit 1952 Stadium

After a double-overtime victory against Columbia last Saturday, the field hockey team — led by its two leading scorers, freshman midfielder Sydney Kirby and freshman forward Allison Evans — is poised to build winning momentum in two upcoming non-conference games.

The Tigers (4-5 overall, 2-1 Ivy League) will play Virginia (6-7) tonight and Wake Forest (2-8) on Sunday at 1952 Stadium. Princeton does not resume conference play until Oct. 15 when it plays Brown, which is currently at the bottom of the league standings.

Evans and Kirby have been setting up big offensive plays throughout the season. Despite coming off the bench in all but three games, Kirby usually plays most of the match and leads the Tigers with five goals and five assists. For her performance against Maryland and Columbia, including the game-winning goal against the Lions in double overtime, she was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week, just as Evans had been earlier in the season.

The pair has combined for nine of 17 Princeton goals and is responsible for half of the team’s assists. Four times this year, one of the freshmen has set up the other to score.

“[Evans is] so incredibly skilled, and it’s easy to make the right leads when she’s almost always going to beat the players in front of her,” Kirby said. “I think she isolates defenders really well, which sets up many of our scoring opportunities.”

“We just seem to know where each other are on the field,” Evans said.

The Tigers are in a four-way tie for second place in the Ivy League, trailing a Dartmouth team that is undefeated in conference play, including a 2-1 victory over the Tigers. Even though this weekend’s games do not affect Princeton’s conference standings, the Tigers are not taking them lightly.

“We are really trying to amp up the energy in practice so we bring it to the game,” Evans said.

“The non-conference games are really important for us because they help us prepare for the tough Ivy League games,” Evans added. “A lot of other Ivy League teams don’t play as hard as we do at non-conference games, but we use it as a learning process.”

Wake Forest and Virginia, like the Tigers, have losing records. But, as Evans said, “they’re both very strong teams with a lot of legacy being strong.”

Princeton is familiar with its opponents’ history. Last season, Princeton faced both Wake Forest and Virginia in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers defeated Wake Forest 3-1 but fell 4-2 at Virginia in the quarterfinals.

“We may play [Virginia] with a hint of vengeance in the back of our minds,” sophomore goalie Christina Maida said.

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Wake Forest and Virginia have been running into troubles this season in a competitive Atlantic Coast Conference, which includes No. 2 North Carolina, No. 3 Maryland, No. 8 Duke and No. 9 Boston College. Six of Wake Forest’s eight losses came at the hands of teams ranked in the top 20, and only one team outside the top 20 has defeated Virginia. The Demon Deacons held their own against the second-ranked Tar Heels, losing in overtime in the first game and 1-0 in the second.

“[Virginia and Wake Forest] are fast, precise, and they play hard for the full 70 minutes. Both teams are very skilled and will take advantage of any chance we give them to score,” Maida said. “[Wake Forest is] a strong team with a lot of talent, some very skilled foreign players and a lot of muscle.”

Two star Catamounts — first team All-Americas Paige Selenski and Michelle Vittese — left the program this fall to train with Team USA. Princeton also saw four of its top players leave for the national team, but the Tigers do not blame their poor record on that. “Any game we lost has nothing to do with their absence, and we would never blame a loss on that,” Maida said.

The Tigers said that they are less concerned about their opponents than with excelling in their own performances. “We play with the mindset of the ‘faceless opponent,’ ” Maida said.

Kirby echoed that sentiment. “People focus too much on who the opposing team is and what they’re supposed to be like,” she said.

The defense will have to be prepared to withstand the brunt of the potent Wake Forest and Virginia offenses. Virginia striker Elly Buckley will be a particular threat, leading her team with 41 shots, six assists and 10 goals. When she can break into the circle and make a shot on goal, she has converted 71 percent of the time.

Wake Forest does not feature a player with similar numbers, but the Demon Deacons have been persistent in games, scoring more than two-thirds of their goals after halftime. The Princeton defense will have to play for the full 70 minutes and maintain communication throughout the game.

“My biggest expectation for myself in these two games is to completely organize the defense at all times in order to avoid any breakaways, limit the amount of corners the opposition gets and force them to take predictable shots,” Maida said.

With communication on defense to hold back the fast offenses of Wake Forest and Virginia and the aggressive playmaking of Kirby and Evans, the Tigers hope to win this weekend’s games and build their confidence for the resumption of conference play next weekend.