Field Hockey: No. 2 Princeton hands No. 4 UConn 1st loss

The field hockey team continued its impressive play this weekend with a couple of home wins over Harvard and Connecticut. The big game was against Connecticut on Sunday (16-1), which was undefeated coming into the game. The No. 4 Huskies are the sixth ranked team that No. 2 Princeton (13-1 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) has had to play so far in the season. The Tigers have succeeded in all but one of these matchups, in which they fell to then-No. 2 Syracuse.

“I think this win is really great for our confidence,” senior back Amy Donovan said. “We had a break with two weeks not playing any ranked opponents, so this really gets us back into the mindset of going out there against a really tough team, bringing our game and coming out with a win.”

The game started off well for Princeton, as freshman midfielder Teresa Benvenuti scored in the fifth minute to quickly give the Tigers the lead. Both teams went scoreless for the rest of the half, but Princeton struck quickly again when sophomore midfielder Sydney Kirby found the back of the net four minutes into the second frame, a goal that was the eventual game-winner.

The Tigers extended their lead even further when senior striker Kathleen Sharkey scored her 22nd goal of the season in the 47th minute. However, the Huskies did find a way to score eventually, with a shot from UConn back Alicia Angelini ending Princeton’s streak of three consecutive shutouts. Princeton ended up scoring a final goal at the end of the game, another from Sharkey with an assist from Kirby, sealing a 4-1 victory for the Tigers.

“This was a huge win for us,” Donovan said. “Beating UConn, who was undefeated coming in, really shows our mentality coming into this last phase of the season and the tournament.”

Although the Tigers had the edge in shots on target, sophomore goalkeeper Julia Boyle was fairly active, making five saves to help Princeton get the win after not having faced a shot on target in one half of play the day before against Harvard.

“I think the keys were just totally connecting as a team and everyone doing their role and coming in and doing their part to come out with a win,” Donovan said of the team’s effort.

The game against the Huskies was the big one for the Tigers, but they also faced Harvard the day before. Princeton dominated that game, as it only faced three shots on goal for the entire game and five different Tigers scored as the team easily took that game by a score of 7-0. Benvenuti had two consecutive goals, both late in the second half, while junior striker Michelle Cesan had a pair of consecutive goals of her own in the first half. Senior midfielder Katie Reinprecht, freshman striker Maddie Copeland and junior back Amanda Bird also tallied goals for Princeton in the dominating win on Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers outshot the Crimson 31-4 and had 11 penalty corners to Harvard’s one. Other than the Crimson’s three shots on goal, Harvard was only able to manage one other shot attempt in Princeton’s rout of its rival.

Next up, the Tigers will travel to Cornell and then No. 5 Virginia in what will be a huge game for the team.