After a massive win over No. 6 Maryland earlier in the week, No. 12 Princeton field hockey (11–4 overall, 6–0 Ivy League) beat Dartmouth (3–12, 0–6) 5–1 on Sunday afternoon, clinching the number one seed in the Ivy League Field Hockey Tournament. In addition to clinching home field advantage in the upcoming tournament, the program honored this year’s senior class prior to the game Sunday.
The six seniors being honored included goalkeeper Robyn Thompson, defender Gracie McGowan, forward Lily Webb, forward Grace Schulze, forward/midfielder Aimee Jungfer, and forward/midfielder Clare Brennan. For this senior class, the players began their Princeton careers right in the midst of the pandemic, and will end their time at Princeton with a legitimate chance at a national title after an Ivy League Championship loss last season.
“Their leadership has just been tremendous. We just talked about in the huddle how they've had, they’ve had to earn this and get the program back to this point, [they] are a special group,” Head Coach Carla Tagliente told The Daily Princetonian.
“Last year was a year we fell short, and that’s not lost upon us, but the work that they put in to get this program back to winning championships is, you know, I'm just proud of them,” she added.
Fresh from the upset over Maryland, the Tigers really wanted to put their foot on the gas against a lesser quality opponent in Dartmouth. Even with the stakes of the game being massive, the Tigers wanted to work on the finer areas of their game in order to really assert themselves moving forward.
“[The goal] was to build on Friday’s performance, and to not play to whatever Dartmouth brings, but to raise the standard and play at the level [Princeton] was playing at on Friday,” Tagliente explained. “That’s like a championship level for us.”
Within the initial five minutes of gameplay, the Tigers easily entered the circle to score two of their five goals. Junior midfielder Beth Yeager dragged in the Tigers’ first during a corner, assisted by junior forward Talia Schenck. Schenck also added her own goal less than two minutes later, assisted by Lily Webb to set the tone early for Princeton. Not even five minutes into the game, the Tigers grabbed the commanding 2–0 advantage and already had the game well within control.
The majority of the second quarter was back and forth possessions with the Big Green advancing the ball to the Tigers circle for the first of their limited offensive runs. On a foul call, Yeager was awarded a penalty stroke and lifted the ball into the net, making the score entering halftime 3–0 Princeton.
After halftime, the Tigers didn’t let up. They commanded the third quarter with corner after corner. Yeager was able to connect yet again with 48 seconds left in the quarter, putting the Tigers up 4–0 and getting herself a hat trick in the process. The three goals raised Yeager’s season total to 14 for the year.
This weekend, Yeager moved up the ranks as the eighth all-time career points scorer at Princeton, and she was awarded the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week for the fourth time this season.
In the fourth quarter, Dartmouth found the goal for the first time in this matchup. During a corner, defender Helen Young redirected the ball into the goal off of a rebound. Ultimately, this would not be enough to match Princeton’s offensive efforts, as the Tigers continued to control the game with a comfortable lead.
In the final seconds of the fourth quarter, to top it all off, Webb was able to score her own goal, which was assisted by fellow senior Clare Brennan.
“The composure from both of us is just so special,” Webb told the ‘Prince.’ “To have that in the last play of senior day was just awesome.”
Webb added that “after last year [the Tigers] really wanted to come back and prove a point and win the Ivy Championship and bring it back to Princeton.” Sunday’s win gave the Tigers their 28th Ivy League title, their second in the last three seasons, and Coach Tagliente’s fourth title as the Tigers’ head coach.
“We’re very close just because of everything we’ve been through over the last four in some five years,” Webb said.
Princeton will face Yale (10–5, 3–3) this upcoming Saturday and host the Ivy League Tournament starting November 8th. After that, the Tigers will host the Ivy League Tournament, where No. 10 Harvard (12–3, 5–1) is projected to be the Tigers’ biggest threat to the conference title.
Emilia Reay is a Sports contributor at the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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