Columbia’s field hockey team (6-3, 2-1 Ivy) saw its six-game winning streak broken in an 8-0 defeat to Ivy powerhouse Princeton (8-1, 3-0 Ivy) on Friday night. The Tigers have won at least a share of the last seven Ivy titles and remain the favorite to win the conference crown.
Princeton dominated the first half, outshooting Columbia 20 to zero. The Tigers scored first at the 6:21 mark and scored three more goals in the next nine minutes, giving them a commanding 4-0 lead. The Lions had difficulty stopping Princeton’s Katie Reinprecht, who assisted on three of the Tigers’ first four goals. Columbia managed to stabilize the game toward the middle of the first half, but Princeton scored two goals later in the half to take a 6-0 lead going into halftime.
The Lions performed much better in the second half, managing eight shots and eight penalty corners. Columbia forced Princeton goalkeeper Julia Boyle into three second-half saves, but failed to score. The Tigers’ second-half offensive performance was much less impressive, as they only forced Columbia senior goalkeeper Christie O’Hara into facing three saves. Nevertheless, the Tigers managed to score two more second-half goals, including the 19th goal this season from Kathleen Sharkey, who leads NCAA Division 1 in goals.
Columbia head coach Marybeth Freeman was appreciative of her team’s second-half effort.
“I thought we did a good job of coming back in the second half against them,” Freeman said. “We definitely focused on what we needed to do in the second half as far as our pressing and marking and really our basic fundamental skills, which really helped us out in the second half. I think we got really got away from the Columbia way of thinking in the first half but in the second half we found a way to put pressure on them a little bit and really play our way of hockey.”
The Lions will return to action on Wednesday when they host Rider. The game will start at 7 p.m. at the Columbia Field Hockey Venue.
