No. 15 Princeton Bests Big Green in Ivy Opener

Saturday, September 20

Princeton, N.J.

12 p.m.

Dartmouth College

Princeton

No. 15 Princeton Bests Big Green in Ivy Opener

9/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey

By: Dartmouth

Box Score

HANOVER, N.H. - Despite an impressive 18-save effort from freshman goalkeeper Meagan Vakiener (Port Murray, N.J.), the Dartmouth field hockey team dropped its first Ivy League contest, 4-0, to the 15th-ranked Tigers of Princeton on Saturday afternoon.

Princeton (4-1, 1-0 Ivy) wasted no time going on top 1-0 as Kraftlin Schrayer tallied her second goal of the season with the assist going to Katie Reinprecht. The Tigers got their first opportunity 1:45 into the game with Kristin Schwab firing a shot on net which Vakiener (made the save. Princeton, however earned its first penalty corner a couple of minutes later and the Tigers capitalized on the score from Schrayer.

The Big Green (0-4, 0-1 Ivy), however was able to hang in the game thanks to 10 first-half stops from Vakiener. Princeton kept the action on Dartmouth's side of the field with 18 shots in the opening half, with five coming from Shrayer. The Big Green was lucky to be only down one going into the second half.

In the second half, the Tigers continued to pressure Dartmouth as Princeton fired four shots on net in the first three minutes. Vakiener pushed aside the first three shots, but Kathleen Sharkey found the back of the net for the 2-0 advantage. Reinpracht assisted on the goal for the her second of the contest.

The Tigers took a commanding 3-0 lead about four minutes later when Marissa Pyros scored off another penalty corner for Princeton. She deflected a pass from Schwab into the top corner of the goal for another insurance goal. The Tigers added to their lead late in the game on a goal by Christina Borta with the assist going to Allison Behringer to make it 4-0 in favor of Princeton.

Vakiener finished with seven second-half saves, while the Big Green could only register one shot, which went wide off the stick of freshman Kelly Hood (Berlin, N.H.).

Dartmouth will be back in action this coming Wednesday as the Big Green faces their neighbors to the west with the Vermont Catamounts coming to Hanover for a 3 p.m. start from Chase Field.