Big Green Square Off With No. 2 Princeton in Road Swing Finale

SATURDAY'S GAME
The Dartmouth field hockey team will return to the field Saturday at noon. And for the second-straight game, the Big Green will meet up with a team ranked nationally in the top three by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association's (NFHCA) most recent poll as they head to No. 2 Princeton. The meeting is the Ivy League opener for both teams and the finale of a three-game road swing for Dartmouth.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green are coming off an 0-2 weekend at the Terrapin Invitational in College Park, Md. Dartmouth fell, 3-0, in its opener of the two-day event to American, before the hosts and defending national champs from Maryland took the second game of the weekend, 6-0. The Terps came into its own tournament as the No. 3 team in the country, reinforcing that ranking with two wins over UMass and Dartmouth by a combined score of 11-0.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Princeton will host the Green and White on Saturday with little rest before its next game against Delaware the following afternoon. The Tigers enter the weekend as the second-ranked team in the country, but with the most first-place votes in the latest NFHCA poll with 15. Kathleen Sharkey leads the team with eight goals and 18 points, while Christina Maida has played all 282:17 in goal for Princeton, recording a 1.74 goals-against average and a save percentage of .632. The team is coming off a 2-1 win at home to Richmond in its most recent contest (Sept. 9).

WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME?
The last meeting between these two teams came nearly a year ago when the Big Green upset the Tigers, 2-1, in Hanover on Sept. 17. The win, sparked by two goals from then-senior Kelly Hood '12, was the first for Dartmouth over Princeton since 2004. In earning the upset victory that afternoon, the Big Green snapped the Tigers' 24-game win streak against Ivy League opponents dating back to early in the 2007 season.

THIS SHALL PASS
The current stretch of play without a goal is something new for the Green and White. Prior to the loss to American on Saturday, Dartmouth had not been shutout in a game since falling, 1-0, to Cornell in the finale of the 2009 campaign on Nov. 7. The team had not been kept off the scoreboard in back-to-back games in more than four years as well.

STILL LEADING
On the strength of her two goals against UMass and assist versus Northeastern, senior co-captain Lisa Masini (Ann Arbor, Mich.) remains the leading scorer headed into the third weekend of play with five points.

RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE
The goalkeeping duo of senior Jenna Stearns (Thornton, N.H.) and sophomore Ellen Meyer (Prospect, Ky.) have split time right down the middle from the start of the season with each playing one half in all four games. Sunday's tilt with Maryland saw Meyer get the nod in goal to start for the first time, making nine saves in 35 minutes before giving way to Stearns, who made eight stops in the second half.

LOOKING AHEAD
The Big Green will return home to take on Bryant and Brown next week after two straight away from Chase Field. The Bulldogs come to the Upper Valley for a midweek contest on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at 3 p.m., while the Bears make their way north on I-89 for an Ivy game on Saturday, Sept. 22 at noon.