Old Dominion fights off late Princeton comback for title

They started off the game on fire and never burned out. Seventy minutes later, following a 3-2 victory over Princeton in the NCAA Field Hockey Division I Championship game yesterday, Old Dominion walked off Franklin Field holding a National Championship trophy in its hands. It did not take long for Old Dominion's opening aggressive flurry to pay off yesterday. Just five minutes and 47 seconds into the first half, sophomore Marina DiGiocomo opened the scoring for the game off a corner shot assisted by senior back Mimi Smith. "Old Dominion came out on fire. [The first shot of the game] put us in a defensive mode. We had a little problem getting out of that," Princeton coach Beth Bozman said. Although Princeton did not begin to play its own offenisve game until the second half, with eight seniors on the squad, all 2,706 fans could sense that this game was not about to be a blowout. "[I told my team that Princeton] is going to come back to you and the game is not going to be over until the final whistle," Old Dominion coach Beth Anders said. Even before the whistle blew to end the first half, the Tigers proved Anders' prediction true. With a little over six minutes remaining in the half, Princeton came alive on the offense, forcing four corner opportunities -- the fourth ball sailing into the cage after three strikes. The Princeton band erupted, and the fans with bright orange ski hats and black and orange tiger tails wrapped around their heads began chanting. But suddenly it all stopped. The official blew her whistle and called back the goal. Princeton's captain, Kristy Hale, had touched the ball illegally with her foot. "You think you made a good play, and then it gets taken away from you," a frustrated Hale said. It did not take long for Hale to turn her frustration into a constructive play-- scoring just 9:30 into the second half. Determined not to let the Tigers tie the score at two with another goal, DiGiocomo put the game away when she scored her second goal of the game off a rebound from a corner deflection. Princeton managed to score once more, but failed to get the ball back on their offensive side when ODU went into a stall with a little over five minutes remaining in the second half. "I couldn't have asked for a better ending, and I couldn't have thought of a better team to take it with," Smith said with tears in her eyes. Anders, the Colonial Athletic Association's Coach of the Year, was credited by her team as being the force behind the win. Anders has led the Lady Monarchs to post season tournaments for each of the 17 seasons she has been coach. "The reason I chose ODU was because of Beth Anders and her tradition. I wanted to win a National Championship," junior goalkeeper Jamie Hill said. With a mark of 348 wins, 47 losses and seven ties, Anders has the most wins of any Division I field hockey coach. The secret to her success -- hard work. "Post season practice was so much work. We would run back to back miles and stadiums almost every day. But come November 22 it would pay off," DiGiocomo said.