F. Hockey seniors to play finale

The Quakers have a chance to earn Ivy win No. 2 when they host Princeton tonight. The season finale of a team with a 5-11 record would seem to be the final step in the process known as playing out the string. But for the Penn field hockey team, there are two reasons why this is not the case. Reason No. 1: They are playing Princeton. Reason No. 2: For four players, this will be the final time they don the Red and Blue. While seniors Leah Bills and Brooke Jenkins' final field hockey seasons have ended in pain -- Bills ruptured her Achilles tendon Saturday at Yale and Jenkins tore her ACL against Stanford on October 15 -- seniors Maureen Flynn, Courtney Martin, Katie McCuen and Jen Murray will play their final game tonight at 7 p.m. at Franklin Field against the rival Tigers. Princeton, which beat the Quakers 4-0 in last year's season finale in Old Nassau, comes into Philadelphia high off a 6-1 drubbing of Columbia Wednesday and hungry for a share of the Ivy League title. A win over Penn, combined with a Brown loss to Harvard, would give the Tigers a piece of the trophy. The Quakers, however, look forward to playing the role of spoiler, especially if the one spoiled is Princeton, who has won five straight Ivy titles. Last year, the Tigers made it all the way to the NCAA championship game, where they lost to Old Dominion. "Princeton is a great game for us, always," Flynn said. "No doubt we're going to come out fired up." Penn comes into the game riding its only winning streak in what has been a season plagued by injuries and close losses. The Quakers beat West Chester 3-2 Wednesday night at Franklin Field and defeated Yale last Saturday in New Haven by the same score -- their only Ivy victory. To the seniors who have one more game left, finishing their careers satisfied with their final performance may be more important than gaining league win No. 2. "I think we all just want to end pleased with what we've left," Martin said. "We all want to be happy with what we've done." "No matter if it's a win, if it's a loss, if it's a tie, we just want to walk off knowing that that's the best we could have done," Flynn added. "We worked four years for this. Forget that, a lot of years." Between the whirlwind pace of practices and games, the seniors have not had a chance to contemplate playing their final games for Penn field hockey. "It's like, bam, the season flies by," Flynn said. "No matter if it's your freshman year, or sophomore, junior, it doesn't matter. Everything just goes by so fast." The seniors hope that not only will those who remain to play next year turn the team's fortunes around, but also that they will learn to appreciate what they have while they still have it. "Sometimes you dread this or that, practice or whatever, but it comes and goes in the blink of an eye, and before you know it, you're graduating college," Flynn said. "Seize every opportunity." The Quakers, seniors and all, hope to seize their opportunity to beat the Tigers tonight and give them just their second loss in their last 27 league games. No matter what happens, however, the seniors will attempt, as they have all year, to keep things in perspective. "You can't really walk away looking at the record," said McCuen, referring to Penn's 5-11 mark. "You have to walk away looking at the memories and the fun you've had."