Tigers lose play-in game, and NCAA bid
Princeton field hockey may have clinched the Ivy League last week by beating Penn, but its job was not done.
The Tigers learned that painful lesson yesterday, when they dropped an NCAA tournament play-in game 2-1 to UMass.
Not twelve hours later, they got their next dose of bad news - they weren't getting an at-large bid, either.
In field hockey, the Ivy League champion doesn't win an automatic bid to the dance; instead, it played the winner of the Atlantic 10. The unranked Minutewomen secured the auto-bid over the No. 17 Tigers with a goal in the last 10 minutes of the game.
Lauren Gillispie broke a 1-1 tie after Princeton got a second-half equalizer at the Class of '52 Stadium in New Jersey.
The home side more than held its own, outshooting UMass 24-7 and forcing its goalkeeper, Becky Letourneau, to make 12 saves.
But opportunist finishing earned the Minutewomen (14-8, 6-1 A-10) a crucial win.
Despite conceding the better of the play to Princeton (13-5, 6-1 Ivy), they went into halftime ahead 1-0 after scoring on a penalty corner with the clock reading 0:00.
UMass will face UConn next weekend in the first round of the tournament.
- Sebastien Angel
