The game had long since been won. The Ivy title was clinched. The Ivy League field hockey tournament was headed to Princeton.
And yet this was Senior Day, and so in the end Lily Webb and Clare Brennan took a perfect day and made it better.
Princeton defeated Dartmouth 5-1 yesterday on Bedford Field, and with that win came all sorts of prizes. TigerBlog will get back to those in a moment.
Before that, there was the fact that Princeton's first four goals all came from juniors — three from Beth Yeager and one from Talia Schenck. Had the game ended that way, the celebration still would have a happy one.
And then the last 20 seconds or so happened.
Brennan and Webb are both seniors. Brennan took a long pass with 20 seconds to play and brought the ball down the left side and then stopped, pivoted and sent a long pass into the circle to Webb. As time wound down, Webb trapped the ball, made one move to her right and slapped it into the cage.
The clock showed eight seconds remaining.
The perfect end to Senior Day!!! Lily from Ceebs, and the Tigers win 5-1. Ivy title No. 28!!! Ivy tournament to Princeton. pic.twitter.com/fUhbqeixCl
— Princeton FH (@TigerFH) October 27, 2024
If you look closely at the video as Brennan gets the ball, check out the Princeton bench. You can see the excitement begin to build.
Of course it would. On Senior Day, who wouldn't want to see two seniors combine for a goal to wrap things up?
Meanwhile, back at the prizes Princeton won, as TB alluded to those in the beginning. First, the win ensured Princeton will have no worse than a share of the Ivy League championship.
For Princeton field hockey, that's Ivy title No. 28. The next-best league total? That's seven.
More than that, no other Ivy League women's team in any sport has ever won as many (Princeton field hockey began this year tied with Harvard women's squash, with no other team in any sport all that close).
Princeton also clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy League tournament, as well as the right to host the event, which will be held Nov. 8 and 10 on Bedford Field.
It was a big weekend for Princeton, who defeated RPI No. 5 Maryland Friday 2-1, with both goals from Yeager. Princeton already had defeated Harvard, RPI No. 10 last week 2-1 in Cambridge, and Harvard then took down No. 4 St. Joe's yesterday 2-1 in OT, a decision that helps Princeton's RPI and therefore its chances at an NCAA at-large bid if it should not win the Ivy tournament.
The Tigers are now 6-0 in the league, followed by 5-1 Harvard, who has clinched the No. 2 seed. Who else will be in the field? That will come from two of the following five: Yale, Brown, Penn, Cornell and Columbia.
There is one Ivy game left in the regular season, and the odds that there will be a five-way tie for third place is not that outrageous now. For their part, Princeton plays Yale this coming Saturday, where a win would be the outright league championship.
In other words, there is a long way to go in this season. Princeton is 11-4 overall right now, with five straight wins and two of its losses to No. 1 Northwestern (3-2) and No. 2 North Carolina (2-0).
No matter where it goes, though, Senior Day 2024 will always be really special. It began before the game in the team room at Class of 1952 Stadium, an hour before warmups. There were funny videos, heartfelt speeches, laughter, tears, hugs — and everything else that team sports bring out in those who compete together. The bond that is created is very strong.
At one point head coach Carla Tagliente stood in front of the room and talked about what it is that they will all remember about each other — and it's not going to be the specific details of specific games.
TigerBlog has heard this before. He's heard it in moments like that, when the players might not yet have considered what the next few decades would bring.
He's also heard it from those decades later. They remember the friendships, the relationships, the times away from the field. The moments in the games? They're usually lost to time.
Not all of them, though. Not the one that came at the end of the game yesterday for Tiger field hockey.
It was an even more perfect end to Senior Day.
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