Packing Bedford

TigerBlog kept ducking his head out of the press box window at Bedford Field every few minutes Sunday afternoon to admire just how big the crowd was. 

A few hours earlier TB walked from the parking lot to the field with his umbrella, given that it was raining pretty hard. At that point, the forecast for the afternoon was iffy, and the stands were completely empty.  

The occasion was the second day of the Tiger Invitational field hockey event, a rotating early-season event that used to be the Ivy/ACC Crossover Challenge that brings four teams to Bedford Field once every four years. The first game Sunday saw Penn beat Old Dominion 4-2 in a game that started in rain, was played mostly in rain and ended with clouds.

Too bad, TB thought. Even the threat of rain usually is enough to deter a crowd. 

And yet? He couldn't have been more wrong. 

As it turned out, it was the largest crowd he'd ever seen at the facility. The stands were packed. People were outside the facility looking in through the fence. It was great to see.

They came for the second game Sunday and the fourth of the weekend, a Top 10 matchup between Princeton and North Carolina. You couldn't have asked for more from an early September game. 

Well, maybe there was one more thing Princeton could have asked for — a win. Unfortunately for the Tigers, it was UNC who came away on top by a 3-2 count. 

The biggest winner might have been the fans. They saw a great game, something even Princeton had to grudgingly admit afterwards. Are they likely to come back? Why wouldn't they? 

The game of field hockey moves quickly. The ball changes ends on a dime, as teams go from defense to offense in a blink. If you've never seen it, you should have been there Sunday. 

The good news is you have eight more chances to see Princeton play at home this year, starting Friday against Syracuse at 5. 

And what kind of team does Princeton have? There are 24 players on this year's roster, and the breakdown by class is six seniors, five juniors, seven sophomores and six freshmen. That's a great balance.  

Princeton began the weekend with a 2-1 win over ODU Friday, after UNC had beaten Penn 6-2. As TB mentioned last week, the Quakers will be back for the Ivy opener Sept. 19 and after that game will have played three games at Princeton and zero on their home field. 

The same 10 field players started both Princeton games this weekend. The breakdown of those 10 by class? 

There were two seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen. That's a young team.

Of the two juniors and three sophomores, four of them have already been All-Ivy League, with three first-team selections.  

Both senior starters are members of the US National Team program, with Beth Yeager on the senior team and Talia Schecnk on the U21 team. Both came back from South America with silver medals this summer, Yeager from the Pan Am Cup in Uruguay and Schenck from the Junior Pan Am Games in Paraguay.

Yeager, for her part, currently ranks fourth in Division I in career goals scored by active players. Her two this weekend brought her up to 46. Actually, three of the top six were in the game Sunday on Bedford, with UNC's Ryleigh Heck (47) and Charley Bruder (42). If you're wondering who the leader is, it's Makenna Webster with 48, so it's a fairly bunched group (New Hampshire's Tasmin Webster also has 47).

Yeager is the only active player in Division I who ranks in the top five in goals per game and assists per game in a career.  

The freshmen who made their debuts this weekend hardly looked like rookies. More than anything else, TB was looking to see whether they were wide-eyed or if they competed right from the opening whistle. The answer is the latter. 

And then there is the team's depth. As TB said, there's a lot to like here this coming fall. 

It's certainly worth coming out to see for yourself. 

If you have any doubts, ask someone who was there Sunday for the packing of Bedford.