By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The Princeton High field hockey team wasn’t going to let a slow start define its season.
The Little Tigers started the season 1-3-1, but over the last three weeks, they have turned their season around and improved to 7-5-2 with a 3-1 victory over Ewing on Wednesday.
“At the beginning we were losing a lot but then we came back, we set our tone, we changed how we practiced and it turned us around and made us a team,” said junior Isabel Kinney, who has four goals this season for the Little Tigers. “We have been playing very well lately. We have played well against a lot of good competitors.”
Princeton has lost just twice since falling to Notre Dame on Sept. 19. Those losses have come against Lawrenceville and Allentown, who are the top two seeds in the Mercer County Tournament.
“We lost a lot of seniors,” Kinney said. “I think we lost nine seniors from last year. So there are a lot of new faces. It has really been cool building the team and creating this whole new tone. It has been a whole new season. It has been a good season and a lot of fun with the team.”
Princeton earned the No. 6 seed for the MCT and will open play on Saturday against 11th-seeded Stuart Country Day School. In its victory over Ewing, Mariana Lopez-Ona scored a pair of goals and Renee Hoevers score a goal to back the goalkeeping of Kate Rogers, who made three saves.
“We’re really looking forward to it,” Kinney said of the MCT. “It should be really good. There are a lot of good teams. If we keep playing like we’re playing I really think we can come out and do well.
“We go into practice and we say we’re going to practice how we play. By setting that tone and coming onto the field starting right off the bat with intensity it really changes the tone.”
The Little Tigers played Lawrence to a scoreless tie on Monday. Since a 6-0 loss to Lawrenceville on Sept. 29, Princeton has allowed just three goals, two of which came in a 2-1 loss to Allentown. In the scoreless tie with Lawrence, the Little Tigers had plenty of chances to come away with a win, but fell just short.
“It was really back and forth,” Kinney said. “When we get into overtime we don’t have a lot of people on the field, so we really rely on each other to get the ball down there. It becomes much more of a back and forth game.”
Princeton couldn’t score in the overtime, but bounced back with the win over Ewing. Kinney is hoping the way the team has played over the last three weeks is the way they can play the rest of the season.
“I love field hockey and I know the entire team, we just love the sport,” Kinney said. “We practice so hard every day and we come out here and we play as a team. It has been a really good season with everyone having a good attitude about it.”
