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US Women's Field Hockey Concludes Collegiate Challenge with win at Princeton

Princeton, N.J. – The U.S. women’s field hockey national team concluded its Collegiate Challenge sweep over last year’s NCAA semifinalists with a 7-0 win over Princeton.

Kelli Gannon scored three goals and Tracey Fuchs and Carla Tagliente added two goals each to lead the U.S. to the victory before a collegiate record crowd of more than 2,000 spectators.

“The positive about a tour like this is that people can actually start to identify with the national team players,” said U.S. coach Tracey Belbin. "It’s great for the kids to be able to develop role models and see the game as it can be played at the elite level.”

Tagliente put the U.S. up early with a goal in the second minute and added a second goal seven minutes later to give the U.S. a quick 2-0 lead.  Gannon added her first goal at the 27 minute mark to extend the  U.S advantage to 3-0 at halftime.     Princeton All-America goalkeeper Kelly Baril kept the Tigers within striking distance with a series of spectacular saves, while U.S. keepers Peggy Storrar and Jill Dedman combined for their third shutout in the the four-game Challenge series.

“The U.S. is awesome,” said Princeton coach Beth Bozman. “For us, we compared it to a practice SAT. The real test is next week (the start of Princeton's NCAA season). We didn’t have to get over 1200 today.”

The Tigers open their season Sept. 13 against Ohio University.

The U.S. outscored the collegiate semifinalists 23-3 in the four game series while topping Michigan (1-0), Maryland (10-0) and Wake Forest *8-3) prior to the Princeton game.

The U.S. team will continue its preparations for this fall’s World Cup when the team hosts Mexico, Ireland and Scotland at the International Atlantic Cup, Oct. 9-13 in Virginia  Beach

Saturday, Sept. 7 at Princeton, N.J.
 
USA: Carla Tagliente (pc, 2:00)
USA: Carla Tagliente (fg, 10:00)
USA: Kelli Gannon (fg, 27:00)
USA: Tracey Fuchs (ps, 36:00)
USA: Kelli Gannon (fg, 50:00)
USA: Tracey Fuchs (fg, 65:00)
USA: Kelli Gannon (fg, 69:00)

USA Starters Peggy Storrar (gk), Jenny Everett, Tracey Larson, Kelli Gannon, Tracey Fuchs, Keli Smith, Katie Beach, Carla Tagliente, Jill Reeve,Kate Barber, Tarar Jellye

Subs: Robyn Kenney, Abbey Woolley, Natalie Dawson, Carrie Lingo, Melanie Meerschwam, Jill Dedman (gk, 35:00)

Princeton Starters: Kelly Darling, Ilvy Friebe, Lizzie Black, Claire Miller, Natalie Martirosian, Racehl Becker, Emily Townsend, Kelly Baril (gk), Cory Picketts, Jennifer Elliott, Lauren Ehrlichman

Subs: Krista Skorupski, Maren Ford, Ashley Sennett, Hillary Schmidt

Cards: USA Jen Everett (G, 28:00)

Umpires: Jun Kentwell, Deb Olsen