BALL CONTROL: Princeton University field hockey player Pru Lindsey controls the ball in action last fall. Junior forward Lindsey, who tallied seven goals and a team-high 11 assists in 2025, figures to be an offensive catalyst again for the Tigers this fall. Princeton, who reached the NCAA championship game last season, opens its 2026 campaign this weekend by facing Old Dominion on September 4 and North Carolina on September 6, with both games to be played in Chapel Hill, N.C. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)

By Justin Feil

The Princeton University field hockey team would love to pick up where it left off last year when it made a run to the NCAA championship game.

With every starter except Beth Yeager back for the Tigers, that’s tempting, but dangerous. Tiger head coach Carla Tagliente is pushing her team to turn the page.

“We can’t have one foot in the past and one in the present right now,” said Tagliente, who begins her ninth season guiding the program. “I think we’re just focused on where we are right now, and trying to go from the spring and carry forward with where we think we have some of our strengths, and tweaking some things where we need to grow and work on some of our weaknesses.”

Princeton is widely anticipated to be a contender again this year after winning the Ivy League championship over Harvard to avenge one regular season loss and then finishing runner-up to Northwestern in the NCAA tournament with a 2-1 overtime loss last November that ended an 18-4 campaign. The Tigers were slotted at No. 3 in the preseason poll from the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.

“We return a lot so I appreciate the respect, but other teams brought in new international players, more transfer players, more grad students, fifth years, so where we stand in that pecking order, I am not sure until things come together,” said Tagliente. “Quite honestly, I’d rather be ranked 30th than third. It’s always easier to be the ones hunting than the ones being hunted. But we’ll see how we respond to that. If we’re building a program and having the consistency we want, we’re not always going to be the underdog.”

Tagliente will get her wish on the first weekend of Princeton’s season. After facing Old Dominion on September 4 in Chapel Hill, N.C., to start the 2026 campaign, the Tigers will face host second-ranked North Carolina on September 6. Their first home game comes September 11 against Rutgers in a reunion with local product Talia Schenck, the Lawrence High graduate who is using her final season of eligibility with the Scarlet Knights after her senior year at Princeton was cut short by injury. It’s part of a familiar schedule that also includes Northwestern, Penn State, UConn, Maryland, and some new challenges in Temple and St. Joseph’s.

“I don’t really know what we’re getting into with some of these,” said Tagliente. “But by the time we play them, we’ll have a lot of film and have a good plan. But the schedule is still pretty challenging. We’re on the road a lot in September. We open strong, we still have two heavy hitters with Northwestern and UNC, and then UConn and Maryland and whatnot. So it’s a pretty robust schedule.”

Last year, Princeton opened 1-2 before finding its groove. The Tigers lost only one more game — 3-1 to Harvard in late September — in the regular season and did not fall after that until the national title game. The way Princeton responded to the Harvard loss beginning with a huge 2-1 win over Maryland keyed the rest of its run. That blueprint would be great to follow again.

“Every team will get exposed and have certain weaknesses or problems that we’ll have to address,” said Tagliente. “The blueprint, I think, is how we address them and we might be having some tough conversations or having some accountability, and the team of people stepping up and taking accountability. That blueprint we can follow, but what the problems are and what the turning point is might be different. But I think you’re always looking for that. We want to get out of the gates quick, but there’s always going to be something we need to improve on as we grow through the season.”

The first question on everyone in the field hockey world’s mind is how Princeton will make up for the loss of Yeager, the first four-time first-team All-America selection in Ivy League history. Her 15 goals last season equaled the next two Tigers’ combined total.

“Beth carried a big load on corners, but I think her bigger presence was just the work rate and the workload she carried on the field,” said Tagliente. “It’s really irreplaceable. So I think we’re realizing that pretty quick, she’s kind of someone that just took care of problems defensively just by her work rate. And we don’t have that right now. So I think that’s getting exposed real quick about the work rate of the group and defensively what we need to do.”

Ella Hampson, another graduate, made some underrated impact with her play off the bench with the second group of forwards. Princeton’s depth and relentless attacking of the ball was a key to its success a year ago. The pressing that they were able to do made opponents uncomfortable. And then offensively, the Tigers had Yeager but they also had a team in which a lot of different players could score, and they bought into a selfless approach that Princeton is trying to foster again.

“That’s what the blueprint we’re trying to build on again is, just this collective selfless style of play from everybody,” said Tagliente.

“And I think where we were better than anyone else last year is just, we had stars, but I think that we had a lot of people pitching in and doing big roles. We’re hard to play because we didn’t lean on one person or two people. It was that we collectively were a very solid team.”

The make-up is certainly back to have that capability. So much of the team returns and understands what made them successful. Princeton has five seniors led by defender Ottilie Sykes (4 goals, 2 assists in 2025), midfielder Ella Cashman (3 goals, 3 assists), and goalie Olivia Caponiti (0.86 goals against average, 0.727 save percentage). Lydia Bills and Hope Delaney round out the class. They will help set the tone along with a strong junior group.

“Ella and Ottilie and Olivia, they’ll take on big roles; they already have,” said Tagliente. “I think, though, our junior class is probably one of our most talented classes ever. We don’t really speak about that much in terms of their individual play, but you’ve got a lot of contributors in that class.”

Anna Faulstich (3 goals, 9 assists), Clem Houlden (1 goal, 1 assists), Pru Lindsey (7 goals, 11 assists), Izzy Morgan (4 goals, 8 assists), Molly Nye (5 goals), and Lilly Wojcik (1 goal, 5 assists) are juniors with plenty of experience and talent. Lindsey, Morgan, Faulstich and Nye were four of their six leading scorers a year ago. The class played huge minutes last year and saw Lindsey really break out and relied on Houlden’s consistency. Now another year older, Faulstich could really shine in her third year and trigger another huge year for the Tigers.

“You see snippets of it,” said Tagliente. “She’s electric, but I’m just waiting. I think if she can turn that corner, we could we could really be unstoppable.”

Caitlin Thompson (8 goals, 1 assist), Saylor Milone (2 assists), and Gabriella Anderson were instrumental contributors as freshmen last year. And this year’s freshmen are hoping to make an impact as well. Milone’s sister, Reese, is a high-level national player, Lilly Cimaroli has been exceptional in the preseason, and Lizzie Trant, a Virginia state cross country and track distance state champion, has shown a competitiveness that will get her on the field early, while Lilly McMahon could also get time in the rotation.

“It’s a good group,” said Tagliente. “We needed the depth. And so some of them may start, but they may not. They may be in that first wave. I’m trying to balance that.”

Princeton will get four non-conference games in before they travel to Penn for their Ivy opener on September 18. The Tigers, Harvard and Yale are all ranked in the coaches’ preseason Top 20. Harvard is No. 4, just behind Princeton. They headline the Ivy League competition.

“It’ll be good,” said Tagliente. “I think we’ll be probably right up there pushing to be second best conference again behind the ACC. It’s just too early to tell who’s got what and some of the international kids coming in and recruiting, we just don’t know them. But we’ll see how teams put it together. But I expect Harvard and Yale to be quite strong.”

Princeton, too, won’t be sneaking up on anyone this year. Not with so much back from a year ago and the capability to play so well together. The Tigers can’t rest on last year’s results, but they can use it as a blueprint that they saw get results. Princeton will turn the page and start building toward another long run this week when games kick in and they can see everything start to come together at full speed against tough competition.

“We’re a respected team right now,” said Tagliente. “I think it’s just not returning personnel, but I think it’s the style of play that we play. And I think we left things in a good place. But again, other teams have reloaded. So where we fall and how we measure up, I think it is TBD right now.”