October 9, 2009

Princeton Kicks Off Official Practices

PRINCETON -- The Princeton women's hockey team takes to the Baker Rink ice on Friday for its first official practice of the 2009-10 season. The Tigers will have two weeks on the ice before they open the season the weekend of Oct. 23-24 at Vermont.

The Tigers will skate in their first practices at the same time that many other Division I teams are preparing for their second weekends of game action. By the time Princeton plays Vermont to open its season, Vermont will be in its third week of games and fifth week on the ice.

"The time from October 9 to mid-December when we break for Holidays seems like a sprint," says Princeton Head Coach Jeff Kampersal. "The time from October 9 to when we play Vermont on October 23, seems like a 40-yard dash."

The Tigers will hit the ground running this afternoon as they hope to close the gap on their competitors over the next two weeks. Midway through the two weeks of practice, the Tigers will take part in a scrimmage with Brown and Yale in New Haven next Saturday. Each team will play two periods against one another.

"Essentially, we only have eight or nine practices and one scrimmage before we start the regular season," says Kampersal. "Luckily, we have older players who understand what we are trying to accomplish, that can help our rookies get acclimated during pre-season. That said, we still force feed them d-zone coverage, angling, power play, neutral zone play, and breakouts."

Princeton was picked to finish fourth in the ECAC Hockey Coaches Preseason Poll. The Tigers finished third in the league standings a season ago and return four of their five leading scorers, including senior Melanie Wallace and junior Sasha Sherry, who tied for team lead in points a season ago. In all, the Tigers return nine players that had 13 or more points last season.