Field hockey just did something that no Princeton team has ever done

This weekend, the Princeton field hockey team did something that is supposed to be an impressive accomplishment: they beat Penn in overtime to complete a perfect, undefeated, 7-0 Ivy League season.

For most teams, this would be a huge deal. Winning the Ivy League title is rare enough, and usually even when that happens you drop one or two games along the way. Beating every single Ivy is an incredibly improbable feat that most teams only dream of accomplishing maybe once every few decades.

Women’s lacrosse celebrated their first Ivy sweep since 2002 last year. Football hasn’t done it since 1964. Even the unstoppable women’s basketball team has only done it three times in the last fifteen years, although the comparison isn’t quite fair since they play each opponent twice.

Field hockey defeated Penn in OT to complete a 7-0 Ivy League championship season

For field hockey, though, running the table is the norm. They’ve done it a mind-boggling 17 times in their last 22 seasons. In that span, they have more undefeated Ivy seasons than any other Princeton team has Ivy championships.

When they don’t go undefeated, they still do alright for themselves: they’ve won the Ivy League title 21 of those 22 years, and held it outright 19 times.

Senior forward Maddie Copeland was named 2015 Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year and a unanimous first team All-Ivy selection

In an age where aggressive athletic recruiting has become the norm for admissions throughout the entire Ivy League, it’s almost inconceivable that a team could hold this kind of monopoly over the conference and do it for so long. What’s even crazier is that this could happen in a sport where scoring is so low. You’d think that when the final point spreads read 1-0, 4-3, 2-1, etc., every so often a lucky goal or two would help the underdog sneak away with a win. It’s not like basketball where each team gets 75 scoring chances, or football where field position is methodically acquired and preserved by the dominant team.

But somehow, in a conference where teams averaged 2.64 goals per game this season, Princeton has stayed fluke-proof for essentially the last quarter century: their record since 1994 is 145-6. Yes, six losses in 22 years—Yale lost six times this season alone.

2015 Ivy League Coach of the Year Kristen Holmes-Winn has won 11 league championships in 12 seasons, with a conference record of 86-5

Plain and simple, Princeton field hockey is the most dominant program in school history, and probably in the history of the Ivy League. If you’re not sold, check out some of their stats from the last few years on GPT yourself. It’s ridiculous.

So hats off to the 2015 squad for piling on another perfect Ivy League season. I’m not sure how head coach Kristin Holmes-Winn can differentiate this championship from the other 12 she’s won in her 13-year tenure, or whether the seniors will even bother to celebrate their fourth-straight outright Ivy title, but I’m sure at least the freshmen are excited.

The No. 18 Tigers will travel to Syracuse this Saturday, where they’ll face No. 7 Maryland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Hopefully they’ll at least give Princeton an exciting game because—let’s be honest—no one in the Ivy League can.