Women's lacrosse clinches fourth consecutive Ivy League title

Last weekend saw the women’s lacrosse team beat Columbia 18-11 to take home part of the Ivy League title. The team split the title with both Cornell and Penn, all three teams only losing one game each. The Tigers will now go on to play Penn in the Ivy League Tournament this weekend at Cornell.

Princeton started fast against Columbia, scoring in its first goal less than 10 seconds in. The Tigers went on to score the first five goals quickly into the first half to open up a gap between the two teams, but Columbia did not let Princeton run away with the game. The Lions brought the score to back within one goal at the beginning of the second half.

Sophomore midfielder Elizabeth George and seniors Olivia Hompe and Anna Doherty responded to the pressure by Columbia, with both George and Hompe scoring two goals and Doherty getting her first goal of the game to take the score to 13-7 and reopen the margin that the Tigers had in the first half. As Columbia continued to fight, freshman Tess D’Orsi buried an eight-meter goal to take her total to 35 for the season so far, and classmate Laura Pansini scored two to deny the Lions a chance of catching up. D’Orsi now sits third in Princeton’s history in both freshman goals and points (46).

The seniors shined on their Senior Day. Doherty scored a hat trick in the win and her defensive classmates Amanda Leavell and Madeline Rodriguez picked up a total of seven draws and seven ground balls and caused two turnovers. Leavell leads the team in turnovers with 17 this season and Rodriguez follows just one behind her. Senior goalkeeper Ellie DeGarmo helped the team find its 12th win of the season making a total of eight saves in the game. DeGarmo leads the Ivy League standings in saves this season with 177, beating her record from last season and averaging nearly 12 saves per game. She ranks fourth in the NCAA standings.

It was a memorable day for captain Hompe. Picking up the final Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week award this week, the match against Columbia saw her tie her career-high points in a game. Scoring six goals in the afternoon, Hompe’s total for this season now sits at 60, which is a new school record for the most goals in a season. She now needs just six more to tie the overall goal record, which currently stands at 189 and is held by Crista Samaras ‘99. It’s not just goals that Hompe is breaking records with; the senior currently holds the single-season record for points at 85, also with Samaras. In addition, Hompe needs ten more points to match the overall record of points in a career, 270, which Samaras still holds.

The win against Columbia was not an easy one for the Tigers, but the depth of the squad will prove crucial as they enter into postseason competition. The Princeton team is a strong team this year, 12-3 overall, improving from last season’s 11-6 campaign. However, it will be crucial for the Tigers to play well in their game against Penn this weekend and utilize the momentum they have coming off a successful regular season. The game versus Penn will be played on Friday May 4, at 4 p.m., where, if the Tigers win, they will face the winner of the other semifinal between Harvard and Cornell.