When you are one of the top teams in the country, there is no time to relax.
Even while compiling a gaudy 10-1 record so far this season, the women's lacrosse team is not satisfied with its play going into tomorrow's contest with Harvard in Cambridge, Mass.
After a series of impressive wins over top teams to start the season, Princeton has been inconsistent recently, following up a 17-5 thrashing of Delaware with two sloppy wins over Yale and Temple. "We're happy with our results so far, but we haven't been happy with the way we played recently," sophomore attack Kim Smith said.
Princeton has clearly been better than the opposition recently, but the team has not been playing with the fluidity that it had early in the season.
Passes that were once routine are not being completed, and the Tigers have not been able to move the ball out of their zone with the same ease as they did earlier in the year.
Princeton will have to clean up its play this weekend against the Crimson, which comes into the game riding high off a 11-8 win against Penn on Sunday.
"There are no specific adjustments we're going to make against Harvard," head coach Chris Sailer said. "We just need to play our game and get into shape for the rest of the Ivy season."
Harvard is led by captains Jeanne Ficociello and Alli Harper. Fico-ciello is a four-year player for the Crimson who runs the show on offense, moving the ball up the field and facilitating Harvard's run-and-gun offense.
Receivers
Harper and freshman Katie Shaugnessy have been the main recipients of Ficociello's passes this year and have led Harvard to several strong showings including a 21-8 loss to top-seeded Maryland.
The Crimson have also depended on freshman goalkeeper Nora Guyer. Guyer started the season as a backup, but took over in net early in the season and has proved spectacular at times.
While the Tigers cannot overlook the Crimson — and must take every Ivy League game seriously at this point — they are confident going into tomorrow's game.
"They're a team we should cream, but after this game [against Temple] you can't take anything for granted," sophomore midfielder Mimi Hammerberg said.
Mustafa
One question mark for the Tigers is the status of sophomore attack Lauren Simone. Late in the second half of Wednesday's game against Temple, Simone went down with an ankle injury and had to be carried off the field. The team reported yesterday that X-rays revealed the ankle was not broken, only badly sprained. She is listed as day-to-day heading into the weekend.
Simone is tied with Smith for the team lead in points with 36 and has been the goto player when other teams have focused too much defensive energy on Smith. Simone has been able to use her foot speed and good stickwork to become an impact player after only scoring eight points a year ago.
The Tigers hope to have Simone back in time for the heart of the Ivy schedule next week, with battles against Penn on Wednesday and then against preseason favorite Dartmouth at home on Saturday.
The game against the Big Green will be an opportunity for revenge for the Tigers, who were beaten for the league championship in triple overtime by Dartmouth last year.
'Challenge'
"Dartmouth is always a challenge to beat, and you have to be on the top of your game to do it," Sailer said.
The Tigers are going to have to get back to the crisp play that earned them early season wins against top foes like Duke and Virginia if they want to win the league title and its automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
Even though Princeton will be looking ahead to Dartmouth and Maryland in the coming weeks, they will have to go back to the crisp style of play that vaulted them to the No. 2 spot in the rankings.
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