Women's lacrosse avoids Dartmouth, will host Duke on Sunday

They had their heads turned, hanging down, so they may not have seen. But slinking off the field, they must have heard the screams.

It was three weeks ago, and the No. 2 women's lacrosse team had botched a three-goal lead, the game and its chance at the Ivy title in the span of eight ugly minutes. To the sound of Dartmouth's players popping champagne as they pranced around the Princeton Stadium field, the Tigers plodded to their locker room.

It was the worst moment of the season.

Two months ago there was one minute, 45 seconds left on the clock when then-No. 2 Duke sliced the Tiger lead to 11-10. The Tigers were coming off a stumble against an inferior Loyola team, their confidence was down and they were close to bungling a game in the final 100 seconds. But two crisp cuts by senior goalie Laura Field deflected shots by driving Blue Devil players, preserving the upset victory.

It was the best moment of the season.

All week, the Tigers (13-3) knew they would get a chance to relive one of their most emotional games of the year Sunday, in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament — they just didn't know which one.

Yesterday, they found out. Blue Devils, welcome back to Princeton.

"It was definitely a turning point in our season, coming off a loss and beating the number two team gave us so much confidence and let us realize how good we could be this season," sophomore attack Lauren Simone said.

Duke squeaked by Dartmouth (11-5) in the first round of the tournament, 7-6, holding the Big Green to its lowest goal total of the season. After scoring four straight goals to scoot into halftime with a 6-4 lead, the Blue Devils (11-5) weathered a Dartmouth rally that knotted the score with 18 minutes left to play. With 12 seconds left in the game, the Big Green's Alison Moulin squandered a chance to tie the score on a free-position shot.

With the win, the Blue Devils hurried home and started packing for Princeton.

"Either team was going to be a really big game," senior defender Molly Hall said. "I feel really confident about Duke. We played them in the season and played a great game.

"You can argue motivation either way. They'll be gunning for us, but we're gunning for the Final Four," she added.

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Princeton has struggled to maintain consistency toward the end of the season, losing two of its last three games. Still, players denied feeling anxious about how they would perform in the tournament.

"I don't think we were doing anything wrong," sophomore attack Kim Smith said. "I think there were just small parts of our game that need to changed."

But the middling mistakes have added up. Against Dartmouth, the Tigers won only 12 out of 32 draws. They have had trouble finishing plays both offensively and defensively and patiently waiting for opportunities.

"They're a really solid fast team," Hall said."They're going to be coming off a big win, and we haven't had competition in two weeks. It's important for us to be really competitive and implement all the things that we've been working on: just getting back to the basics, just the details of stickwork and the defense and sliding — very little things."