Women's lacrosse guts out win over Penn State cruises past Duke, Virginia

Two weeks ago the women's lacrosse team was supposed to have received its wake-up call.

The No. 2 Tigers (4-1) were outplayed by Loyola March 11 and lost a 13-9 decision that dropped Princeton to sixth in the national rankings.

If that was the wake up-call, then Tigers seemed to have hit the snooze button Saturday against Penn State (2-4) and were about to be knocked out of their blissful place as one of the nation's top teams.

The sleepwalking Tigers were rescued by a furious late charge from junior attack Kim Smith who scored two of her four goals in the final 100 seconds of the game to give Princeton a 10-9 win at 1952 Stadium.

The win against the Nittany Lions came after decisive road victories earlier in the week over No. 9 Virginia, 9-6, and No. 5 Duke, 10-7.

After the two convincing wins during the week, the Tigers were eager to return home and defeat an always tough Penn State team.

Early in the contest it seemed as though Princeton would do just that. Jumping out to a quick three-goal lead on the strength of two goals by Smith and one by junior midfielder Mimi Hammerburg, the Tigers had control early. Penn State would not relent, however, as the Nittany Lions tallied the next three scores to tie the game.

Princeton then again seized command and ran the score to 8-4 by halftime.

"Emotions are mixed after a game like this," Smith said. "We started so well and really played a strong game the first half but we weren't sharp in the second."

Early in the second half, the game became very physical as four cards were handed out for physical play. Senior captain Julie Shaner experienced this rough play first hand when she was knocked out of the game with a deep gash on her forehead, courtesy of the stick of her defender.

The physical play benefitted the Nittany Lions, who were able to run off five straight goals and held the Tigers scoreless for the first 28 minutes of the second half. With only two minutes left, Penn State led, 9-8.

At that point, however, Princeton was able to recover the ball and bring it downfield for what would probably be its final opportunity to tie the game.

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"We have so much confidence in our offense's ability to score that we really weren't too worried," Smith said.

Smith used some of that confidence as she took the ball from the left side of the net and cut through the middle of the field. Before the junior could get her shot off, however, she was shoved and awarded a free position shot at the top of the arc.

"I was just looking for an opening and was able to draw the penalty," Smith said.

Smith converted the opportunity, firing a high shot over Penn State goalie Megan Ames' shoulder to tie the game at nine with 1:26 remaining.

Freshman midfielder Theresa Sherry won the ensuing draw for the Tigers, who then held for the last shot. As time was winding down, the ball was once again in Smith's stick and the junior circled the net and whipped the game-winner past Ames with only 15 seconds remaining on the clock.

"We'll take the win on a day like this, but we're going to have to make it a lot prettier in the future," head coach Chris Sailer said.

Though the Tigers stumbled against the Nittany Lions earlier in the week Princeton played as well as it had all season to cruise past two top-10 teams in the Cavliers and Blue Devils.

March 18 against Virginia, Shaner and junior attack Charlotte Kenworthy led the Tiger attack with two goals each. It was Princeton's first game of the year away from home, and the Tigers controlled the action from the very beginning.

"We played confidently, we controlled the tempo and looked like we were having fun out there," Sailer said.

Wednesday, Princeton went to Duke and endured heavy winds and rain to pull out a 10-7 victory. Junior Lauren Simone was the offensive leader for the well-balanced Tigers this time around, as the tri-captain scored three goals.

"This team has to decide what kind of team they want to be on a consistent basis," Sailer said. "We know teams are going to be ready for us every time we take the field."