Despite rain, women's lacrosse clips Owls

Ranked third in the nation, the women's lacrosse team was not expecting a close game against unranked Temple, but strong play by the Temple keeper and wet conditions almost leveled the field. In the end, though, the Tigers extended their win streak, and junior attack Kim Smith scored her 100th collegiate goal.

With a steady rain throughout the game drenching everyone at 1952 Stadium, the first half began with poor ball control and what appeared to be a flat Princeton (9-1 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) squad. With water on the field, the Tigers' greatest advantage over the Owls (5-5), speed, had been mitigated, and the Tigers were unable to dominate the open field. But as the game continued, the Tigers became more comfortable with the wet turf, and they quickly took over.

Freshman Theresa Sherry began the see-saw contest with her first of three goals at 26 minutes and 28 seconds remaining in the first half. Giving the Tigers a huge boost, the midfielder scored the first three goals for the Tigers. But in the beginning of the game, Temple seemed to have an answer for every advance the Tigers made. After Sherry's second goal, with 23:40 remaining in the half, the Owls went on their own run, scoring two goals in two minutes.

The Tigers continued to wield a strong attack, but every time Princeton took a shot on goal, Temple's goalie, junior Sheena Oommen managed to get in front of the ball. With nine saves in the first half and 12 in the second half, Oommen was the main reason why Temple stayed competitive so deep into the game.

The Tigers were still playing out of character with a minute remaining, dropping balls, making bad passes and letting the Owl attack slip through the gaps.

At that point, however, the team seemed to wake up. Driving for a lead at half time, senior captain Julie Shaner took it upon herself to give her team the boost. With 1:06 remaining, she maneuvered past three Temple defensemen and took a left-handed shot, bouncing the ball into the left corner. Getting the ball back immediately, the Tigers went back into Owl territory and junior captain Lauren Simone used a screen to get her shot past Oommen. With 32 seconds left in the half, the Tigers led, 5-3, and the game would never get closer.

Keeping their momentum into the second half, the Tigers refused to let up on Temple. Shaner scored the first goal of the half, and her second of three on the night. Simone scored the next three for the Tigers, totalling four on the evening, pushing the score to 9-3.

Temple managed a brief rally, but with the game comfortably in Princeton's hand, it was Smith, not the Owls, who had a chance to shine. She scored two goals in the second half, and to her surprise, the second was her 100th goal of her collegiate career.

"I was just hoping to play well. I am happy to reach 100 goals, but to tell you the truth, I had no idea that someone even kept that statistic," Smith said.

It was a character building game for the Tigers, as Smith added:

"This was one of those games where things did not go our way at the beginning, but we held on and corrected our mistakes," Smith said.

The Tigers are happy to have this game under their belt and showed a lot of versatility after an unproductive first half.

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"We stepped up our pressure in transition, our attacks created a lot of turnovers, we got the ball back a lot and we had a lot of nice scoring plays," said head coach Chris Sailer. "Getting up by two in the last minute of the first half gave us a huge lift and carried us through the rest of the game. This gives us a lot of momentum going into this weekend's Ivy League game."