Women's lacrosse falls to Terps in NCAA Tourney once again

Two old foes marred the women's lacrosse team's otherwise succesful season this year. Dartmouth kept the Tigers from an outright Ivy League title, and perhaps more importantly, Maryland ruined Princeton's run through the NCAA Tournament.

In their first Tournament game, the Tigers defeated No. 12 Cornell in the Big Red's first tournament trip ever. They then marched back to Hanover, N.H., where they avenged an early-season loss to Dartmouth in a rout, 10-4. In the Final Four, Princeton met its nemesis Maryland once again.

Maryland has been a thorn in the Tigers paws ever since Princeton topped the Terps for the NCAA championship in 1994. Coming into their matchup, Maryland had beaten the Tigers 10 straight times.

Unfortunately for Princeton, this matchup would be no departure from the norm, as the Terps rolled to a 14-7 win on their way to another national championship.

From the beginning of the year, the Terps and Tigers were due to meet, as the were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in most preseason polls. It was one of the best preseason rankings the Princeton program ever had, but head coach Chris Sailer tried to keep the team focused on the end goal, not a preseason prediction.

"We talked about that," Sailer said. "We're not number two, we're 0-0 at the start of the year like everyone else."

Unfortunately, the team got too caught up in the hype, and after a stomping of state-rival Rutgers, it dropped an important game to Loyola, a strong team who it had lost to the year before. Princeton dropped to No. 3 in the polls, with big match-ups against Virginia and Duke next. But the Tigers came out firing, defeating both teams by three goals.

The two victories launched the team into a 10-game winning streak, in which Princeton would build up an impressive 11-1 record overall, 5-0 in the Ivy League. It trounced talented teams like Yale and Temple, scoring no less than nine goals in every game, while the defense held teams to under seven goals in all but three games.

"Defenses have such a hard time guarding us, because anyone at any given time is capable of stepping up," junior attack Kim Smith said. "In terms of our defense, that too is very team-oriented and you can see that from the way our defenders play. Other teams have to worry about slides constantly coming which is why our defense is so hard to beat."

The Tigers were riding high with a good record heading into the toughest part of their season. They had four games left before the NCAA tournament, two against Ivy opponents and two against highly ranked out-of-conference teams. But with the team's confidence in their skill and game plan, they were looking forward to the challenge.

All that came to a screeching halt when the Tigers marched into their first game with Dartmouth on April 21, and the Big Green sent them home with their tails between their legs, the victim of a 13-5 upset. That game robbed Princeton of its only chance at an undisputed Ivy League championship.

After that staggering loss, they had to regroup to take on No. 1 Maryland. While Princeton could not pull out a victory, they were able to keep up with the undefeated Terrapins. With only a few minutes left in the game, and the score tied at 6-6, Maryland's leading scorer Jen Adams broke free from her defender and scored to give the Terrapins the win.

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The Tigers' success in handling Maryland carried over to their last Ivy League game against Brown. They defeated the Bears for a share of the Ivy League championship, but then lost to Georgetown a week later, dropping the Tigers to a fifth seed for the NCAA tournament.

While the team was not able to bring home a national championship, they did finish 14-5 overall, 8-1 Ivy League. They are still considered one of the best teams in the nation, and with only three seniors graduating, hopes are even higher for next season than this one.