Tigers drop Lions, 17-1, to earn sixth-straight women's lacrosse win

The Columbia women's lacrosse team had a lot to worry about going into yesterday's match against Princeton in New York.

The two teams have had a lop-sided history; Princeton has won every game between them by an average margin of 16 points.

Before yesterday's match-up, Princeton had already won five straight games, including a solid 13-5 victory over Duke – which had originally been ranked No. 1 in this season's first two polls.

The Lions, then, were probably not too surprised to be the sixth consecutive victim of the Tigers' rampant winning streak. What they might not have expected, though, was to score only one measly point to the Tigers' 17.

The Tigers held the Lions scoreless for 30 straight minutes, and they almost clinched their second shutout in program history until Columbia mustered its single goal at 53:19.

Freshman goalie Sarah Kolodner held her ground with three saves in the first-half defensive shut-out. Perhaps it would have been more had the ball not been on Princeton's offensive side of the field for the majority of the game.

"The defense always plays well," Kolodner said. "But there weren't many defensive opportunities. We kept the ball in the offensive end for the entire second half."

Princeton out-shot the Lions 27-7, and they scored 13 of their goals in the first half alone.

Junior midfielder Alex Fiore was the first to score at 5:36 into the game. But for most of the first period, the seniors dominated the scoring onslaught, as attack Charlotte Kenworthy contributed three goals and midfielder Mimi Hammerberg and attack Kim Smith each netted two. Attack Lauren Simone scored off an assist from Hammerberg as well.

Besides scoring, Princeton dominated Columbia in every other aspect of the game. While the Tigers caused ten turnovers, the Lions caused only half that number. Plus, the Tigers picked up 25 ground balls and won 13 draw controls, while Columbia recorded only 13 and seven, respectively, in those two categories.

The most formidable obstacle, then, that the Tigers had to overcome throughout the game was not so much taking the lead but not succumbing to complacency once the lead was in their hands.

"When you play against lesser opponents it's hard to keep rhythm," Kenworthy said.

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So, for the second half, Princeton changed its strategy a bit. Rather than fiercely attacking the goal one shot after another, the Tigers focused on maintaining rhythm through controlled passing across the entire field.

"That was our game plan." Kenworthy said. "We mainly wanted to keep possession of the ball and to not run up the score on them. We did a good job of keeping up the tempo and pace of the game by capitalizing on their mistakes."

Kolodner added, "We did a lot more settled play in the second half. We worked the ball around the field well and kept it under control."

Head coach Chris Sailer looked at the game as an opportunity to get as many players into the game as possible.

As Kenworthy said, "Today was a good game because we got everyone involved. It reflected well on the whole team."

Sophomore goalkeeper Megan McInnis played the whole second half and recorded three saves in those thirty minutes, and sophomore midfielder Katie Coyne gained her first point of the year with an assist to junior Sarah Small.

Freshmen Leigh Slonaker and Lindsey Biles scored two goals each, and senior Nina Carbone and sophomore Tara Hardiman put in the final two goals of the game.

The Tigers continue their Ivy League play against Cornell this Saturday at the Class of 1952 Stadium.

While the Big Red team has had a strong start to its season so far, history is with the Tigers — Princeton won both meetings between the two teams last year, including a 14-4 victory in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.