Nineteen days. Sixteen teams. Fifteen upsets. One champion.
These are just a few of the numbers wracking the women's lacrosse team's mind as it prepares for the 2002 NCAA tournament, which, beginning May 9, will ultimately culminate in the national championship May 19.
Among the 15 other contenders, the top teams Princeton will have to watch out for are Georgetown, Loyola, Virginia, North Carolina, Duke, Cornell, and Maryland.
Fortunately for the Tigers, they have already played six of those seven opponents — and won five of those six games — so they will be entering the first round of the tournament with a good idea of what to expect from the other top teams in the nation.
Fortunately for the Tigers, they have finished the season ranked No. 1 in the country, with a glimmering 15-1 overall record and an even shinier 7-0 Ivy title to prove it.
Fortunately for the Tigers, they do not have much to change in terms of strategy, outlook, or style. To change anything, in fact, would be just plain silly. Whatever they have been doing for the past 15 games has worked.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they have 15 enemies who know all too well that the only way to the top is to chop down the Princeton behemoth plugging the path. The team has fifteen enemies (not to mention the entire lacrosse-watching world) scrutinizing its every move, trying to figure out how in the world to get past the Tigers in one piece.
The one game that Princeton lost this year was its 15-13 overtime heartbreaker against Georgetown. Significantly, the only team Georgetown has lost to was that seventh contender the Tigers have not yet played — North Carolina. It seems likely, therefore, that Princeton, North Carolina (14-2 overall) and Georgetown will be the Big Three of the tournament. Maryland, of course, last year's returning champions, cannot be overlooked either. Here's a quick breakdown.
Georgetown
Since Georgetown's season-opening victory over Princeton, the Hoyas have amassed an impressive 14-1 overall record, finished their season undefeated (6-0) in the Big East conference and earned the No. 2 national ranking behind Princeton.
The most foreboding single force for the Hoyas this year is senior All-America attack Erin Elbe, who pounded six goals against Princeton in the season opener.
The team's leading scorer, Elbe was selected Big East Women's Lacrosse Offensive Player of the Week for the two consecutive weeks ending April 22 when she led the team to victories with five goals and three assists over William and Mary and four goals and two assists against Notre Dame. If Princeton is to eliminate the Hoyas, the first priority must be keeping Elbe on the back burner.
North Carolina
The Tar Heels, ranked No. 3 behind Princeton and Georgetown, defeated Maryland to become this year's ACC champions with a tidy 15-2 overall record to show for it.
Their two losses were against Loyola and Virginia, but only by a slim margin of two and three goals, respectively. North Carolina also has the edge over Princeton of having defeated Georgetown in another close battle decided by a single goal.
Senior midfielder Christine McPike is North Carolina's stand-out threat who scored five goals in the Georgetown victory and was named both regular season and tournament MVP. Another solid player is junior Andy Fortino who has been equally essential to North Carolina's success this year on the back line.
Maryland
Last year's national champions have had problems this season maintaining their No. 1 status. The Terps lost a significant chunk of their offensive lineup to graduation, and they finished the season with a mediocre 11-9 record — with notable losses to Georgetown, Duke, Loyola, North Carolina, Ohio State and Virginia.
On April 24, Princeton chipped away even more at the former powerhouse's pride by winning 13-9 after coming back from an early 5-0 deficit. Until Maryland is knocked out of the playoff bracket once and for all, however, there will always be the aura of power attached to the returning champions. Princeton will have to keep a close eye on the Terps to make sure they don't pull off any miracles this late in the season.
With that said about the four favorites, it is not out of the realm of possibilities that any of the other 16 teams could stage a revival and creep up on the Tigers, especially if they allow their No. 1 ranking and immaculate record to distract them. That will be Princeton's biggest challenge: keeping an eye on everyone else — while everyone else is keeping an eye on Princeton.
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