No. 1 w. lacrosse jumps out to 9-0 lead, buries hapless Harvard

In a matter of seconds, the women's lacrosse team obliterated Harvard's hopes of even coming close to winning, as the No. 1 team in the nation routed the Crimson in Cambridge, Mass., 14-4.

Right from the first draw, senior midfielder Brooke Owens took control and sprinted across half the field toward Harvard goalie Laura Mancini, who could do nothing to prevent the ball from skidding into the net.

The blitz of scoring that followed would leave the Crimson defenseless and behind 9-0 at the half.

"We got off to another great start controlling the game and basically putting Harvard away early," head coach Chris Sailer said.

Owens's opening goal was her first of the season, and the draw control that she won to score it was the first of six in a row that the Tigers would win.

Only 21 seconds after Owen's score, junior attack Whitney Miller upped the lead to two with an elegant slide past the defenders and a quick blast into the back of the net.

Senior attack captain Charlotte Kenworthy and sophomore midfielder Theresa Sherry added the next two points to the scoreboard, followed by goals from junior attack Sarah Small, senior attack captain Lauren Simone and freshman midfielder Lindsay Biles to finish off the first-half shutout.

"Our attack moved the ball very well and our defense played very strong," Sherry said.

The Tigers' strategy on Saturday—relentlessly firing goals in the first half and slowing down the pace with fewer goals in the second—has been a common method to their success this season.

The scoring that they regained in the first 30 minutes allowed them to enter the second half with a large enough cushion that enabled them to focus on other aspects of the game that need improvement, like steady defense and transition passing.

As they head into the final four games of the season, these are the areas the Tigers will be concentrating on.

Although Princeton dominated the Crimson in draw controls, caused turnovers, and ground balls, it committed 29 turnovers compared to Harvard's 14.

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"Our settled offense and our settled defense were both really impressive," Sailer, who spent Sunday scouting Ivy rival Dartmouth, said.

"But we struggled a bit with our transition passing, turning the ball over way too much, so that's an area we'll be focusing on this coming week," she said.

Since Harvard may not have posed much of a threat from the outside, the Tigers almost seemed to be competing with each other.

Both Sherry and Simone scored their team-leading 29th goals of the season. And besides Biles, who scored four goals, and Kenworthy, who finished with three, there was no single player who scored more than once.

"Everyone on our team has been playing really well this season and it is great to have different people step up on different days to get the job done," Sherry said.

Saturday's victory was the 11th straight win for the Tigers, who are 11-1 overall and remain undefeated, 4-0, in the Ivy League. There are only two weeks left in the regular season, but the four games that remain are critical for what lies ahead beyond the regular season.

Following a midweek match against Penn this Wednesday, Princeton will face Ivy foe Dartmouth, who shared the crown with the Tigers last season.

The following Wednesday, the Tigers take on Maryland, a team they have not beaten since they won the national championship in 1994. As the No. 1 team in the national rankings, Princeton has a lot to prove in these final league games.

Careful not to get carried away, though, Sherry said, "Being No. 1 isn't really that different from being any other ranking at this point in the season. It's the ranking at the end of the season that counts."