The women's lacrosse team takes on Ivy nemesis, Dartmouth

The women's lacrosse team is on fire. It has not lost since its first game of the season against Georgetown, in which the Hoyas edged past the Tigers in an overtime thriller.

Princeton's record speaks for itself. The Tigers are 12-1 overall and 5-0 in the Ivy League, and they were ranked No. 1 in the most recent Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association poll—13 points ahead of No. 2 Georgetown, who is only one point ahead of No. 3 Virginia.

What Princeton's record does not show is that the Tigers also hold the nation's best scoring margin at over seven goals per game, which serves as proof that the Tigers' success has been due not to luck or chance, but to great lacrosse.

Princeton has been unstoppable on both sides of the field. The defense has given up only 92 goals this season, while the offense has posted 108 in the first thirty minutes of each game alone.

Junior defender Rachael Becker leads the Tigers on defense. With her aggression, she leads the team in caused turnovers and groundballs. Senior attack Lauren Simone and sophomore midfielder Theresa Sherry lead the offense with 32 goals apiece. Sherry has 10 assists to go along with her goals, and Simone has eight assists on the year.

Although the veterans on the team have certainly been fulfilling their leadership roles, the Tigers' ability to establish early leads has allowed younger players to show what they can do. For example, in the Harvard game, sophomore Julia Vinyard scored her first career goal to give the Tigers a 13-1 lead. With each minute of playing time that the younger players receive, the team only gets deeper.

Coming off Wednesday's 14-7 victory against Penn, Princeton looks to bring its winning streak to 13 against Ivy foe Dartmouth at home on Saturday afternoon.

The Big Green will likely pose a bigger challenge to the Tigers than the Quakers. Dartmouth (9-3 overall, 4-2 Ivy League) was ranked No. 13 in the latest IWLCA poll and No. 4 in the Ivy League, having lost to No. 2 Cornell and No. 3 Yale.

"Playing Dartmouth is not the type of game where we can afford to let up at all," Simone said. "It's always one of the most competitive of our season."

"Records and rankings are definitely not a factor," she added.

Dartmouth proved this in its game against Penn State April 14. The Big Green came into the game ranked 18th in the IWLCA poll, while Penn State held the No. 10 spot. Despite its lower ranking, Dartmouth defeated the Nittany Lions, 13-8.

Jen Newitt is Dartmouth's biggest scoring threat. This week, she was named Ivy League offensive player of the week and also Warrior/Insider Lacrosse national player of the week after scoring 10 goals and four assists in three games. In the Penn State game alone she scored five goals.

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The Tigers will also have to keep an eye on Alison Moulin, who scored four goals in the Big Green's 9-4 decision over Harvard on Wednesday, and plug up assists from Whitney Jamison.

Sherry has the right attitude going into the Dartmouth game—confident, but not arrogant.

"We are focusing on one game at a time here," Sherry said.

"We will approach Dartmouth as we do any Ivy team. Every Ivy game is a championship."

The fact that the team is focusing on one game at a time does not detract from the broader goal Princeton has in mind—winning the Ivy League title. Last year, the Tigers shared that title with Dartmouth. Both teams, therefore, have added incentive to win Saturday's game.

"We shared the title with Dartmouth last year," Simone said. "A big goal for us this season is to win it outright, which is definitely something that we are capable of doing if we play our best game."