W. lacrosse tramples Ivy rival Dartmouth in 13th straight win

The game was 2-1 seven minutes, 42 seconds in, and the fans were nervous. Dartmouth had won five of its last six games against the women's lacrosse team. What if the Big Green would once again prove too much for Princeton to handle?

The Tigers (13-1 overall, 6-0 Ivy League) soon answered any lingering questions, burying Dartmouth with a nine to one scoring run en route to a 15-3 victory and slaying the Big Green dragon once and for all.

Princeton's offensive onslaught began when freshman midfielder Lindsey Biles converted a free position shot at 14:36 of the first half. Dartmouth's Jen Newitt answered back after two more goals by senior captain and attack Charlotte Kenworthy and sophomore midfielder Theresa Sherry, but another goal by Kenworthy sent the teams to the locker room with the Tigers up, 6-2.

The Big Green controlled the opening draw of the second half and carried into Princeton's end but then entered into the settle-down offense that it played most of the day. Although the Tigers have only given up a stingy 5.8 goals per Ivy contest, Dartmouth never played with the urgency that it needed to penetrate the solid Princeton defense and seemed content to play catch with the ball outside the 12-meter arc.

The Tigers patiently waited until made a mistake and then pounced on it, sending the ball to the midfield where junior attack Whitney Miller was waiting.

Miller received the ball and broke down the middle, shedding her defender in the process. Once Miller got inside the arc she dodged left and flipped a left-handed shot past Dartmouth goalie Amy Price to put the Tigers up by four at 27:50 of the second half.

Sherry scored her second of the game with a no-look, over-the-shoulder shot off a pass from Miller at 24:24. She then followed that up with another goal, this time assisted by senior captain Lauren Simone, under a minute later. Biles and Simone quickly added two more scores and the rout was on.

Although Newitt would score once more for the Big Green and Kenworthy and Simone would trade goals down to the last three seconds of the game, the outcome was never in doubt after the offensive explosion by the Tigers.

In addition to the offense, Princeton's defense played almost flawlessly, holding Dartmouth outside the arc and capitalizing on any mistakes the Big Green made. The Tiger defense was also dominant on ground balls, picking up 26 to Dartmouth's 12.

Without question, the most conspicuous of Princeton's defenders was Kolodner. The goalie had a career-high 13 saves on the day, stopping the Big Green the few times that they were able to break through Princeton's defense and improving to a perfect 12-0 on the season.

With offense, defense and goaltending all executing, the Tigers were able to dictate the tempo of the game and play Dartmouth on their terms.

"I was so impressed that our team was hitting on every level," head coach Chris Sailer said.

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"Sarah [Kolodner] played wonderfully, and then our defense holding them to three was amazing. The offense exploding for 15 speaks for itself. We controlled the game just like we wanted to today."

The Tigers will look to continue their domination over past nemeses when they take on seven-time defending national champion Maryland on Wednesday at Class of 1952 Stadium at 7:30.