This evening, the second-seeded women's lacrosse team will play third-seeded North Carolina in a game that will decide who will play in the National Championship Sunday afternoon.
Unsurprisingly, both Princeton and North Carolina will enter tomorrow's game as champions in their respective leagues. What is most striking is how similarly the two teams have fared until now in the postseason — each having scored exactly 36 goals.
North Carolina entered the first round of the tournament with a 15-2 record. Their two losses were against Georgetown and Virginia. The Tarheels smashed a low-seeded UMBC, 22-6. Most notable about that game — and most threatening for the Tigers — was senior attack Kellie Thompson's eight-goal and two-assist performance, which broke numerous school records, including the most single-game points scored and the UNC career scoring record. She currently has 62 goals on the year.
The taste of victory was much sweeter for the Tarheels in the quarterfinal game, in which they were able to avenge a previous loss to Virginia in a 14-13 overtime triumph. Thompson was once again the stand-out, managing to salvage the day and propel the game into overtime with two goals in the closing minutes of regulation.
The trip through the tournament has not been all smiles for the Tarheels, however. Carolina senior midfielder Christine McPike, the 2002 ACC Player of the Year, ACC MVP and one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Trophy, tore her right ACL in the first-round match against UMBC. She was not able to play in the Virginia game, and even if she comes off the disabled list by tomorrow evening, her role will be critically limited.
Princeton, on the other hand, has had few setbacks through the course of the season. The Tigers have obliterated school records left and right, including the record for most wins (17), goals (263) and points (386) in one season. The previous records were all set during the 1994 season, the year the Tigers last won the National Champion-ship.
Despite Princeton's position as the No. 2 seed, the Tigers have been ranked No. 1 in the International Women's Lacrosse Association poll for some time now.
The road through the playoffs has not been particularly difficult for the national powerhouse, as it demoralized Le Moyne, 25-3, in the first round and flew past Notre Dame, 11-5, last Sunday.
In an interesting twist, both Princeton and North Carolina faced Georgetown during the regular season. The Hoyas entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed, as the only team in the nation that could say it defeated Princeton, and with an almost perfect record. Almost. Except for one measly loss.
That only team to have ruffled Georgetown was — to the satisfaction of any sports fan in search of cut-throat competition in its purest form — North Carolina.
Princeton, who has an overall record of 17-1 and lost just its first game to Georgetown, is preparing to face North Carolina — the only team who has been able to do what the Tigers could not, which was to overcome the Hoyas.
The game is set for 7:30 p.m. The outcome of the other semi-final match-up, which precedes the Princeton-North Carolina showdown, is between Georgetown and Cornell. The outcome will give both teams a solid picture of what to expect if they stay alive for the final round.
This is it. Tigers vs. Tarheels. No. 2 vs. No. 3 seed. It doesn't get much sweeter than this.
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