No. 1 Tigers enter season with only high hopes

"I know the Syracuse men beat Princeton," George Bush told the 2002 Syracuse men's national championship team earlier this year, "it's lucky you didn't play the women."

The president of the United States was not exaggerating. Last year, the women's lacrosse team broke every school record in the books, from most points in the season (428) to most goals (291) to most assists (137). They set new heights for the longest winning streak (19) and dominated the Ivy League with a perfect 7-0 record. They sailed by 11 of the other 15 teams that made it to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament and exacted revenge against the single team that beat them in the season opener — Georgetown — in a 12-7 slaughter for the national title. If the men's championship team is the next level up, maybe it is time to take on Syracuse's men.

This year's squad, which was predictably ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll, is by no means the same as last year's. Princeton lost seven seniors to graduation, including All-Americas Lauren Simone — the Tigers' leading scorer and the NCAA Tournament MVP — Charlotte Kenworthy, Brooke Owens and second-team All-Ivy Mimi Hammerberg.

But head coach Chris Sailer is optimistic about the potential of this year's team even without those key players.

"Although we graduated so many good players, we have a really experienced core back," Sailer said. "They've been to final fours where they've lost and where they've won, and they've just learned a lot about what it takes to compete at a high level."

In the season opener Wednesday night, the Tigers looked like they had never left the field since last May. They wiped out Lafayette in the first half, forbidding the Leopards to get even a single shot off on the way to a 10-0 halftime lead. Mercifully, they slowed down the pace in the second period, working the ball around instead of charging to the goal, and allowed Lafayette to outscore them 6-5.

This was an intentional move on the Tigers' part, not just to spare the Leopards the embarrassment of a 40-goal loss, but to work on other aspects of the offense besides scoring that Sailer hopes to polish this season.

"We made a conscious effort to work on our ability to possess the ball and create lots of opportunities, to continue to play really hard and challenge ourselves to execute at a higher level but without feeding the ball in and taking a lot of shots," Sailer said. "We're really going to try to dictate tempo this year by not getting rushed and taking the first thing we see."

The captains of the team include senior attacks Whitney Miller and Sarah Small. The other captain, Rachael Becker, anchored the defense last season, earning a spot on the All-America first-team, and will have the same role this year.

Defensively, the Tigers run a ruthless sliding man-to-man formula that involves a lot of helping and double teaming.

"We play a high pressure defense sometimes where we initiate double teams early, and other times we don't double until the other team breaks through," Sailer said. "We like to switch it up in the games and give the other team lots of looks."

The main artery of the defense, the goalkeeper, will again be Sarah Kolodner, a sophomore who impressed everyone in her perfect 18-0 rookie season with 116 saves. Joining her between the posts will be senior Kelly Sosa, who according to Sailer, is "a brand new goalie but is really coming along, and in situations where we feel it will be good for her and for the team to get in the cage, she'll play."

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In Wednesday's game, Sailer gave playing time to each player, including the new freshmen on the team. But Sailer, conscious of their relative inexperience next to their older teammates, said, "We expect the kids who've been in the program more as support players who've come off the bench in the past to step up and fill the spots [of the graduated seniors]. But we've got some good freshman who'll eventually be seeing some playing time down the line."

The only thing holding the Tigers back now is the slush covering their turf. Otherwise, the 2003 season already looks bright. They have one win behind them, a bulk of experienced returning players who know what it's like to win the national championship, and a wealth of new players who want to know what it's like to have even the president telling the lacrosse world to beware.