W. lacrosse pounces on Temple in second half scoring explosion

The second half of the women's lacrosse game Wednesday night was even more stifling than the first for Temple. Princeton scored the first five goals and then rubbed it in Temple's face with a one-minute scoring spree that added four more.

This rapid-fire offense, combined with an impenetrable defensive performance, earned the Tigers (7-3 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) a 13-5 victory over the Owls at Class of 1952 Stadium.

Junior midfielder Theresa Sherry racked up four goals and sophomore goalkeeper Sarah Kolodner registered 11 saves to lead the Tigers to their sixth straight victory.

Sherry has scored at least three goals in each of those six victories. The four against Temple extended her team-best goal total to 28 on the season. She also had an assist and three draw controls in Wednesday's game.

A goal by sophomore midfielder Lindsay Biles off a pass from sophomore attack Leigh Slonaker broke a scoreless game at seven minutes, 50 seconds into the first period. Sherry followed with a free-position goal at 8:21, and nine seconds later Biles added another to put Princeton ahead, 3-0.

An unassisted goal put Temple on the scoreboard, but sophomore midfielder Elizabeth Pillion answered with her 11th goal of the season.

Next, junior defender Katie Yakulis connected with senior defender Rachael Becker, last week's Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week, and rifled the ball into the net to close out the half with a 5-1 Tiger lead.

Pillion set off the second-half, four-goal blitzkrieg at 42:51. After Slonaker assisted her second of the game to senior midfielder Alex Fiore, senior attack Whitney Miller then added one of her own. Sherry capped the streak with her third goal of the game at 43:52.

Two goals by junior attack Tara Hardiman closed out the game for Princeton.

Needless to say, the offense was on fire Wednesday night. But the defense was equally hot, forcing 12 turnovers and picking up 32 ground balls. Fiore led in both categories with four and eight, respectively.

"In the first half some of our shots weren't going in, but our defense helped us remain unfazed," Sherry said. "In the second half we started executing a lot better on the attacking end and got the results we had been working hard for all game."

Kolodner, who gave up only two goals before retiring for the night at 53:35, attributed her success to her teammates.

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"The defense has really been playing well," she said. "It makes my job a lot easier."

The Tigers, ranked No. 5 in the most recent Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association poll, will attempt to extend their winning streak to seven when they return to Ivy League competition against Yale on Saturday.

The IWLCA's No. 14-ranked Elis (7-3, 2-1) will enter Saturday's game coming off a 15-12 loss to unranked Rutgers. They are currently tied with No. 7 Cornell for third place in the Ivy League. Their two Ivy victories were against sixth-place Penn on March 22 and last-place Harvard on April 5. The loss came March 29 against No. 13 Dartmouth, who is currently tied with Princeton for first place in the Ivy League.

Miles Whitman scored four goals and Katie Sargent added three in Yale's 10-8 win over Penn. The same two players led the team to its 16-5 wipeout of Harvard on Saturday, both scoring four goals.

Yale's loss to Dartmouth was a narrow one, with a final score of 7-6. Clarissa Clarke paced the Elis with three goals, and Sarah Queener added two.

Last year, Sherry's four goals lifted the Tigers past Yale in an 11-5 trouncing. Princeton led the game from start to finish, outshooting the Elis, 36-23, and picking up three times as many groundballs. The win improved the Tigers' record to 9-1 overall, 3-0 Ivy League, and extended their winning streak to nine.

So far this year the Tigers seem to improve with every game. If the trend continues, the odds of a repeat of last year's game against Yale are definitely in Princeton's favor.

"Yale is a big game for us this weekend," Sherry said. "We are focused on ourselves, though, and in every game we just want to go out there and get better than we were the day before."