Two weeks ago, the women's water polo team faced Indiana (23-9) for the first time this season in the finals of the Collegiate Water Polo Association's Southern Championships — and lost, 7-4.
This weekend, Princeton (20-5) is looking to take the win it wanted so badly at Southerns in the CWPA Eastern Championship. The winner of this tournament will go on to play in the NCAA Final Four.
At the Southern Championships, Princeton, despite not having played Indiana yet at that point in its season, was the second seed and the predicted winner of the game against the Hoosiers, who were seeded third.
Indiana's strategy in that game was to have its defense concentrate on shutting down Princeton's two senior co-captains, two meter Adele McCarthy-Beauvais and two meter defender Jenny Edwards. This strategy would force other Tigers to step up and exploit the void left by the Hoosiers committed to defending McCarthy-Beauvais and Edwards.
Unfortunately, no other Princeton players rose to the challenge. The Hoosiers won, 7-4, with all four of the Tigers' goals coming from Edwards.
The same defensive strategy can be expected from Indiana at Easterns. Princeton too anticipates to use much the same strategies used at Southerns. The difference, though, will rest on how well the Tigers execute those strategies.
"We'll play about the same defense as last time," Edwards said. "We didn't play our best. We've been fine-tuning the things we didn't do well at Southerns. Hopefully, we'll come out a little bit better this time."
At Southerns, Princeton had 30 shots on goal. Only four of them went in. While part of this can be attributed to a strong performance by Indiana's goalie, Jessica Goldner, and the defense in general, it was an atypical showing for the Tigers. As freshman defender Anne-Lise Maag said, "Their goalie's a good goalie, but she's not that good."
Another problem Princeton faced at Southerns that must be worked out if it expects to get past Indiana — or any other team for that matter — is its man-up opportunities. These opportunities arise when a player on the opposing team is penalized and taken out, essentially giving the Tigers an extra player. In the last game against the Hoosiers, Princeton had seven such chances, but was unable to capitalize on any of them.
"How you play a man-up can make or break a game," Maag said.
In the Tigers' case, Maag's words rang true — not taking advantage of the man-ups and not making shots made the difference in what was to be a close game.
Indiana and Princeton have been shadowing each other in the polls all season long. Prior to the CWPA Southern Championship, the Tigers were ranked 13th and the Hoosiers were ranked 15th. After defeating Princeton, however, Indiana moved to 13th, while the Tigers fell to 14th. The closeness of the polls shows that the championship is anybody's for the taking.
On Saturday, the Tigers will play the winner of the Harvard-Villanova matchup. Although Harvard lost its best player, Teresa Codini, to a finger injury during the ECAC Championship, the Crimson is still favored to beat the Wildcats.
Princeton beat Harvard once already, 10-7, in the quarterfinals of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships. With Codini out, the Tigers should have little difficulty defeating the Crimson.
Princeton will then take on Indiana for the right to play in the championship game. If the Tigers lose, they will play Hartwick (21-9) for third place. Otherwise, Princeton will face what will most likely be Michigan State for the Eastern Championship and the right to go to the Final Four in La Jolla, Calif., on May 10.
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