Do or Die: W. lacrosse to play in Final Four

It's Final Four time. Members of the women's lacrosse team left Wednesday for Syracuse, taking their books and scantrons with them, to prepare for the semifinal battle against top-seeded Loyola at 6:30 p.m.

Loyola and Princeton, along with Maryland and Virginia, who will play in the other semifinal game, are the sole survivors of the 2003 season. The winner of tonight's game will advance to the national championship contest on Sunday.

In other words, it's do or die time for women's lacrosse.

The Tigers and the Greyhounds met earlier this season in a double-overtime showdown at Class of 1952 Stadium. Princeton lost by one goal, 9-8, due in large part to a three-goal performance by Loyola rookie Sydney Greene. The loss came as a surprise to the defending national champs, who had won their last 20 games in a row — the longest winning streak in the history of women's lacrosse.

Head coach Chris Sailer attributed the unexpected loss to the fact that the Loyola game was the team's second of the season, and the Tigers had not yet adjusted to the loss of several key seniors from last year's powerhouse team.

"It took a while for everyone to step into their roles," she said. "We are much more balanced and more threatening now."

Coming into their own is an understatement at this point in the season. Since that loss, the Tigers have won 13 out of 14 games, including their last seven. They are the only team from last year's Final Four to still be alive. Princeton, with a 14-4 overall record, has qualified for the NCAA tournament each of the last four years and has won its last six tournament games — the longest current NCAA tournament winning streak.

Although Loyola's current winning streak is not nearly as long as the Tigers' — it was cut short by a loss to Virginia in the final week of the regular season — the Greyhounds' overall record, at 17-1, gave them the top seed going into the post-season.

Loyola's duo of Suzanne Eyler and Rachel Shuck steered the Greyhounds past Yale in a 13-7 first-round victory last Sunday. Eyler scored four goals while Shuck posted four assists and a goal. The two have combined for 24 points in the NCAA tournament so far.

Yale could not crack Loyola's defense for the first 13 minutes of the game. Meanwhile, Greene, Eyler and Jen Schuerholz put up three goals for the Greyhounds before Yale's Mile Whitman managed a free position shot at 12:31.

The beginning of the second half was even more humbling for the Elis as the Greyhound offense scored four straight goals in three minutes. On the other side of the field, the defense, led by Tara Singleton's three caused turnovers and Krisit Korrow's five groundballs, kept Yale to seven goals. Loyola's goalkeepers, ranked among the top in the nation, combined for 10 saves, with eight coming in the second half alone by freshman Cindy Nicholaus.

But any humiliation the Elis may have suffered pales in comparison to that suffered by Princeton's first-round opponent, Le Moyne, on May 8. Although the team showed signs of life when it put in the first goal early on in the game, the Tigers dominated for the next 53 minutes, scoring 19 unanswered goals.

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The victory bought Princeton a ticket to the Quarterfinals the following Friday against Ohio State. Eight unanswered Tiger goals broke open a one-point game and delivered them a 17-8 victory. The game was very tight with three lead changes and four ties in the opening 12 minutes. But the 8-0 run, which resulted in a commanding 15-6 advantage for Princeton, squelched Ohio State's hopes for advancement.

So the No. 1 seed meets the defending national champs. And according to Sailer, the Tigers are ready.

"I feel that all the pressure was off us to defend after we lost three straight early in the season," she said. "Those losses changed our mentality and all of the sudden, we weren't defending something, we were reaching. Those games helped put 2002 behind us, and we are playing our best lacrosse right now."