W. lacrosse to face Le Moyne in first round match-up

In the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament, the women's lacrosse team beat its opponent by the largest margin of victory in a tournament game ever, 25-3. Sophomore midfielder Lindsey Biles led the rout with four goals as 17 different Tigers scored points in the win.

In the game's first five minutes, Princeton scored four goals, and by the 16 minute, 17 seconds mark, the Tigers led, 11-0, with two goals apiece from Lauren Simone '02 and now-senior attack Alex Fiore.

This year the Tigers are playing that same team, Le Moyne, on Thursday in an effort to advance to the second round this Sunday, where they would face either Duke or Ohio.

The Dolphins received the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's automatic bid and finished the season with a 12-5 overall record.

The Tigers, who finished the season 12-4 overall and 6-1 in the Ivy League, received the league's automatic bid, which was determined by a random draw that broke a three-way tie atop the conference standings with Dartmouth and Yale.

The three co-champions of the Ivy League finished the regular conference schedule with 6-1 records. Typical of the competitiveness of the 2003 season, Princeton lost its only game to Yale, which lost its only game to Dartmouth, which, of course, lost its only game to Princeton.

Given the parity at the top of the division, it is no wonder that both the Big Green and the Elis, despite losing the draw, received at-large bids to the 16-team tournament as well.

This is the second year in a row in which Le Moyne has won the MAAC championship. It topped Marist, 9-7, last Sunday to become the first program in conference history to win the title back-to-back.

In both years, the Dolphins' goalkeeper, senior Brandy Payne, was named MAAC tournament Most Valuable Player. She made six saves in Sunday's game.

Joining Payne on the All-Tournament team are freshman defender Alecia Audley, sophomore midfielder Sonya Kilcourse, freshman attack Liz Hewitt, senior midfielder Amanda Daniels and senior attack Colleen Sperry.

Daniels was one of three players to score for the Dolphins against the Tigers last year, and Sperry scored six goals to lead her team to a 15-7 win over Niagara in the semifinals of the MAAC tournament.

While the Tigers have last year's 22-point wipeout in their favor going into the first-round game, the fact that two of Le Moyne's six players on the All-Tournament team are freshmen reveals that this year's team has a new face and Thursday's game may not be one to be taken lightly.

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Also owing to the Dolphins' success this season is their new head coach Lauren O'Connor, who has added to Le Moyne lacrosse her own experience as a former MAAC Academic All-Conference selection and Most Valuable Player of her Niagara team.

From the looks of the Tigers' most recent 19-10 victory over Brown last Saturday, they are definitely ready to roll. In that game, 11 Tigers got on the scoreboard, while Biles led the team with five goals in 20 minutes.

"We came out and dominated the game," head coach Chris Sailer said afterwards. "I was very pleased with what I saw out of our supporting cast."

A key moment arrived when Becker, who spends most of her time fending off the other team's attack on the defensive end, ran the ball the entire length of the field and netted an unassisted shot, her first goal of the season. It is that kind of momentum and confidence from all across the lineup that has and will continue to give the defending national champions success in NCAA Tournament competition.

"It was good to see everyone contribute," senior attack and tri-captain Sarah Small said. "I feel like we are playing at a high level and we have a lot of momentum heading into the postseason."