The women's lacrosse team's quest for a perfect regular season — and sole possession of the league title — was nearly spoiled by unranked Brown this weekend.
The Tigers (16-0 overall, 7-0 Ivy League) eventually overcame the Bears (6-8, 2-5) in Providence on Saturday. Princeton's sluggish offense was offset by an impressive defensive performance that held Brown to just four goals. The Tigers managed just one more goal themselves as they fended off the Bears, 5-4, to take complete control of the the Ivy crown.
The two teams battled back and forth for more than 10 minutes to start the game before the ball first touched either net. But with 19 minutes, 20 seconds remaining in the first half, junior midfielder Lindsey Biles hurled home Princeton's first goal.
Three minutes later, Biles dumped a pass from freshman attack Kathleen Miller past Brown's starting goaltender, Julia Southard, to give Princeton the 2-0 lead.
For the rest of the half, however, the Bears' offense took over. Three different Brown players took advantage of several defensive miscues to strike three consecutive times, the last coming with just 52 seconds left in the half. Biles and the rest of the Princeton offense couldn't answer quickly enough, so the Bears took a tenuous 3-2 lead into the break.
The game's slow pace continued well into the second half and never truly picked up, but three straight Tiger goals gave Princeton a lead it would not relinquish.
Junior midfielder Elizabeth Pillion tied the game at three with a goal six minutes into the second half. Roughly six minutes after Pillion's goal, the Tigers pulled ahead on Biles' third goal of the afternoon. Biles' fourth and final goal of the day put Princeton up, 5-3.
Brown refused to let the Tigers walk away with the contest that easily, however. Freshman attack Amie Biros scored the Bears' fourth goal of the contest on a free position opportunity with 3:08 remaining on the clock. Brown could not tally another goal for the tie, though, and the final score remained firm at 5-4 — an extremely low-scoring affair by both teams' standards.
The contest was certainly not pretty for either team. The Bears had 22 turnovers, 13 of them in the first half alone. Princeton allowed its opponent to dominate the game's draw controls, giving up nine of the game's 11.
Each team had one of its leading scorers shut down on Saturday. Brown's attack Kate Staley — the Bears' top scorer with 29 goals on the season — couldn't find the net, and senior attack Theresa Sherry finished the game scoreless for the first time all season.
Defense was the key to the unusually low-scoring contest. Brown's goaltender, Southard, made nine saves on the afternoon in a rare complete-game performance. Princeton's junior netminder Sarah Kolodner made five saves on the afternoon.
Biles carried much of the offensive weight for the Tigers. Her four goals gave her a final regular-season total of 48, which places her fourth in the Princeton record books for goals scored in a single season.
Saturday's contest represented the Tigers' second straight one-goal victory. Princeton took down No. 4 Maryland last Wednesday in overtime. In that game, senior attack Tara Hardiman threw home a pass from Sherry with 18 seconds remaining on the clock in the second overtime period.
When all was said and done, the Tigers walked away with sole possession of the Ivy title, their 16th victory of the season (their 25th straight since last April) and their first ever undefeated regular season. But the near upset, not to mention sluggish offensive performances in the team's past two wins, should give Princeton something to think about as it prepares for the NCAA tournament. The Tigers will have home-field advantage for as long as they remain in the tournament, which begins May 11.
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