The season opener for the women's lacrosse team was a tale of two halves. Luckily for Princeton (1-0), the positives of the second half far outweighed its undisciplined play in the first half. The No. 2 Tigers beat a feisty No. 6 Johns Hopkins squad (1-1), 9-6, in their opening game at Class of 1952 Stadium on Saturday night.
After a disappointing first half in which the Tigers had eight turnovers and entered the locker room trailing 5-4, senior attack Lindsay Biles and senior goaltender Sarah Kolodner took it upon themselves to rally the team to victory.
Biles, whose status was questionable right up until the start of the game because of a shoulder injury, did not let her pain stand in her way. She finished with five points and scored all four of her goals in the second half. Kolodner made 14 saves and quieted the Blue Jays' offensive attack early in the second half with three key saves.
The first 10 minutes of the game showcased two strong defensive efforts before Princeton broke the scoreless tie, registering the first two goals of the game less than a minute apart. Sophomore midfielder Kathleen Miller, who was honored as Rookie of the Year in 2004, scored the first goal on a solo effort.
Sophomore attack Mary Minshall followed her at the 17 minute, 22 second mark to put the Tigers up by two. Miller assisted on the goal.
But the Blue Jays responded, scoring four of the next five goals. Johns Hopkins cut the deficit to one goal on sophomore attack Mary Key's seventh goal in two games and evened the score at 2-2 midway through the half on senior midfielder Anne Crisafulli's goal.
Princeton battled back, however, to take the lead on Miller's second goal of the night. Eventually, the Blue Jays took the 4-3 lead on back-to-back goals by Meghan Voight, her second and third goals of the year.
On the seesaw again, senior defender Elizabeth Pillion received a feed from Biles and sprinted past two defenders before finding the back of the net, evening the score with less than four minutes to play in the half.
Blue Jay Sarah Walsh, however, responded with a goal of her own, giving her team the lead at intermission, 5-4.
Unfortunately for Hopkins, that proved to be its last lead of the game as a vengeful Princeton team took the field in the second half.
Display of prowess
Motivated by head coach Chris Sailer's stern halftime talk, the Tigers outscored the Blue Jays, 5-1, in the second half on 14 shots. Biles scored 34 seconds into the half on an unassisted goal, and freshman middie Katie Lewis-Lemonica scored her first career goal just over one minute later to put Princeton on top for good.
After that, the game turned into a display of Biles' athletic prowess, as the Hopkins defense had no answer for her offensive ability. She scored the Tigers' next three goals over an eight-minute span to put the game out of reach. Two of these goals were unassisted as Biles used her speed to beat her defenders in one-on-one situations. The other goal was a free position shot with Blue Jay goalie Lauren Riddick, who was responsible for the foul, removed from the cage.
With two minutes to play in the game, Key added a meaningless goal for the Blue Jays to close the deficit to three. The goal was Hopkins' first since the 1:43 mark in the first half after a scoreless drought of almost 30 minutes. The Jays, though, got no closer.
Hopkins outshot the Tigers in the first half, 12-10. Kolodner had seven saves in the half, and Riddick had just one.
Offensive pressure shifted in the Tigers' favor in the second stanza. Princeton outshot the Blue Jays, 14-11, in the second half of play and won four of seven draw controls. Hopkins ended the game with the advantage in both draw controls and groundballs.
With Saturday's victory, Princeton extended its home winning streak to 19 games.
The team returns to the Class of 1952 Stadium on Mar. 13 for a meeting with Loyola.
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