Former ice skater Goldberg hits stride as senior

As a high school junior, Ingrid Goldberg was already considering playing Princeton lacrosse. Head coach Chris Sailer was not immediately convinced, however. After Goldberg stopped by Sailer's office in November of her junior year, Sailer laughed to an assistant coach: "How cute, a JV player wants to play at Princeton."

Now a senior, Goldberg can tell the story — Sailer eventually recounted it to her — with a laugh of her own, knowing that in just a few short years, she went from a lacrosse novice to an integral part of the Tigers' explosive attack.

Goldberg may have found the sport late, but in Baltimore — the nation's lacrosse hotbed — it's easy to catch up. After playing on the junior varsity team her sophomore year in high school, she played year-round for three-straight years while also participating in soccer and field hockey. After she displayed her skills at Princeton's summer lacrosse camp, Sailer was convinced that recruiting Goldberg could be a worthwhile investment.

Still, Goldberg didn't have an easy road to her current position as a starter. Her freshman year she played in only seven games and scored four goals. The real breakout came her junior year, when she started 14 games and became a scoring presence on attack.

"I made mental steps my sophomore year, then physical steps my junior year," Goldberg said.

Goldberg started slowly this spring, scoring just five points in Princeton's first six games. Against Georgetown and Cornell she caught fire, scoring seven points in those two contests alone, and she hasn't slowed down since. As a senior, she has already tallied 12 goals, and she is on track to easily top the 15 she scored last season.

"Our attack has a lot of depth in every grade," Goldberg said. "We've been figuring out what works."

Goldberg wasn't always an attack. She was actually recruited as a midfielder and still plays at that position occasionally, but she made the transition to attack in college as she discovered her strong points.

"My strengths are more on attack than defense," Goldberg said. "I'm fast and have a quick first step."

Goldberg attributes her improvement to her ability to take criticism in a constructive way. She tries to help the current freshmen work their way through the rigors of college lacrosse in a similar manner.

"If they have a rough day, I tell them to brush it off," Goldberg said. "Princeton students are perfectionists, and it's tough to make adjustments to being the little fish in a big pond."

All in the family

Though she doesn't play alongside him, Goldberg has also been an influence on one of the men's lacrosse team's freshmen — her younger brother, Zach.

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"He used to tease me [about going somewhere else], but he knew in the back of his head he'd come here," Goldberg said. "I tried to convince him."

Although he followed his older sister to Princeton, Zach actually led the way on the lacrosse field. He started playing in middle school, while the elder Goldberg was held up by a competitive figure skating career that consumed her life for eight years. For three years, including her freshman year in high school, she was actually living away from home and competing at an elite level in pairs figure skating. She moved around so much in high school that she attended three different schools and was home schooled for part of the time.

"I realized I was getting old and not getting a strong education," Goldberg said. "I knew I didn't want to spend life in an ice rink."

She picked up a lacrosse stick, and three years later she enrolled in Princeton, an institution well known for its quality in education and lacrosse. She found her niche on the lacrosse team.

"It's so cheesy," Goldberg said, speaking of the best part of being on the lacrosse team. "It's the fact that I have 26 people le that would fly around the world for me in a heartbeat — we're so close."

This year, she and her fellow seniors are seeking to add to the two national championships they've already captured. When it's all over, though, she will miss lacrosse, Goldberg has the real world to look forward to — and a job waiting for her at Merrill Lynch.

"Last year I had a summer internship there," Goldberg said. "I absolutely loved it, and in the fall they offered me a job."

She will take with her the confident attitude she displays for the Tigers on the field, but first she will look to assist Princeton lacrosse to yet another successful postseason.