Princeton feasts on Blue Hens

The women's lacrosse team bounced back from its disappointing loss to Dartmouth in a decisive manner, destroying Delaware, 16-3, on Tuesday evening in Newark, Del.

Everything was clicking for the Tigers on a night when even senior defender Lauren Vance was able to secure her first career goal. The Tigers' combination of balanced offensive output and tough defense forced a running clock midway through the second half — the lacrosse equivalent of baseball's 10-run mercy rule.

Princeton was in control from the very beginning. Senior attack Ingrid Goldberg got the Tigers on the board first. Senior attack Lindsey Biles and freshman attack Katie Lewis-Lamonica both added goals to put Princeton up, 3-0. At that point Delaware's Kristin Celluci put the Blue Hens on the board, but they would get no closer than that two-goal margin.

After a minor slump in the middle of the first half, when the Tigers spent more time in transition and gave up more turnovers than they would have liked, they picked things up again with 10 minutes remaining in the first. Junior attack Olachi Opara, sophomore attack Mary Minshall and sophomore midfielder Christine Dobrosky all scored towards the end of the half to give Princeton a 6-1 lead going into the locker room.

The Tigers secured three goals early in the second, but Delaware was able to tack on two more, making the score 9-3 with 20:44 left. It was at that point that Vance got her goal. It was a fitting moment for her first career goal — afterward, her squad went on to score six more unanswered goals en route to the team's most decisive victory in more than two years.

"Especially in the second half, the team was tremendous," head coach Chris Sailer said. "We really shut them down."

And shut them down they did. Princeton had 13 groundballs in the second half while only allowing Dartmouth six. The effort allowed quite a few Tigers to get into the game who have otherwise seen less playing time this year. All three goalies received some playing time. Senior goaltender Sarah Kolodner started the game. She was relieved midway through the second by sophomore Colleen O'Boyle, who was in turn replaced by freshman Meg Murray with seven minutes remaining.

Sailer was very impressed with her team's play from off the bench and is looking forward to seeing more of it in these last few games and into the post-season.

"We just got some great contributions from kids off the bench," she said.

Lewis-Lamonica, who finished the evening with two goals, said the importance of the contributions off the bench was not lost on the rest of the team.

"We were just happy to see so many people score, happy to see that we asserted ourselves," she said.

Princeton benefited from a superior performance from Opara, who had a career-high four goals to lead the team. Opara had previously been sidelined due to injury and was playing in only her fourth game of the season.

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"Olachi did a great job for us. She's a powerful weapon in there," Sailer said. "She's someone we definitely want to get more time."

Defensively, the Tigers caused a season-high 25 turnovers, including five from Vance. The defensive crackdown held the Blue Hens to just 10 shots and 17 groundballs.

It was the team's "best defensive effort of the season," Vance said after the game.

Sailer agreed. "The unit was just really tough and hard to get past. They were seeing things develop really well and taking control as opposed to sitting back," she said.

Tuesday's victory marked a major turnaround from the downtrodden feeling after last weekend's loss to Dartmouth and, with it, the Ivy League championship. The win against the Blue Hens gave the team a shot of confidence, Lewis-Lamonica said.

The convincing win was something the Tigers had been seeking all year.

"It's been something we've been looking for: a dominating win over a team," Sailer said.

Dominating indeed. Though the squad is quick to admit that it would have liked to have seen the dominating performance over a top team like Dartmouth, the players are satisfied with how they went out and played their game, not dropping to the level of their opponent.

"We were very upset about our loss to Dartmouth and our loss of the Ivy League Championship," Lewis-Lamonica said. "We were very focused on having a team effort where everyone came to play."