Tournament Time

It has often been said that familiarity breeds contempt, but for the women's lacrosse team, familiarity has bred respect. No. 8 Princeton will host perennial powerhouse Maryland as the Tigers enter the NCAA Tournament for the 21st time at Class of 1952 Stadium on Thursday at 3 p.m. The game will be a rematch of a four-overtime thriller played in College Park, Md., last Wednesday — a game the Terrapins won, 13-12.

"Maryland dominated the overtime," head coach Chris Sailer said. "We've been working on how we're going to play overtime periods and not just sit back and wait for that one shot that you may never get. [Instead, we want] to get into our motion offense and look to create more opportunities for ourselves."

With home-field advantage in this first-round game, expectations are high for a Princeton team that has at least reached the national semifinals in each of the past four seasons. Additionally, the Tigers have won eight consecutive tournament games at Class of 1952 Stadium — their last loss was to Penn State in the 1999 quarterfinals.

Princeton (12-4 overall, 6-1 Ivy League) will certainly have experience on its side come Thursday, as the Tigers make their eighth straight NCAA appearance. Sailer is taking a team to the tournament for the 14th time in her 19-year head coaching career.

Both Sailer and Maryland head coach Cindy Timchal will rely on their core of senior stars who have experienced the intensity of past tournaments. Princeton seniors attack Lindsey Biles, midfielder Elizabeth Pillion and goaltender Sarah Kolodner will continue to lead the Tigers by example. Their support will come from senior attack Ingrid Goldberg, whose offensive output has been outstanding in the second half of the season and who was recently named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week after her eight-point performance in two games two weeks ago.

Maryland (12-6) midfielder and Tewaaraton nominee Acacia Walker plays the same role on her Terrapin team. Walker is among the team's leading goal scorers and is sixth on the team in points with 39. But Maryland is known for its very balanced attack — six players have scored more than 20 goals on the season. In addition, seven Terps have at least 30 points on the season, and five have 40.

"Maryland is a great fast break team," Sailer said. "They're also a great feeding team. You always have to be sharp on defense because they are going to pass that ball into an open stick. They have a ton of speed, and I thought we did as well as we could do keeping up with them [in the game last week]."

Princeton's overtime loss to the Terrapins on Wednesday was its first loss to Maryland since 2001. Prior to that, the Tigers had lost 11 consecutive games to the Terps as Maryland went on its unprecedented seven-year title run. The Terps have been playing well as of late, ending the season on a two-game winning streak and winning four of its last five games. After losing to Virginia, which plays Johns Hopkins on Thursday, in the semifinals of the ACC tournament, the Terrapins went on to beat Princeton and Loyola.

It is fitting that two such storied lacrosse programs should play each other yet again. Between 1994 and 2003, either Maryland or Princeton won every national title, and over the past 12 years, at least one of the squads has played in each national championship game.

"[This is] usually a game you see for the national championship or the Final Four," Sailer said. "You've got two teams who have a lot of respect for each other ... At this point, we know we can beat them, and they know they can beat us. It's just a matter of which team is going to show up."

The last time these two teams met in the tournament was in the national semifinals in 2001. The Terrapins won the game, 14-7, and went on to win the national championship the next day.

The winner of the Princeton-Maryland game will most likely have to face the No. 1 team in the nation — Northwestern. The Wildcats host Mount Saint Mary's on Thursday. Should the Tigers advance past the Terrapins, they will next play Sunday afternoon for a spot in the national semifinals at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis, Md.