Women's lacrosse felled in NCAA quarters

When the women's lacrosse team took the turf in Evanston, Ill., on May 15 to face Northwestern in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals, the Tigers (13-5 overall, 6-1 Ivy League) found themselves playing an unfamiliar role: underdog.

After reaching the Final Four for five consecutive years and winning national championships in 2002 and 2003, this year's Princeton squad was younger, more inexperienced and, ultimately, not quite as good.

"Expectations are always very high," head coach Chris Sailer said. "We improved over the course of the year ... our defense developed ... but, [in the end] we were marred by inconsistency."

And so it was that the No. 8 seeded Tigers were knocked out by the No. 1 Wildcats, 8-6, on a chilly day along the shore of Lake Michigan. In a game that was a microcosm of a season of inconsistency and bad play away from Class of 1952 Stadium, the Tigers played sloppily, turning the ball over 19 times. Northwestern also held the Tigers to just 13 shot attempts in the game — 15 shots shy of the team's 28 shot average.

Three days before the loss to Northwestern, in Princeton's final home game of the season, the Tigers demolished Maryland, 16-8, in the first round of the tournament. Inspired by the return of senior midfielder Elizabeth Pillion — the heart and soul of the team — from injury, Princeton played perhaps its best game of the season. Sophomore midfielder Kathleen Miller scored five goals in the game, senior attack Lindsey Biles scored four, and Pillion, playing with a heavily bandaged right leg, found the net three times.

The Tigers beat nine nationally ranked teams over the course of the season, knocking off Duke, the eventual No. 2 ranked team in the nation, and Georgetown in non-conference play and topping Cornell and Penn in Ivy League play. But Princeton's tough schedule — 15 of 18 games came against Top 20 teams — took its toll, including overtime losses to Penn St. and Maryland.

Dethroned

Though Princeton extended its streak of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances to eight, another streak — the Tigers' four-year reign atop the Ivy League — was summarily snapped.

It was Dartmouth who dethroned them, beating the Tigers 12-9 in Hanover, N.H., on April 23. Princeton's stars, Pillion and Biles, were kept quiet — one by her hamstring and the other by the Dartmouth defense. In their offensive absence, freshman midfielder Katie Lewis-Lamonica filled the void, scoring three goals. Lewis-Lamonica, the 2005 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, was one of several freshmen to make an immediate impact. A second team All-Ivy pick, Lewis-Lamonica scored 28 goals in her first season at Princeton and was among the team leaders in groundballs, draw controls and caused turnovers. She and her classmates will have to pick up the scoring load next year, as the Tigers lose three of their most potent scoring threats to graduation — Biles, Pillion and attack Ingrid Goldberg, who together accounted for 106 combined goals this season.

Biles, the 2005 Ivy League Co-Player of the Year, led the team with 55 goals and 71 points, writing her name in the Princeton record books one last time. She finished her Tiger career second in team history in both goals (175) and points (221). For the second straight season, Biles, a first team All-American selection and a finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy awarded annually to the nation's best player, finished one goal shy of Cristi Samaras's single-season goal record of 56 goals set in 1998. The leading candidate to fill Biles' large cleats will be Miller, who was second on the team with 43 points, first on the team in assists with 17 and honorable mention All-Ivy. She'll be leaned upon next year for her scoring and feeding ability.

But, perhaps, the biggest void will be between the pipes. For the first time in four years, Princeton will be without senior goaltender and four-year starter Sarah Kolodner, who holds the team record for most wins in goal (65) and finished second all-time in goals-against average (6.38 GAA). Though next year's goalie will have a more experienced defense in front of her to help ease the transition, Kolodner's constant presence in the cage will be sorely missed.

Junior defenseman Lauren Vance, a vocal presence and a first team All-Ivy selection, anchored an inexperienced defense this season and will be expected to do so against next year, helping to smooth the goalie transition. She led Princeton in caused turnovers with 36 and in groundballs with 49 in the 2005 campaign.

In a year in which the goal of winning another national championship never came to fruition, Biles, Pillion, Goldberg and Kolodner all closed out accomplished careers in style, while younger players gained valuable experience. It wasn't the perfect season the Tigers had hoped for, but that disappointment seems unlikely to keep them down for long.

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"We all leave with regrets from the [Northwestern] game and think about what could have been," Sailer said. "I think we have a lot to work on for the future."