No. 3 Tigers fall to No. 6 Blue Jays

Saturday afternoon's women's lacrosse game at John's Hopkins made history. For Princeton, however, it was the wrong kind of history. The No. 6 Blue Jays' 8-7 upset win at Homewood Field marked the biggest win in Hopkins Division I women's lacrosse history. The No. 3 Tigers are the highest-ranked team ever beaten by the Blue Jays.

Princeton (0-1), after stumbling out of the gates, managed to cut a five-goal deficit to one with just over four minutes remaining but the Blue Jays (2-0) were able to hold on for the win thanks in large part to the effort put forth by attack Mary Key.

"I think that we had some trouble getting our attack to move the way we wanted to [in the early going]," junior defenseman and co-captain Caitlin Reimers said. "We didn't capitalize on early opportunities, not to mention the fact that there were a couple goals that the defense was responsible for that we could have stopped."'

Key registered the first goal of the game just two minutes in and proceeded to tack on two more as well as chip in three assists.

Key's first goal started what was to become a 5-0 run spanning the first 20 minutes of the game. Just a minute and a half after, Key assisted on sophomore attack Annie Wagner's goal. The Blue Jays extended their lead to three when junior attack Sarah Walsh scored her fourth goal of the young season assisted by none other than Key.

Cox breaks through

With eight and a half minutes to play in the half, the Tigers finally ended their cold spell when freshman midfielder Katie Cox scored her first career goal, cutting the deficit to four goals. Cox's partner in the midfield, freshman Kristin Schwab, cut into the lead just before the half.

But Hopkins came out of the locker room with the same intensity with which they started the game, and Key quickly tacked on her second goal of the game.

But the youth on the Tiger squad would not let Princeton go down without a fight. Sophomore attack Katie Lewis-Lemonica and freshman attack Christine Casaceli both scored to bring the Tigers within two goals of Hopkins.

Wagner, however, quickly responded, scoring her second goal of the game off of an assist from Key.

Then, Casaceli, in an almost mimic gesture, quieted the crowd, scoring her second goal of the game and cutting the deficit to two, 7-5.

"Generally focusing on defense allowed us to get back in the game," Reimers said. "We had some big defensive stops and did a better job clearing the ball out. [The defensive improvement] gave us the backbone to the comeback as well as some strong plays on attack."

But once again, Key proved to be the decisive player. The Blue Jays controlled the ball on the ensuing draw and found Key behind the Princeton net.

Key scores again

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Waiting for a crack in the defense, Key circled in front of the net and scored behind her back. Key's eventual game-winning goal bookended a day in which she had both the first and the final say.

Trailing by three goals, Schwab and senior attack Olachi Opara both scored to cut the Hopkins lead to one with 4:25 to play, but the Tigers would get no closer.

But that is not to say they did not have chances to score a game-tying goal. In the final four minutes, Princeton had three good possessions in the Hopkin's end of the field but could not register a single shot on goal. A turnover in the final minute of play sealed the game as the Blue Jays were able to run out the clock.

This marks the 21st time that Key has scored three or more goals in a game. Hopkins is 20-1 in those games.

Casaceli and Schwab both had multi-point games for Princeton, scoring two goals a piece. Casaceli and Schwab were two of three freshman that scored goals in the game. These three freshmen accounted for five of the team's seven goals.

"The freshmen were really all-stars on attack for us," Reimers said, "and they are a really dynamic bunch. We didn't put the same amount of pressure on the defense as an attack unit as the freshmen were able to do individually."