Strong start leads to Tigers' first win

Good things come in threes, or at least it seemed that way in Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon as the No. 6 women's lacrosse team defeated No. 12 Loyola, 12-7. Princeton has now beaten the Greyhounds in four straight games after losing three out of four to Loyola prior to this run.

A trio of Tigers, sophomore midfielder Katie Lewis-Lemonica, junior attack Kathleen Miller and junior midfield Alex Gangler, scored three goals, while sophomore goaltender Meg Murray, in her first career start, notched eight saves in the win. Murray got five of her saves in the all-important first half.

"I just think we got our first game jitters out against Hopkins," Miller said. "We didn't play like we had been playing in practice, but rather than letting that get to us, we turned it around and used it as momentum and a source of aggression [against Loyola]. We proved that we are a really good team and that [that] first game was a fluke. We came back and played really well against Loyola."

Princeton's (1-1) strong start against the Greyhounds was in complete contrast to how the team crawled out of the gates at Johns Hopkins last Saturday. The Tigers scored three times in a one minute, 17 second stretch in the early going to take a 3-0 lead. After Loyola (2-2) scored to cut the Princeton lead to three at 5-2, Gangler went on a scoring rampage.

She scored twice in 30 seconds to increase the Tigers lead to 7-2 and again with just under four minutes left in the second quarter off a feed from sophomore Katie Atkins to give Princeton a commanding 9-2 lead at the half. Miller scored all three of her goals in the first half and Lewis-Lemonica contributed two of her three before the break, as the Tigers built a seven goal lead.

The second half featured more of the same from both teams with Princeton scoring and Loyola trailing. The Greyhounds were never closer than four goals for the rest of the game.

"We scouted Loyola well and we took advantage of all opportunities the defense presented us with," Miller said. "We saw that [Loyola] was very quick to jump on the ball and they were not too good with their first or second slides. We didn't run any plays, maybe one set offense all game. We just worked against their defense and capitalized on all of their mistakes."

Gangler, who scored her three goals on her first three shots of the season, has been known as an efficient scorer for the past two seasons. Last season, she registered five goals on just as many shots.

Also chipping in on offense was freshman midfielder Kristin Schwab, now with four goals on the season, who scored two goals for the second straight game. After a phenomenal debut for the freshman class in the season opener, only one other newcomer, freshman midfielder Katie Cox, got involved in the scoring barrage as she tallied two assists. The first went to Atkins for the first goal of the game and the second went to Gangler.

"What I think is awesome," Miller said, "is that we may not have an experienced team, but the freshmen are all little sparkplugs. They are so excited all the time, and the most willing people to learn. When I make mistakes, I expect to see my captains or the older girls come up to me and tell me to shake it off, but instead Katie Cox runs up to me and says 'You'll get them next time, Miller.' I think that is the funniest thing."

Atkins registered four points in the first game of her collegiate career. After missing all of last season due to an injury sustained in the preseason, she scored a goal and tallied three assists against Loyola.

Throughout the game, the Greyhounds looked poised to challenge Princeton for the leada but each time their comeback attempt fell a few goals shy. With a few quick goals at the start of the second half, Loyola eventually cut the Tigers' lead to 9-5, before Schwab stopped the bleeding with her free-position goal at the 11 minute mark of the half. Schwab added her second goal 13 minutes later off a feed from Gangler. Loyola's Talia Shacklock and Kate McHarg both had two goals in the game.

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Loyola, who doubled Princeton in fouls with 18, managed to tally more shots, more groundballs, and more draw controls, than Princeton in the game and had two fewer turnovers, with 16, in the loss.

With the win, head coach Chris Sailer now stands just two wins away from 250 victories for her career. She trails only Maryland coach Cindy Timchal, 324, in wins among active Division I coaches.