Tigers face top competition

While most Princetonians head to the sun-drenched South to take a break from school, the women's lacrosse team will get right back to work after exams as it faces three top-12 teams during the break — on the road vs. No. 12 Penn State on Saturday, in Washington to face undefeated No 6 Georgetown on Wednesday and at home against No. 5 Virginia the following Saturday.

Last season, Princeton (1-2) dropped two of three against these same teams as it lost back-to-back overtime games against the Nittany Lions (3-2), 14-13 and the Hoyas (4-0), 13-12. The Tigers beat the Cavaliers (6-1) 8-4.

Princeton can again expect three closely contested games this year, not only because these three programs are perennial powerhouses, but also because the Tigers have been playing very tight games with their opponents thus far this season.

Princeton has virtually the same set of offensive shot statistics as their adversaries. The Tigers and their opponents have almost the same number of shots on goal, assists, goals scored on average and shots per game.

This is in large part due to the outstanding play of the Orange and Black's freshmen. Freshman midfielder Kristin Schwab has registered two goals in all three of Princeton's games with only seven shots in total. Her peer in the midfield, Katie Cox, has tallied three goals and two assists.

Princeton has quite a strong history against these three clubs in the past few years. The Tigers are 7-1 in the past eight seasons against Penn State. Before the Nittany Lions' victory last season, Princeton had won seven consecutive meetings and beat them in 12 of the last 14 years. The only PSU regular-season win in that time came in 1997.

Princeton's loss to Penn State last season ended the Tigers' 24-game regular-season winning streak and 20-game winning streak at Class of 1952 Stadium.

Penn State has a triple-headed offensive attack led by senior midfielder Lori Havrilla, who demolished the Virginia defense earlier this season, scoring six of Penn State's eight goals. The senior has 14 goals on the season. Sophomore Jessi Lieb is a young and rising threat that tallied four of her 11 goals on the season against William and Mary. Lastly, freshmen Kerry Shea has been a solid contributor for the Nittany Lions in the early going, tallying four goals in their loss against William and Mary.

Next up is Georgetown, a team the Tigers have defeated in three of the past four seasons, including three in a row before last year. One of those games was the 2002 national championship matchup. The teams have played each of the last nine regular seasons, with Georgetown winning five of those games.

Princeton should expect another closely contested game this season against the Hoyas as five of the last six regular season games between Princeton and Georgetown have either gone to overtime or been decided by two goals or fewer.

This season, the Hoyas have won three straight road games and their home opener, winning at Mt. St. Mary's, Oregon, Syracuse and home against William and Mary. Princeton will be their fourth consecutive ranked opponent after they face Duke this weekend.

The key to the game will be cracking Georgetown's sophomore goalkeeper Maggie Koch who was recently named Big East Defensive Player of the Week after notching 11 saves against Syracuse. Koch has five goals against average and Georgetown's defense is limiting its opponents to just over 18 shots.

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The Hoyas other strength lies in junior attack Coco Stanwick, who has won 24 draws and leads the Hoyas in goals, points, shots, caused turnovers and ground balls.

The Virginia Cavaliers are another team that Princeton has dominated the regular-season series against in recent years. The Tigers have won seven of the last eight regular-season meetings between the two teams. Two of the most storied programs in women's lacrosse, the teams have played at least once in the past 15 seasons.

Virginia's Tyler Leachman, named the ACC Player of the Week last week, leads the Cavalier attack and registered her 200th career point against Boston College on Sunday. The Cavaliers went 3-0 a week ago, including two wins over ACC opponents as well as two upset wins over Maryland and Penn State. Leachman had nine goals during that stretch of games, including five goals and two assists in the win against the Nittany Lions. She now has 158 career goals, which ranks fourth all-time at Virginia.

Despite their past successes against these teams, the young Tiger squad will have to play flawlessly in order to emerge from spring break unscathed.