Tigers toppled by Georgetown, Virginia

The women's lacrosse team had found recipes for victory twice before entering spring break: get on top early and get on top early. But neither of those formulas was implemented against Georgetown and Virginia, as the Tigers dropped both games during the week off.

With the losses over break, Princeton finished its brutal pre-Ivy League schedule 2-4. All four of the losses came against teams ranked no lower than seventh.

The Tigers' key for success thus far has undoubtedly been to score early and often. In its two victories, it got off to 5-1 and 6-0 starts. In its losses, Princeton has on more than one occasion fallen far behind, only to mount strong comebacks that fall barely short. Such was the case against Johns Hopkins and Duke. After last week, Georgetown can be added to the list.

Against Georgetown on Wednesday, Princeton fell victim to a familiar trap and fell behind. At the end of the half, the Tigers were down 4-2. Freshman attack Kristin Schwab opened up scoring for Princeton just one minute, 49 seconds into the second half to cut the Bulldog lead to one. But Hoyas Lucy Poole and Sara Zorzi both scored just under ten minutes later to give their team another comfortable lead.

Princeton had 18:59 remaining to mount a comeback — plenty of time. Led by some its stalwart playmakers, the Tigers went on a 3-1 scoring run over 10 minutes to cut the Georgetown lead to one. Freshman midfielder Holly McGarvie got the first goal in the Tiger run off a free position shot with 17:28 remaining. Sophomore midfielder Katie Lewis-Lamonica added another one less than a minute later off an assist from junior attack Kathleen Miller.

Georgetown standout Coco Stanwick briefly stalled the Tiger run with her first goal of the game a minute after Lewis-Lamonica's goal. Princeton, however, bounced back soon thereafter when junior midfielder Alex Gangler cut the Hoyas lead to 7-6 with 9:02 remaining.

But then Stanwick, who had been rather quiet up until her goal minutes earlier, opened up the game for Georgetown. The junior scored two goals in less then a minute. Stanwick's second goal of the evening came on a turnaround in front of the net on an assist from Schuyler Sutton. The nail was hammered in 46 seconds later when Stanwick took a pass inside the circle from Zorzi and beat sophomore goaltender Meg Murray to put Georgetown up 9-6 with 5:57 left.

In the next four minutes, Princeton got two free position shots and caused two turnovers, but to no avail.

The Tigers were eventually able to break into the Hoyas' cage when their leading goal scorer, freshman midfielder Kristin Schwab, brought the Tigers to within two goals with fewer than two minutes remaining. But the Hoyas controlled the ensuing draw and were able to weather the last ditch attempts by Princeton to cause turnovers. The No. 4 Hoyas came away with the 9-7 victory on their home field.

The Tigers' one for six effort on free position shots was a thorn in their offense. Princeton was, however, able to secure 24 ground balls to the Hoyas' 17.

Miller and McGarvie led the Tigers offensively in the loss. Both players had a goal and an assist. Murray made 10 saves while allowing the nine goals. Senior attack Jamie Sundheim led the Princeton with four ground balls.

Saturday, Princeton faced perennial powerhouse and rival Virginia in the Tigers' first game this season in the Class of 1952 Stadium. It was the sixth meeting between the two teams in the last four years, the more notable of which were back-to-back meetings in the 2003 and 2004 national championships. The Tigers won the first while the Cavaliers got revenge the following year.

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The seventh ranked Virginia had dropped just one game in its last six prior to facing Princeton, and was fresh off of a convincing 7-2 win over William & Mary.

In just their second home game of the season, the Tigers struggled to jump out early. UVA opened up the scoring with Meg O'Malley's goal 6:58 into the game. Junior attack Mary Minshall evened the score 2:15 later with her first goal of the season.

But 57 seconds later, the Cavaliers opened up a 4-0 scoring run over that lasted for the next six minutes.

With 13:45 remaining in the half, the Tigers found themselves down 5-1 against a potent Virginia offense. This was, of course, not a new position for Princeton. It had shown it had the ability and mettle to mount comebacks — albeit not completely — against Georgetown, Duke, and Johns Hopkins. So when Sundheim and Gangler scored the next two goals to cut the Virginia lead to two, it looked as though there would be more of the same in this contest.

But, thanks to Virginia's defense, Gangler's goal with 1:44 remaining in the first half would prove to be the last of the day for Princeton.

Led by their primary two offensive threats, Tyler Leachman and Blair Weymouth, the Cavaliers went on an 11 goal scoring run that lasted from 52 seconds remaining in the first half to 3:40 in the second. The Tigers could muster no response in the 16-3 loss.

Leachman and Weymouth, who both finished with four goals, now have 28 and 27 goals, respectively, this season. The Tigers were outshot 32-16 and held a 17-25 ground ball disadvantage.