W. lax ready to rumble

The women's lacrosse team motto is "It's the thrill of the fight," but the important part of that statement for this year's squad is not inside the quotation marks. The operative word is team, which seems specially appropriate for this season's squad, the 20th under head coach Chris Sailer. Though loaded with talent, this team, possibly more than any other, lacks the huge star power found on so many of Sailer's squads in the past.

"This is one of the deepest teams that we'll have," Sailer said. "It's really hard to figure out who's going to start, especially in attack end because we have a lot of legitimate options."

They will get the chance early to prove how deep they really are: five of their first six games are against ranked teams.

Sailer is convinced, however, that the lack of a real star may be a blessing in disguise. Last year, she felt that the team relied too often on one of their big scorers. But now with the roster the way it is, Tiger lacrosse should look like more of a team game.

"We're really focused on team work and unselfish play and reading the game well and everybody doing their part," Sailer said.

This doesn't mean that Princeton will lack a goto-guy, in fact, it has several possible candidates. Among the best of those options are junior attack Kathleen Miller and sophomore midfielder Katie Lewis-Lamonica, who leads all returning players in goals scored last season.

Miller was able to lead the team in assists last season despite being plagued nearly all season by a back injury. That same injury prevented her from playing with the team in the fall and forced her to miss some of the preseason.

"For her, [the challenge is] going to be fitting into the flow of that attack and learning to play with a new group of teammates who played a lot of pickup in the off-season," Sailer said.

Lewis-Lamonica, on the other hand, who was the team's second leading scorer last year, has been healthy and steadily improving all off-season.

She has made a strong effort to improve her fitness and her fundamentals. Sailer said Lewis-Lamonica has done a good job acclimatizing herself to the flow of the offense.

"She's just a more mature and confident athlete, competitor and person in her sophomore year," Sailer said.

Sophomore attack Ashley Amo began to really contribute about halfway through last season, and showed a knack for finishing in front of the net. Her eleven goals were scored largely in the latter part of the season. She has the potential to put up much higher numbers this year.

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Other key returners for the Tigers at attack include senior Olachi Opari, junior Mary Minshall, and sophomore Katie Atkins, who should by now have recovered from an injury that hampered her last season.

With the loss of Pillion, the shape of the midfield position has been substantially altered. Obviously, Lewis-Lamonica will do her part to fill the void, as will junior Caitlin Reimers, one of three captains on this year's squad. Reimers is a well-rounded player who can and has contributed all over the field.

Vance, the lone returning all-American, anchors the team's equally young defense. Senior Caitlin Abidin started all but two games last season and will help raise the level of experience. Sophomore Norris Novak began to see more playing time midway through last season and proved to be a solid on-the-ball defender.

"The improvement within our returners [has been great]," Sailer said. "Everyone across the board has raised their game."

What the team is most looking forward to, however, is the new crop of freshman. Though the starting list has not been completely finalized, Sailer's initial sense is that she will probably be starting five freshmen.

"We've got three middies who are really unbelievable," Sailer said. "They're fast, talented and just really big hustlers."

Sailer refers to Katie Cox, Holly McGarvie, and Kristin Schwab, all three of whom should be able to make an immediate impact.

Maybe the biggest question mark hanging over the team, if it even has one — Sailer doesn't think there is a real weakness — will be in its own goal. Sarah Kolodner, a four-year starter, is no longer with the team.

In her stead are two keepers whose time in goal has been sporadic at best. Junior Colleen O'Boyle saw 134 minutes in eight games last year and sophomore Meg Murray logged 27 minutes in three games.

The two will most likely share time in the beginning of the year. Who will start will be contingent on who is producing in practices, and later on, who is able to produce in games.

"I think it's still up in the air for this year in terms of how we're going to run that goaltending system," Sailer said. "If one of these goalies really becomes hot and is playing better and is producing in games, they're going to get more time."

Sailer considers the possibility that, if there is absolute parity between the goalies, decisions could be made on an opponent-by-opponent basis, matching the goaltender's strengths to the tendencies of the opponent. But for the most part, that will not be the case.

"If someone goes in and is struggling, we're going to put the other one in," she said. "I think that's going to be a really fluid situation for us this year."

The goalie position is indicative of the team as a whole. Depending on how you look at it, the Tigers either have too little space for their talent or talent not good enough to adequately fill holes. The real answer should become pretty clear in six games.