Facing a familiar field, Princeton strives to excel

Old foes and familiar faces — that's how the landscape of the elite of women's lacrosse will look.

Last year, Princeton faced serious challenges from Dartmouth and Virginia. The Tigers suffered a 16-3 throttling at the hands of the Cavaliers and a sound 15-5 drubbing from the Big Green. The theme of the season, however, turned out to be redemption.

In what may have been the craziest game in women's lacrosse last year, Princeton upset the No. 2-seeded team with a strong defense and timely scoring — the timeliest of all being junior midfielder Katie Lewis-Lamonica's tie-breaking goal with 2 minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the game.

The Tigers carried the momentum of that win into their quarterfinal matchup against Dartmouth, where the team sought a second helping of vengeance. That bid, however, came up just short, as the Tigers fell to the Big Green, 8-7. Dartmouth would go on to appear in the final against Northwestern, only to fall just short of the national title.

It was a crazy, hectic run that ended a mediocre regular season. Now Princeton thinks that it can carry that momentum over into the 2007 season, where it seeks to regain its perch above all others.

But while last year's tourney run gave hope for another title, it doesn't mean a thing for this season. The Tigers will have to get past the traditional powers yet again.

"I think that this year is actually looking both similar and different when compared to last year," senior midfielder Caitlin Reimers said. "As always, our main competition will be our traditional lacrosse rivals."

The team that has held a stranglehold over the top spot in the rankings after winning the last two national championships — Northwestern — entered the season as the top dog once again but failed to hold on to the position after falling to the new No. 1 — the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a relative upstart and one of the new faces at the top of the rankings.

UNC (3-0) eked out a 9-8 victory over the Wildcats (1-1) in double OT. On the "heels" of the Tar Heels (pun intended) is regional rival Duke (4-0). Northwestern slid to No. 3 after its early season loss, while idle Princeton sits at No. 4, having not played a game yet. Historical power Maryland rounds out the top five.

A couple of Princeton's traditional rivals, Virginia and Dartmouth, reside at the No. 6 and 8 spots, respectively.

The Tigers' schedule should offer plenty of excitement — a euphemism essentially meaning their schedule is stacked with quality opponents. Princeton will open at the Class of 1952 Stadium this Saturday against No. 11 Johns Hopkins, followed by an away game against No. 19 Rutgers on Wednesday.

The following Sunday, the Tigers will brave the lion's den upon traveling to Durham to take on the Blue Devils. Virginia, Maryland, No. 13 Penn State and No. 10 Georgetown will all be future opponents.

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These games merely represent the non-conference schedule. The Tigers will also face off against Dartmouth, and the two teams tied for No. 16, Cornell and Penn, during the stretch run in the middle of the season.

Ten games against the 20 best women's lacrosse programs in the nation should yield a highly competitive lineup of opponents in itself. Playing only three of those games at home, however, is arguably borderline masochistic and certainly makes things difficult.

Regardless, to earn the respect of the nation's best, Princeton will have to defeat the nation's best, and that seems to be the Tigers' game plan.

The matchups with Duke, Dartmouth and Virginia will all be great opportunities to feel out several of what senior goalkeeper Colleen O'Boyle considers to be the nation's most dangerous programs.

"UVA is always there in the end — Dartmouth too, usually," O'Boyle said. "Duke is going to be strong, definitely. Northwestern for the past couple of years has been unbeatable, but [it's] still definitely beatable. UNC we played this fall — they look really fast and really strong."

Though the Wildcats aren't on Princeton's schedule, they are the two-year defending champions and are the team to beat until proven otherwise. Northwestern, which owned the nation's top-scoring offense one year ago, returns midfielder and last year's Tewaarton award winner Kristen Kjellman. Attack Aly Josephs, the Wildcats' other potent offensive weapon, returns as well; but key cog Sarah Albrecht, Northwestern's NCAA tournament MVP, has graduated.

Duke returns eight of its 12 starters and will look to continue to build its momentum over the past four years. The Blue Devils made it to the Final Four last year behind the sterling play of All-American attack Katie Chrest. Though Duke will maintain overall continuity, especially at the midfielder positions, it will have to search for a slightly new formula of success — one that does not include heavy doses of Chrest, who graduated last year.

Dartmouth lost a lot of its senior talent last year, but in rivalry games anything can happen. The Big Green has repeatedly proven itself capable of taking on any team, any where, at any time.

"Dartmouth is a very aggressive, physical team," Reimers said.

The march to the top, of course, begins with the Blue Jays this Saturday — a team that one-upped Princeton to start off last year's season.

By taking it one step at a time, the Tigers might have the talent and weapons to have that classic lacrosse reunion that they desire intently at the end of the season.