Cornell no obstacle for Tigers

There are many ways to mark one's territory. For the women's lacrosse team (4-3 overall, 1-0 Ivy League), a dominating score was the pick of the day, as the Tigers romped to an 18-9 win against Cornell (2-6, 1-2) in their Ivy League opener Saturday.

If the five-hour drive to Ithaca was frustrating, the Tigers certainly found an outlet for their stress in the game. The defending Ivy Champions outshot Cornell 33-26 and claimed 19 of the 29 draw controls, five of which came from sophomore midfielder Holly McGarvie. The hosts, however, had the edge against the Tigers in ground balls, 21-16. Princeton also had 24 turnovers, while Cornell had 22.

The game progressed in a way that was hardly surprising, given the Tigers' dominant record over the Big Red. Since 1980, the Tigers were 26-2 all-time against the Big Red before Saturday's matchup. In addition, Princeton had notched 18 consecutive wins against Cornell in the regular season and 19 consecutive wins overall, prior to the match.

The Tigers made it clear that this run would be uninterrupted; they scored all of the game's first eight goals.

Cornell finally managed to get on the scoreboard with less than three minutes to go in the first half. But the game was effectively over by halftime, with the Tigers leading, 8-2, after outshooting the Big Red 15-9 in the half.

A goal from junior attack Ashley Amo with 10 minutes left in the half put the icing on the cake for the Tigers' convincing first-half display. Amo faked going behind the cage and came around the other side to receive a pass from senior attack Kathleen Miller. She scored with composure to set the Tigers ahead by five.

"It was an important moment in the game and in our season," sophomore attack Christine Casaceli said. "It put together many of the concepts we had been working on in the past week. It was an assisted goal where we looked to the weak side, which we hadn't been doing previously."

After a goalless first four minutes of the second half, Princeton extended its lead to 9-2 when junior midfielder Katie Lewis-Lamonica found the net with a free-position shot. But the Big Red responded instantly, as Cornell's Katherine Simmons and Margaux Viola combined to score two goals in two minutes.

The Tigers, however, nipped the budding threat with two goals in nine seconds, two minutes after Cornell had clipped Princeton's lead.

Junior attack Alison Murray showed quick reflexes as she scored off the draw immediately following a goal from Miller, extending the lead back to seven.

Casaceli then made sure the game would go Princeton's way by scoring twice inside two minutes, increasing the lead to 14-5 with less than 18 minutes to go.

The junior duo of Amo and Lewis-Lamonica had four goals to their name, and the two also had an assist each. Miller and Casaceli also had three goals apiece. Miller moved into ninth place all-time in the Princeton record books with 166 career points.

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After last week's disappointment against No. 4 Virginia, the Tigers had looked to bounce into a new phase in their season as they headed into a month during which they'll play every Ivy team.

The Tigers certainly came in with a bang. The nine-time Ivy League champions produced a sublime performance in a game in which the numbers spoke for themselves.

"The most important factor in our win was our control of the draw and the 50/50 balls," Casaceli said. "We knew this was going to be key to our success, and Holly McGarvie, [sophomore midfielder] Katie Cox and [sophomore midfielder] Kristen Schwab were responsible for making huge plays all over the field that enabled us to control the game and the tempo."

The Tigers boast an incredibly successful record in the Ivy League — the Tigers have never lost more than one Ivy League game in any of the last 14 seasons.

Their league record for that time period is 83-10.

The Tigers will hope to repeat their performance next Saturday when they travel to New Haven, Conn., to play their second Ivy League game against Yale.