Tigers fail to finish Yale

It's not over until it's over. On Saturday, the women's lacrosse team faced this bitter lesson as the Tigers (4-4 overall, 1-1 Ivy League) found themselves on the wrong end of a 6-5 scoreline after conceding the winning goal to Yale (10-3, 3-1) with 10 seconds left.

Lauren Taylor scored the vital goal for the Bulldogs, giving her 49 goals on the season to lead all of Division I. It was Yale's first win over the Tigers since the 2003 season, coming in a game that Princeton had been dominating.

The Tigers arrived at Johnson Field in New Haven, Conn., and stormed to a 4-0 lead midway into the first half. After barely 15 seconds had passed, junior attack Ashley Amo opened up the scoring by netting a goal off the first draw control of the game. Sixteen minutes later, Princeton dazzled the Yale defense as it found the net three times in a one-minute, one-second span.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, this effortless scoring disappeared for the remainder of the game, as Princeton's offense failed to bear fruit for the next 26 minutes. The Tigers scored just once in the last 43 minutes of the game, the lone goal coming from junior midfielder Katie Lewis-Lamonica three minutes after halftime.

"Our transition offense was really good in the beginning of the game," Amo said. "That is how we converted our goals. But overall we did not play a good game. Our attack has been our consistent problem. We had so many turnovers on the attack end in the second half."

Princeton had 18 turnovers to Yale's 14. Particularly crippling were the Tigers' nine turnovers after halftime, when they lost their early lead.

"[We] really couldn't hold onto the ball," Amo said. "Our movement wasn't what it needed to be and therefore we couldn't get ourselves good looks."

Taylor led the Bulldogs' offense, taking 10 shots as her team outshot Princeton 28-18. Yale also had the upper hand in ground balls, claiming 18 of the 28.

There were some signs of danger building up just before halftime, as Yale fought their way back into the game by scoring three times in the final eight minutes of the first half, cutting Princeton's lead to one.

Scoreless during the first half, Taylor made her presence felt three minutes into the second half, producing the equalizer for the Bulldogs. After Lewis-Lamonica's solo effort put the Tigers briefly back on top, Yale evened the score yet again on a Meredith Callahan goal with just over 12 minutes to go.

The Bulldogs spent most of the final five minutes of the game stalling away for the game winner, and their possession was prolonged through a couple of Princeton turnovers in the crucial final moments.

The Tigers called timeout after Taylor's goal gave Yale the lead for the first time in the game with a mere 10 seconds left in the game. Sophomore attack Anne Murray won the next draw control with five seconds left to go, and a desperate effort from senior attack Kathleen Miller was thwarted by Bulldog goalie Ellen Cameron's 10th save of the afternoon.

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"It is definitely frustrating for everyone — from the coaches to [the] attack leaders to [the] players," Amo said. "The chemistry on our attack is not where it needs to be. I give credit to our team defense [that was] all over the field yesterday. I think our play in that area has been very good, [and] we are a great team when it comes to one-on-ones, but we need to be able to work together and play selflessly."

Yale is the only Ivy team besides Dartmouth to record a win against Princeton in the last 14 seasons. The Tigers still boast a 74-2 record against the six Ivy schools other than Dartmouth since the beginning of the 1994 season, but they have suffered from narrow, disappointing defeats this season.

"I think [head coach Chris Sailer] really said it best to us after the game," Amo said. "Our fate may not be in our hands anymore in terms of winning the Ivy League and getting a chance to play in the NCAA tournament. But we are definitely not going to go out without a fight."

After the game, Sailer told the Tigers about Princeton's 2003 team, which was in a similar situation early in its season before it stormed to an NCAA title.

"I think that shed some hope on the rest of our season," Amo said, "but it's going to involve tireless effort and the ability to mentally play like a champion everyday."

Princeton hosts Temple on Wednesday evening at Class of 1952 Stadium, then resumes its Ivy League schedule Saturday in another home game against Harvard.