Equipment violation dooms women's lacrosse

The women’s lacrosse coaches’ display of electric intensity as they hollered at one another over the lacrosse stick being examined by the referees was only a fraction of the intensity shown on the field.

After fighting it out head to head against long-time Ivy rival Dartmouth, the Princeton women’s lacrosse team fell, 13-12, due not to skill but rather to an equipment violation. Following senior attack Ashley Amo’s tying goal, Dartmouth called for a stick check. The referees ruled that the pocket of the stick was too deep and nullified the game-tying point the Tigers had just scored. With a little over a minute left on the clock and the Big Green in possession, Princeton simply could not overcome the odds or its bad luck.

Though the match was ultimately closely contested, this outcome would have been impossible to predict based on Princeton’s poor performance during the opening minutes of the first half. Dartmouth dominated the Tigers in the beginning of the game, scoring five unanswered goals in less than six minutes of play. Princeton’s lack of offensive firepower in addition to its high turnover rate left the Tigers with few scoring opportunities.

“I think offensively, at the beginning of the game, we didn’t have the ball enough to get into our flow,” senior attack Alison Murray said. “But as soon as we got the ball, we got into it, and our offense was able to get to the back of the net.”

After a Tiger timeout, however, Princeton began to show some offensive initiative, as it fought its way back into the game.

“We didn’t come out the way we wanted to come out,” Murray said. “But after regrouping, we played the game with a kind of fire because we hate being down by that much.”

After a few missed shots, the Tigers scored their first goal of the night when junior midfielder Holly McGarvie picked up a loose ball from about seven meters out and bombarded Dartmouth’s net with eight minutes, 10 seconds left in the first half. Princeton kept the back of the Big Green’s net hot after that, with Amo passing to junior attack Christine Casaceli, who faked past Dartmouth defenders to score again at 7:34. After Casaceli’s goal, Princeton scored four more times in a span of less than five minutes to bring the game to 7-6 Dartmouth. With 1:07 left in the half, freshman midfielder Lizzy Drumm scored an eight-meter goal to tie the score at seven going into halftime, completing the Tigers’ incredible climb back into the game.

Though the match seemed poised in Princeton’s favor heading into the second half, the Big Green proved it was not going down without a fight and hit the turf with a vengeance, scoring three times in the first nine minutes. After a quick goal by Dartmouth’s Kristen Barry at 28:31 to begin the second half, junior attack Anne Murray scored her first goal of the night off a free-position shot with 25:53 on the clock. Though she was able to find the back of the Big Green’s net once more, Dartmouth scored a slew of goals during the middle of the period to bring its lead to 13-9 with just six minutes left in the game.

Thanks in large part to an unprecedented number of Dartmouth turnovers, however, the Tigers were once again able to make an incredible comeback. With Princeton trailing by four and time quickly slipping away, Anne Murray gained possession, cut into the crease and faked out Dartmouth’s goalie to score at 5:19. Less than two minutes later, junior midfielder Katie Cox scored off another free position. Maintaining control of the ball on the draw, the Tigers slipped one past Dartmouth’s goaltender just 20 seconds after Cox’ goal, when Amo threw a pass far down the field to Casaceli, whose goal brought the Tigers to just one point behind the Big Green.

With tension high and time running out, Princeton seemed to have miraculously come back from its 13-9 deficit just five minutes earlier to tie the game at 13, when Amo scored with 1:20 left on the clock. The goal came after the Tigers forced a turnover and cleared for an eight-meter setup. Casaceli passed across the crease to Cox, who quickly spotted Amo in front of the goal. Amo then fired a shot straight in. The goal was disallowed after the stick-check ruling, though, and the Big Green gained and maintained possession after that, winding down the clock until the buzzer sounded.

“That stick check was not something we could really anticipate,” Alison Murray said. “But it was a shame because it was such a great goal by Amo. It was just really hard for us to have that be the defining factor of the match. But the rule’s the rule, so [we] can’t really do anything about it.”

Ultimately, the stick check did indeed cost Princeton its final opportunity to win the game, but it was not why the Tigers lost the game. The play by the offense, from its turnovers to its inability to connect passes, was what really dragged Princeton down, causing it to not only lose the game, but also any hopes of winning the Ivy League championship.