Terrapins trounce Tigers

That classic song “Anything you can do I can do better” pretty much captured the dynamic in the women’s lacrosse game last night. Unfortunately for the Tigers, it was Maryland that proved over and over again that no matter what Princeton did, the Terrapins could do it better.

Though each of the last four regular-season games played between the No. 6 Tigers (12-3 overall, 5-2 Ivy League) and No. 4 Maryland (16-2) has been decided by just one goal, with three of those in overtime, last night Princeton lost 18-9. The Tigers made several short comebacks, but the Terps were simply stronger and faster than Princeton last night. Leading Maryland’s offensive domination was Dana Dobbie, who paced the Terps with five goals and an assist while obtaining seven draw controls.

“Dobbie is very strong,” junior midfielder Holly McGarvie said. “We prepared for playing against her and I think we just fell through in the defense a bit. She was playing really well, but at the same time we need to do a better job of communicating and making stops in the defense. We are going to be playing great teams in the future, and we need to learn how to make stops against them.”

Maryland won the opening draw and found itself on the scoreboard just 40 seconds later when Dobbie slung a shot right over the shoulder of sophomore goalie Katelyn Perrelle. Despite the Terps’ aggressive start, Princeton regained control of the tempo and did its best to establish a slower pace.

After sending a couple shots wide of the Terrapin net, the Tigers forced a Maryland turnover at the other end and senior attack Ashley Amo capitalized. Amo wrapped around from behind the goal and made a high shot, finding the back of the net six minutes, 49 seconds into the half.

Amo’s goal seemed to change the tide of momentum in the contest. Princeton’s offense showed some extra speed and aggression to prove it. Just a little over a minute later, McGarvie also found the Maryland goal, giving Princeton a 2-1 lead.

Though the Terps briefly gained possession, sophomore attack Kristin Morrison picked up a ground ball, ran down the field, faked around the Terps’ defense and scored just inside the right corner for a low goal that, for all purposes, rolled in at 21:53.

Whatever hope was stoked by the Tigers’ two-minute comeback was quickly extinguished, as Maryland returned Princeton’s comeback with a harder, better, faster, stronger one of its own. The Terps’ offense was all up in the Tigers’ crease for the remainder of the game, scoring seven unanswered goals in the last 20 minutes of the half. Dobbie took down Princeton practically by herself, winning four of the seven draw controls during those final 20 minutes and scoring three consecutive goals. Maryland extended its first-half lead to 8-3 when Casey Magor scored an unassisted goal with just 14 seconds remaining.

Though Princeton struggled during the first period, they hit the turf with a vengeance in the second. McGarvie scored her second goal of the night after picking up a pass and blowing by the defense secure the goal 1:22 into the half. The comeback continued as junior attack Christine Casaceli capitalized on a free-position shot, firing high from straight in front of the goal to pass Maryland goaltender Allie Buote and find the back of the net, closing the gap to just three goals.

Once again, however, Maryland had its own form of a comeback, only the Terps’ retaliation was slightly more damaging than the Tigers’. Princeton’s continued failure to put pressure on the Maryland midfielders and defenders coming into its crease proved to be a breaking point for the team, as the Terps’ scored eight goals within the next 20 minutes of play, moving around Princeton’s defense with ease.

“They had a really strong attack, and we could never get those few goals to get ahead, or tie the game up,” McGarvie said. “I think it came down to a few to many turnovers. We would make a great stop on defense, and then we didn’t transition fast enough to offense. It was good to see that we did have some fight though in those comebacks, but when we do get behind we need to learn to tie the game up.”

Though Casaceli scored on a free-position shot with 21:02 remaining, it was a minor dent in Maryland’s slew of goals. The most disheartening goal of the night for the Tigers undoubtedly occurred when Dobbie attempted to pass to a teammate in front of the Tigers’ net and accidentally scored her fifth goal of the night.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Trailing 17-6 with just 5:30 left in the game, Princeton was simply looking to get some momentum going before the game ended and managed to score three times more.

“We need to get back to the way we usually play on defense,” McGarvie said. “It was unlucky today that we weren’t able to play as well as we usually do but we just need to get back to the basics. Things didn’t go the way we expected, I don’t know exactly what went wrong.”