Wildcats surge past Princeton in quarterfinals

Princeton entered the season ranked seventh and facing No. 14 Johns Hopkins on the road. In their 7-5 win, the Tigers demonstrated the explosive offense and stifling defense that would thwart its opponents all season. Junior midfielder Holly McGarvie led the offense with four goals, and the Tigers never trailed. Sophomore goalie Kaitlyn Perrelle had six saves to help keep Princeton on top.

Showing off for the home crowd, the Tigers next rolled past Rutgers with help from nine different goal scorers. Junior attack Christine Casaceli had a career-high four goals to lead the offensive onslaught. Princeton ended the game 16-8 and never led by fewer than five goals in the second half.

The next weekend the Tigers faced their toughest opponent yet when then-undefeated No. 3 Duke came to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. Princeton, however, proved up to the challenge and never trailed in an impressive 13-8 victory. Coming back from an ankle injury, senior midfielder Katie Lewis-Lamonica led another deluge on offense with seven goals. The offensive attack was impressively efficient, with the Tigers’ 13 goals coming off just 22 shots on goal.

Thanks to the hot start, the Orange and Black began climbing the rankings. Ranked third after their performance against the Blue Devils, the Tigers headed to Penn State to prove they were a force to be reckoned with on both sides of the ball. A key save from freshman goalie Erin Tochihara in the second half kept the game tied at five and gave Princeton possession, leading to the go-ahead goal and a 7-6 victory for the Tigers. Penn State managed just 12 shots overall, with only five shots in the second half.

A few days later, No. 4 Princeton returned home to host James Madison. The offense performed with deadly efficiency, scoring on 10 of 15 first-half shots. JMU’s only lead came in the first two minutes. Senior attack Ashley Amo tied the game up just 26 seconds later, scoring her first of four goals. Another four-goal run in the second half secured the 17-10 victory for the Tigers as they looked ahead to their showdown with No. 2 Virginia.

Princeton found itself locked in an instant classic with the Cavaliers that came down to the final seconds. With the game tied 7-7 with 15 seconds left, a Tiger turnover was saved by an offsides call on Virginia that gave possession back to Princeton. Freshman midfielder Lizzy Drumm capitalized on the second chance, finding Casaceli in front of the net for the game-winner and giving the Tigers an 8-7 victory. The win sent Princeton into Ivy League play with an unblemished 6-0 record.

The Tigers rolled through their first Ivy League game with a 19-10 win over Cornell that earned them the No. 2 ranking. After an easy 15-4 win at Columbia, Princeton next hosted No. 13 Yale, who had defeated the Tigers the previous season in New Haven. The Elis, however, failed to spoil Princeton’s perfect record, as seven Tigers contributed goals in the 9-6 win. Perrelle contained the Bulldogs with six saves in the game, including four in the second half. After another dominant win — an 18-9 conquest of Harvard — Princeton hosted No. 6 Penn in a battle to decide first place in the Ivy League.

The Quakers’ 9-5 win ended the Tigers’ undefeated run and also their 12-game home winning streak. After the exhausting showdown, Princeton faltered again the next weekend with a 13-12 loss against Dartmouth after a late game-tying goal from Amo was disallowed when her stick was ruled to be illegal.

After falling to a No. 6 ranking, the Tigers ended their two-game skid with a 15-7 win over Temple and a 15-2 win over Brown to finish second in the Ancient Eight. Princeton wrapped up its regular season with two tough matchups against top-10 teams, losing 18-9 to No. 4 Maryland and 9-8 to No. 7 Georgetown. McGarvie was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week for her five goals in the losing efforts in the top-10 matchups. She was also one of 18 nominees for the year’s Tewaaraton Trophy honoring the national player of the year. McGarvie and junior defenseman Marie McKenna earned first-team All-Ivy honors for their regular-season performances.

The Tigers were seeded No. 8 in the NCAA tournament, earning a tournament berth for the 16th time in 17 seasons, and got ready to host Vanderbilt in the first round. The Tigers broke an 8-8 tie midway through the second half with four goals in the final eight minutes to pull away with a 14-10 win over the Commodores. Amo had six points overall, including a goal and an assist in the final four-goal run.

The win advanced them to the quarterfinal round. There, Princeton collided with top-seeded juggernaut Northwestern, who ended the Tigers’ season with an 18-11 win. A six-minute, five-goal run at the end of the first half gave the Wildcats a margin that was too much for Princeton’s attack to overcome.

Amo, Casaceli, junior midfielder Katie Cox, McGarvie and McKenna all earned first-team All-Region Honors. Lewis-Lamonica earned ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-District At-Large Honors. With a strong junior class ready to take the helm and a strong bench eager to learn, the Tigers have proven they will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.