Women's Lacrosse: Tigers trounce Temple

Eager to get one more win under their belts before the start of their Ivy League season, the Tigers (6-1 overall) came out the gates red hot and won control of the draw at the start of the first half.

Despite the fact that Princeton was all over the Owls (0-7) in the beginning minutes of the game, it wasn’t until three minutes, 49 seconds into the period that the Tigers found the back of the net after sophomore attack Lizzy Drumm bombarded the Temple goal.

After a rough start, Temple’s offense finally earned a few short-lived possessions, though they were incapable of holding the ball long enough to get off a shot.

Ultimately, Princeton’s superior speed and passing skills put it back in the Owl’s crease, where senior attack Anne Murray passed to Drumm, who once again got past the goalie, bringing the score to 2-0 at 9:57. Murray kept the back of the net hot, evading Temple’s defense on a free-position shot and giving the Tigers another score just seven seconds after Drumm’s goal. Princeton kept up this high-scoring tempo for the rest of the half, scoring four more times before the end of the period.

“We were popping back the ball, and our speed definitely helped a lot,” Drumm said. “We are a quicker team, so just running it down the field gave us an advantage because we were able to get in front of them. Also, our passes and our transition game in the first half were definitely on.”

Though this tempo had slowed down toward the end of the first half — with the Tigers last scoring at 20:56 — it looked like Princeton was once again ready to take control of the game in the first minutes of play during the second period.

Senior midfielder and tri-captain Holly McGarvie got possession of the ball after being fouled by a Temple player, and she quickly forwarded the ball to Drumm, who sped past the Owl defense and took an unguarded shot at 6:22. That goal marked Drumm’s sixth of the night — a personal best and just two points away from the team’s all-time record.

“We weren’t taking Temple lightly, but we knew they were a weaker team, and so we could take advantage of their defense,” Drumm said. “I tried to look for openings and tried to sneak in behind the defense. It worked really well, and our attackers were always ready to feed the ball so that definitely helped.”

Despite Drumm’s success, Princeton slowed down after its first eight goals, and Temple was quick to take advantage of this opportunity. After almost a period-and-a-half dry spell, the Owls finally managed to light up the board with a free-position shot at 21:46.

Riding off this momentum, they scored two more goals in the next two minutes, bringing the score to 8-3.

The Tigers retaliated with their own offensive front, scoring five successive goals. Trailing by 10 points with less than a minute left on the clock, Temple finished on a somewhat redeeming note by scoring the last goal with just 17 seconds left on the clock before the game ended 13-4.

“We set a lot of goals for ourselves in terms of things we wanted to accomplish during the game, some of which we did very well,” head coach Chris Sailer said. “We were forcing a lot of turnovers and broke up a lot of their transitions. We didn’t shoot nearly as we as we hoped — I think it was our worst shooting game — but we just have to work on placement.”

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Princeton outshot the Owls 40-15 and had 22 turnovers to Temple’s 30.

Still, Temple goalie Jessica Colucci played an impressive game, making 19 saves during the match.

Next up for the Tigers is a matchup against Cornell on Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y. After their win over the Owls, the Tigers can head into Saturday’s game with a good deal of confidence.