Women's Lacrosse: High octane offense nets win

Though Princeton (8-1, 2-0) won by 10 goals, the game was closer than that for most of the night.

The score was knotted at one more than eight minutes into the matchup when senior attack Christine Casaceli forced a turnover. She recovered the ball and whisked it along to senior midfielder and tri-captain Holly McGarvie, who fed senior attack Sarah Steele for the Tigers’ second goal, putting the team up 2-1 with 22 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the first half.

For the next 12 minutes, the game seesawed back and forth as neither team could find the back of the net. Much of the issue lay in Princeton’s 22 turnovers, a problem that plagued the team throughout the night.

“We were not sharp and crisp in our passing at times,” head coach Chris Sailer said. “I thought [Columbia] played good defense against us, but we had too many turnovers, and many of them were unforced. I thought their goalie did a nice job, especially early in the first half.”

The Lions’ goaltender, Emma Mintz, was solid for most of the first 20 minutes of the game. She made six saves in that stretch to keep Columbia within striking distance, but the Tigers took charge in the last 10 minutes as freshman attack Cassie Pyle caught fire.

With just under 10 minutes to go, Pyle whipped a perfect shot just underneath the post to give Princeton a 3-1 lead and some breathing room.

One minute, six seconds later, Pyle caught a pass amid traffic in front of the Lions’ net. She spun around and deftly whipped the ball into the side of the net to push the margin to three.

The Tigers won the ensuing faceoff, and after working the ball around the Lions’ half, McGarvie found herself with the ball several meters in front of the Columbia cage. Using a nice little spin move to get a little daylight, she slapped a bounce-shot down that made its way past Mintz. After clinging to a one-goal lead, the Tigers led 5-1 with 7:57 remaining in the first half.

The Lions had a great chance to answer when they received a free-position shot with less than five minutes to go in the half, but sophomore goalkeeper Erin Tochihara stonewalled attack Holly Glynn’s attempt.

The Lions attempted to close the gap when attack Lauren Olson earned a free-position shot with 29 seconds remaining. Her shot went wide, though, and senior defender and tri-captain Marie McKenna picked up the ball and cleared ahead to senior midfielder Kristin Schwab.

Schwab raced ahead in transition and flung the ball into the back of Columbia’s net with 10 seconds left to cap Princeton’s run.

The Tigers, looking to crush the Lions’ hopes of a comeback, came roaring out after the break, and it was Pyle leading the charge.

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With the ball deep in Columbia territory, Pyle was fouled, leading to a free-position opportunity. Her lower-right-hand-corner shot was good for a 7-1 lead.

The Lions mustered a response, but a pair of additional goals from Pyle and Schwab seemed to close the door on Columbia, as Princeton held a 9-2 lead with a little more than 15 minutes to play.

Then things got sticky.

The Lions ran off three straight goals in less than four minutes to close to 9-5 with 11:32 to play. Sailer was forced to call a timeout.

That was all the Tigers needed. Princeton won the ensuing draw, and just when it looked like the Lions would make a serious run, McGarvie twirled through the Columbia defense for a goal. She stopped the bleeding, and the Tigers led 10-5.

The Lions tried to answer, and attack Rachael Ryan’s shot was on target, but Tochihara made a clutch save to slow Columbia’s momentum.

Schwab helped the Tigers firmly re-establish control with her third goal of the night moments later. As Schwab was cutting from the top of the 12-meter arc, she caught a pass and fired a bounce shot that went underneath Mintz.

Forty-one seconds later, junior attack Kristin Morrison scored to give Princeton a 12-5 lead with 8:18 remaining. Morrison, Pyle and senior attack Anne Murray all scored during the last eight minutes to conclude the Tigers’ 6-0 run.

The majority of those points came from Pyle, and the night undoubtedly belonged to her. She had a breakout game, finishing with five goals on seven shots.

“[Pyle’s] execution was awesome tonight,” McGarvie said. “She’s been, I feel like, on the brink of a game like this, and it’s awesome to see her really finishing her shots today.”

Despite its sometimes sloppy play, Princeton eventually took control of the match. It was a strange game for the Tigers: Despite their 10-goal margin of victory, it clearly wasn’t their best evening. Still, Princeton took home the victory and identified a few areas for improvement. The Tigers have two more winnable contests left before they face off against No. 3 Penn, starting this Saturday against Yale.

“It’s good to see those things tonight. We had a strong 10 minutes at the end of the first half and then at the end of the second half,” McGarvie said. “Looking at those strong segments of time, we’ll look to just make them bigger against Yale on Saturday.”