Women's Lacrosse: Lowly Bulldogs no match for Drumm & Co.

After a brief scoreless period at the beginning, Princeton (9-1, 3-0) roared out of the gate and never looked back. The Bulldogs won the opening draw and got the first shot on goal, but sophomore goalkeeper Erin Tochihara stonewalled the attempt. That was as close as Yale came to even sniffing the lead.

Senior midfielder and tri-captain Holly McGarvie got things started when she took on the role of playmaker and found senior attack Christine Casaceli for the first score of the game a little less than eight minutes in.

Less than one minute later, Drumm got inside the Yale defense and drew a foul to earn the first of many free-position shots in the game. Drumm took full advantage of the opportunity to put the Tigers up 2-0.

Senior midfielder Kristin Schwab won the ensuing draw, and just 11 seconds later, Schwab hit Drumm for her second goal of the game, forcing the Bulldogs into a timeout. It did nothing to stymie the Tigers’ attack.

Freshman attack Cassie Pyle won the next draw opportunity, and this time it was Schwab who fought her way inside to the cage, only to be fouled. Like Drumm, Schwab converted on her free-position attempt.

Less than 20 seconds later, senior attack Sarah Steele found Pyle, who scored a goal of her own.

After being held scoreless until 22 minutes, five seconds remained in the first half, Princeton tallied five straight unanswered goals in the span of a little more than two-and-a-half minutes.

The Tigers led 5-0 with 19:27 remaining.

“Our focus on this game was getting draw controls, and that’s the way the game starts off in the halves,” senior midfielder and tri-captain Katie Cox said. “Having possession of the ball and getting some quick goals sets the tone for the game.”

The Bulldogs finally got on the scoreboard at 17:07, when midfielder Jenn Warden slipped a shot past Tochihara. That score only motivated the Tigers further. Yale won the draw, but Princeton forced a turnover. After the Tigers successfully cleared, Cox found Drumm for the rejoinder. Casaceli and senior attack Anne Murray scored shortly after to cap off Princeton’s 3-0 run. The Bulldogs tallied two more goals before the close of the half, but Yale was still completely outmatched, as reflected by the Tigers’ 9-3 lead.

Princeton sealed the deal with its efforts at the start of the second half. Drumm and junior attack Kristin Morrison earned a pair of free-position attempts, both of which they converted to open the half. McGarvie followed that with an unassisted goal of her own, and the lead ballooned to nine.

The Tigers scored two more goals to complete their second 5-0 run of the game. Yale went on to score three straight at that point, but McGarvie salted away the win with one last score, and the defense clamped down over the last five minutes to preserve the 15-6 score.

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

A whopping 10 goals were scored in the game off free-position shots.

It was another offensive clinic for Princeton. Against Columbia, it was Pyle; this time it was Drumm putting on a show. Over the season the Tigers have shown themselves not to be the type of team dependent on one or two players to produce goals, but rather a team that has many offensive options: On any given day, any player might score.

“I think that the strongest part of our attack is that we’re extremely balanced, and that make it hard for the opposing teams to scout us,” Cox said. “When the other team does a good job of scouting us, we have other players that can step up. Everyone on the attack has that potential, and I think that’s definitely a strength we try to work toward.”

Princeton put together a solid performance, but that was to be expected from a team that has rattled off seven straight victories, with its lone loss on the season a one-goal heartbreaker to Duke.

The Tigers now have a 3-0 record in Ivy League play, but they still have work to do before they play archrival No. 3 Penn.

“The Ivy season is the most important, and that’s what we’re concentrating on. We’re looking forward to the big Penn game — they are our biggest rivals in the Ivy League,” Cox said. “Our goal is to win the Ivy League Championship.”

Throughout the season, Princeton has shown that it is capable of putting together amazing stretches before suddenly falling off the pace. The game against the Bulldogs highlighted this tendency. The longer those stretches become for the Tigers, the better their chance of capturing the Ivy title will be.

“Even with these games [when the scoreboard] says that we’re dominating in terms of goals, it’s not reflective of the control we have over the game,” Cox said. “We have stints of where we’re executing our plays really well … Our focus is to be controlling games for 60 minutes or at least being consistent throughout and not being a rollercoaster.”

Princeton will have one last chance to sharpen its game before its huge match against the Quakers. The Tigers will take on Harvard in a doubleheader with the men’s team on Saturday at Class of 1952 Stadium.