Despite its recent three-game slide, the women’s lacrosse team still has a chance to secure a berth in the inaugural Ivy League Tournament, the winner of which will secure the league’s bid to the NCAA tournament.
But to do so, Princeton (5-9 overall, 3-3 Ivy League) will have to take down one of its conference rivals, No. 7 Dartmouth (10-2, 5-1), when it visits Princeton Stadium on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Big Green fell to No. 5 Penn (11-3, 6-0) last Saturday, 9-6, but before that game it had not lost since its season opener.
Since defeating then-No.9 Georgetown 15-14 in a double-overtime thriller on the road, the Tigers have struggled, losing five of their past six games.
“We just need to go out and play like we know we can play,” head coach Chris Sailer said of the team’s funk. “We have to play like a team. We must have much better awareness on the field, limit unforced errors and play a sharp game. We have rise to this challenge, play together and play with pride.”
Princeton currently sits in third place in the Ivy League standings, behind undefeated Penn and Dartmouth. But since Cornell and Yale — both sporting 3-3 league records as well — play each other this weekend, the only way the Tigers can assure themselves of a spot in the four-team Ivy League tourney is with a win on Sunday.
Princeton, which has struggled on offense in the past three games, faces a tough task in Big Green goalie Julie Wadland. Wadland boasts a league-best 6.95 goals-against average, and she has a team-best 28 ground balls. Wadland, who earned first-team All-Ivy honors last year, was recently named as one of the 25 nominees for the Tewaaraton Trophy — given to the national player of the year — for the second time in as many years.
And she is not the only player on her team garnering national attention. Midfielder Greta Meyer, in the midst of her best statistical season, was also named as a nominee for the prestigious award. Meyer leads her team with 27 goals, sixth best in the Ivy League. She leads the league in assists, with a total of 21, and is second in points per game at four.
As a team, Dartmouth is having a statistically dominant season. Despite its loss to the Quakers, the Big Green has scored the most goals, given up the fewest goals and shot the highest percentage in the league.
Though Sailer recognized that Dartmouth will be a difficult opponent, she wants the team to focus more on improving its own play rather than mitigating the Big Green’s.
“The Princeton-Dartmouth matchups are always classic and always hard-fought,” Sailer said. “We’re not focusing too much on Dartmouth; we’re focusing more on what we need to do to get on the field.”
The Tigers will look to senior attacker and tri-captain Kristin Morrison and junior attacker and tri-captain Lizzy Drumm to lead the way offensively. Morrison leads the team with 13 assists to go with her 23 goals, and Drumm sports the most goals for Princeton on the season with 28.
The Tigers will also certainly need a strong game from junior goalie Erin Tochihara to limit the damage Dartmouth is capable of producing offensively.
“Dartmouth is a tough team, and they always go hard at you. They fight hard, they go hard,” Sailer said. “They have a lot of good and aggressive kids on the field. They have a lot of scorers.”
The bitter rivals have split their last two meetings, with each team winning, strangely enough, on the other’s home turf. The Big Green edged Princeton in 2008 13-12 in Princeton, while last year the Tigers thumped Dartmouth 14-4 in Hanover, N.H.
Princeton has actually played much better on the road this year — and is only 1-7 in its home games. But this Sunday is Senior Day — the Tigers will be honoring Morrison, senior goalie Kaitlyn Perelle, senior midfielder Jenna Washabaugh and senior defender Sarah Vance — and Sailer hopes that the atmosphere will help snap the team out of its slump.
“We’ve had more luck on the road this year, but one thing that’s great is that it’s our alumni day. We’re honoring at halftime our captains, and I hope that the strong presence of our alumni will inspire these kids,” Sailer said. “We definitely have something to fight for. It could be our last game together as a team, and we have to play well to win.”
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