Both lacrosse teams see weekend wins

There is good reason to think that this season of Princeton lacrosse will prove a memorable one. Both the men’s and women’s squads remain undefeated after picking up impressive wins over the weekend. Underclassmen were instrumental in both contests, as two sophomores, midfielder Gavin McBride and Olivia Hompe, played some of the best lacrosse of their young careers. Hompe overwhelmed the Georgetown defense with five goals, while McBride scored a brilliant overtime goal on a feed from freshman attackman Riley Thompson.

Men's Lacrosse

Saturday saw perhaps the two biggest names in college lacrosse face off in the 85th installment of their rivalry: No. 18 Princeton (3-0) travelled to face No. 12 Johns Hopkins (2-3) and came away with a 16-15 overtime win.

With the win, the Tigers narrow the Blue Jays’ series lead slightly to 56-29. Princeton head coach Chris Bates improves his record against Johns Hopkins to 4-2.

Senior midfielder and captain Kip Orban open scoring with the first goal of what would be a 7-0, 10-minute Princeton run. A team as talented and well-coached as Johns Hopkins would have little trouble maintaining optimism in the face of such a disadvantage, and it quickly became apparent that this contest would be competitive from start to finish.

As proved problematic late in the previous weekend’s matchup with Hofstra, Princeton found itself playing an excess of man-down defense. The Blue Jays converted seven of their 10 power play opportunities, with their man-up unit getting the better of senior goalkeeper Eric Sanschagrin five consecutive times over a five-minute stretch. Johns Hopkins’ freshman midfielder Patrick Fraser notched a hat trick within 80 seconds on three extra-man goals and narrowed Princeton’s lead to 7-6.

Fraser was one of eight players, four coming from each side, to record hat tricks in the contest. Orban finished the game with a career-high four goals along with two assists.

Princeton held a 12-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Again, a disadvantage would not deter the Blue Jays, who fought back in the final period with a four-goal run. With just under 10 minutes to play, Johns Hopkins’ attackman Ryan Brown, assisted by midfielder John Crawley, scored his third goal of the contest (and 19th of the season) to give his team a 13-12 lead.

The sides would go back and forth until an unassisted goal by Blue Jay midfielder Joel Tinney established a 15-14 advantage with just over two minutes to play.

With just 32.5 seconds left in regulation, a timeout gave Princeton’s offense the chance to force overtime. A couple of promising Princeton shots failed to find twine. But the attacking combination of senior Mike MacDonald and junior Ryan Ambler provided the necessary heroics with seven seconds left on the clock. The latter found the former cutting across the crease, and a perfect pass allowed Ambler to dunk the ball past Johns Hopkins’ Eric Schneider.

Princeton took overtime’s first face-off on a violation before sophomore midfielder Zach Currier made a game-turning, cerebral play. He picked up the ball and ran straight into his defender as the official’s whistle blew, eliciting a delay-of-game penalty on faceoff specialist Drew Kennedy — an offensive player must be given five yards of space on a restart of play.

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On that same play, the Blue Jays’ captain and all-American LSM Michael Pellegrino was flagged for an illegal body check, disadvantaging the home side by two men.

Princeton’s man-up offense wore down the Johns Hopkins defense before Thompson fed McBride on the crease for a slam dunk and sudden victory goal.

Sanschagrin faced 27 on-target shots from the Blue Jays, saving 12 in the winning effort.

The emergence of sophomore Zach Currier has undoubtedly been the highlight of the Tigers’ season. His impeccable vision, ball control and scoring ability make the Canadian sensation one of the conference’s most dynamic threats.

Currier, Orban and McBride shouldered almost all of the offensive work for Princeton midfielders. While these Tigers have certainly earned their stripes, it will be incumbent on the Princeton coaching staff to draw further offensive production out of their talent-loaded roster.

Princeton’s past two wins have been all the more impressive considering the injuries suffered by a number of key contributors. Junior midfielder Jake Froccaro, junior defenseman Mark Strabo and sophomore LSM Will Reynolds have been sidelined the past two seasons. The first of that trio spent last year proving that, on his day, he cannot be stopped. A tally of 10 goals in a single contest against Yale provides sufficient evidence.

Last season, Strabo and Reynolds were two of the three starters at close defense for Princeton. What’s more, Strabo had not missed a start before his absence last weekend against Hofstra.

Sophomore defenseman Bear Goldstein started all thirteen of Princeton’s contests last season. An always-solid on-ball defender, the second-year standout has had to take on much more defensive responsibility as the most experienced player on the back line. Freshman Aran Roberts and sophomore Alistair Berven, neither of whom started a collegiate game before, have joined Goldstein on starting close-defense.

The win over Johns Hopkins will help Princeton make their case as one of the nation’s best sides. The road will only get more trying for the Tigers, who travel next weekend to face No. 10 Maryland.

Women's Lacrosse

Down in the nation’s capital, coach Chris Sailer’s Tigers (3-0) had the opportunity to avenge last season’s 17-16 overtime loss to then-No. 14 Georgetown. They seized the chance emphatically, routing the Hoyas (0-2) by a score of 11-7.

With the win, Princeton extends its series lead over Georgetown to 12-8 and snaps a two-game losing streak against the Hoyas.

The Hoyas were, in fact, the first team to score in their home opener, as senior attack Caroline Tazarian tallied an unassisted marker just two and a half minutes into the contest. Tazarian, Georgetown’s leading scorer from 2014, would complete a hat trick that day on seven shots.

Princeton responded in short order, as a goal by sophomore midfielder Olivia Hompe, assisted by senior attack Erin McMunn, equalized the score with 25:17 on the clock. It was all Orange and Black for the remainder of the first half. Hompe would score twice more while McMunn tallied a pair of first half goals. Freshman attack Haley Giraldi and sophomore midfielder Anna Doherty added goals of their own to complete a 7-0 Tiger rampage.

This demoralizing advantage would prove insurmountable. The home side scored four of the first five goals in the second period, interrupted by an unassisted strike from senior midfielder Erin Slifer. With under 20 minutes to play in the contest, Hompe started a two-goal run of her own which extended Princeton’s lead to 10-5.

The sophomore’s five-goal performance comes on the heels of a four-goal effort against Drexel. As the early season results have proved, Princeton has no shortage of scoring threats on their roster. McMunn and Slifer comprise an almost unstoppable senior duo. The emergence of Hompe adds yet another dimension to the already dynamic Tiger offense.

Such a scoring distribution has become characteristic of this program. Last year’s final stat sheet showed eight Tigers scoring over 20 goals (and six with over 30 points).

Remarkably, all seven of Georgetown’s goals were unassisted. This stat speaks partly to a lack of creativity in the Hoya offense, but equally to the strength of Princeton’s off-ball defense. Behind the defensive line, sophomore goalkeeper Ellie DeGarmo made her second start of the season. The second year netminder has impressed early, tallying a total of 24 saves against 53 shots, good for the Ivy League’s best save percentage.

The Tigers will hit the road over the next two weeks. They will first face conference rival Dartmouth before turning to the difficult test posed by the No. 8 Virginia Cavaliers.