W. lax looks to boost confidence vs. Brown

The offense has sputtered recently like the engine of an aging car, stopping for stretches then speeding in spurts, causing consternation and several near-crashes. Wednesday night, after creaking forward against Maryland for the first half, the women's lacrosse team finally stalled.

The No. 1 Terrapins (16-1) might as well have waved and made funny faces as they zipped by broken-down Princeton, 14-6. Such was the distance between the two teams. And unless the No. 3 Tigers can tinker with their attack, they will be left behind when the NCAA tournament starts May 11.

Princeton (12-3 overall, 5-1 Ivy League) has now lost two games in a row — the first coming after it blew a three-goal lead against Dartmouth in the final two minutes. That game was a balanced effort that fell apart at the very end.

The Maryland game was far more disturbing for the Tigers: Sophomore attacks Kim Smith and Lauren Simone — the team's two leading scorers — did not record a goal. Smith had one of the team's two assists. And, most tellingly, only three players scored — a stark contrast to earlier in the season when seven different scorers was not uncommon.

Flashbacks

Simone trudged back to her room Wednesday night, frustrated and turning the events over in her mind — what she did wrong, what she could have done, what she didn't do. There was the play where she was wide open, streaking downfield, challenging the goalie one-on-one. She shoved a shot forward that sailed straight into the goalie. There was the time she was fouled and darted in but drove the ball wide of the net. Sitting in her room, lying down to try and sleep, she knew she could have turned the game around.

But that was two nights ago. There are more important problems to ponder — like Brown this weekend.

"I'm going to try and forget about it now so that I don't remain frustrated," Simone said. "I was frustrated that I couldn't come up big against a big team. Hopefully we'll be able to see them again."

The Tigers have probably damaged their seeding during the last two weeks. When the Big Green snatched the Ivy championship from the Tigers' clenching fingers, they bumped Princeton out of the No. 2 spot in the national rankings. Even before that loss, the Tigers had been stumbling through games, seemingly uneasy with their national-power status. But if they can slip back into their early season form, a rematch with Maryland is a distinct possibility.

Live and learn

If that is the case, a game with the mediocre Bears (6-7, 2-4) could not come at a more opportune time.

"Hopefully, we can put everything together and play our best game," Simone said. "It obviously has not been fun over the last couple of games, but all we can do now is learn from it. We have two weeks after Brown before the tournament, so we have a lot of time to work on this."

They'll need it.