The Temple Owls began the game against the Princeton's women lacrosse team like country bumpkins performing at a county fair. They juggled balls clumsily and watched them plummet to the ground, stumbled through defensive and offensive routines and stared sadly as the Tigers fired shot after shot into Temple's goal like aces at the shooting range.
On a Strength-O-Meter, the No. 18 Owls' weak hacks at Tiger sticks would not have registered "Mr. Junior" as the Tigers leaped out to a fast 4-0 lead in the first 10 minutes. But somewhere along the way, the Owls (5-5 overall, 3-0 league) ducked into the funhouse and exited with their image distorted into a scrambling, stronger, meaner team, as they snatched 6-5 and 7-6 leads with less than eight minutes left in the first half.
No. 2 Princeton peeked into the House of Horrors yesterday and shoved the door shut, eking out a tense 13-10 win.
Thrill ride
"I think we sort of relaxed after we jumped out to the 4-0 lead," sophomore midfielder Mimi Hammerberg said. "They gave us a game. It was a little more exciting than we expected."
The Owls were trailing by only two goals with five minutes left in the game, streaking to two straight goals that bumped the score to 12-10. But after one of the Tiger's few draw wins of the game, sophomore attack Lauren Simone sprinted down the field and slammed the ball into the net for her fourth goal of the game. It would prove the decisive shot, and Simone stepped back, smiling, into a swarm of teammates.
But a minute later, Simone tried to stutter-step toward the goal and, twisting away from her defender, she crumpled to the ground. Simone had to be carried off the field — though she seemed calm after the game — and will be receiving X-rays tomorrow.
Her status for the rest of the season was unclear, potentially a far more grave setback than the Tigers' shoddy play against the Owls. As leading scorer and sophomore attack Kim Smith is increasingly double-teamed by opposing teams — despite 28 goals on the season, Smith scored only one against Temple — Simone has consistently slipped into the role of offensive leader.
Future worries
Against Harvard this weekend, losing Simone may not matter. Against No. 1 Maryland in two weeks, it certainly will.
But that is something to worry about in the future. Now the Tigers will try to concentrate on why they did not scramble hard enough in the last 40 minutes of the game, ponder why their passing game — so pristine at points — mostly floundered. They will ponder the breakdown of their defense and a general inconsistency that has been creeping into games. They are still No. 2 with only one loss. But there is a lot to think about.
"It was just a bad game," coach Chris Sailer said. "It was pretty sloppy. Passing, defensive-wise it was a bad day but we've got to get past it and move on."
After springing out to a 4-0 lead, Hammerberg dragged on the back of Temple defense Veronica George as she darted toward the goal. George converted the penalty shot, setting up a three-goal run by the Owls. Princeton called a timeout, but Temple would go on to notch four more goals in the half, including one by freshman midfielder Patience Synnestvedt that made Princeton senior goalie Laura Field cut her stick through the air and twirl it like a baton in frustration. The Tigers owned a flimsy 8-7 lead at halftime.
Princeton scored the first two goals in the second half — both revolving around deft position by senior midfielder Hilary Maddox — and it seemed as though the Tigers might pull away and reestablish their dominance of the first 10 minutes. But with 20 minutes left, Synnestvedt dumped in a shot past a lunging Field, slicing the lead to 10-8.
Temple would not get any closer than that.
"They definitely came out strong," Simone said after the game — her ankle smothered by mounds of ice. "They won a lot of the hustling plays — like draws, ground balls. We definitely turned it around, but we didn't play our best game."
The Tigers have two weeks to reassess their act.
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