Women's Lacrosse: Team aims to stay unbeaten in conference

On Wednesday, the Tigers put up a strong fight against undefeated No. 1 Maryland (14-0), only to lose 17-10. The Tigers fell into an early 6-0 deficit that they could not escape, despite once bringing the game within four goals. Half of Princeton’s goals were scored by senior attack Lizzy Drumm, while sophomore attack Sam Ellis had a career-best performance of four points, including a hat trick and an assist.

The women’s only four losses so far this season came against teams ranked in the top 10 at the time of the game.

“I think the tough loss against a strong Maryland team will teach us a number of lessons,” Drumm said. “We won draw controls and shots in that game, so if we can convert on those stats, we should have no problem taking down Harvard. We also learned that our one-on-one defense will have to be on point going into the Harvard game.”

Head coach Chris Sailer noted that the Tigers did “a good job of staying in our game plan early in the half,” but that they are hoping to make some minor changes in defense to play Harvard. However, she said, Harvard has a very different style of play compared to Maryland, and the Tigers are “prepar[ing] for what we expect to see out of them.”

The Tigers are looking forward to moving past their loss and refocusing attention on the Ivy League season.

“Playing the number one team in the country is a tremendous opportunity; however, when it comes to league games it is an entirely different story,” Drumm said. “We are playing for a title and for the home field advantage in the Ivy League Tournament, so this is where it counts the most.”

In the game against the Crimson, the Tigers are hoping to continue their undefeated Ivy League season. Harvard, however, has proven its ability in the past few weeks.

On Wednesday, the Crimson defeated Holy Cross (5-10) 10-6 and beat Brown (5-6, 1-3) by a 12-9 score five days earlier. The team also fought a tough battle against No. 11 Virginia, losing by only one goal, 19-18.

So far, in league games, the Tigers have beaten Yale, Cornell and Brown. The combined score of the three contests has been 41-18.

In the Ivy League, Princeton is currently one of three undefeated teams, along with Penn and Dartmouth, who are 4-0. Harvard is right behind the trio in fourth place, having dropped only one game this season, a 9-8 defeat at the hands of the Quakers. The Crimson leads the league with 12.7 goals per game while Princeton is fourth at 10.7.

However, Princeton is far ahead of Harvard in both ground balls and assists per game. In ground balls, the Tigers are second in the league with an average of 16.2, while the Crimson is in second-to-last place with 13.3. Princeton also averages the second-most assists per game with 4.6 while Harvard is seventh with 1.9.

“The team is feeling good about the game against Harvard; however, we expect them to put up a fight like every team we have come up against this season,” Drumm said.

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“Harvard is athletic, and they have a lot of different girls who can put the ball in the net,” Sailer said.

“We need to play good defense, and offensively we need to put the ball in the net and capitalize on opportunities ... We’re in a position where we’re 3-0 [in the league] and controlling our own destiny.”

A win this weekend would clinch a berth in the Ivy League tournament.