Women's Lacrosse: Tigers reach quarterfinals of NCAAs

“This year’s team grew from the hard learning experiences of last year,” head coach Chris Sailer said. “Last year it was a lot of kids’ first time playing. This year we have chemistry and a really great mentality. We are playing with a lot of confidence and we really believe in ourselves. I couldn’t be happier with our team.”

The Tigers defeated six top-20 opponents over the course of the season, finishing with a 12-7 record. Their postseason run marked the 17th time in the last 20 years that they were one of the final eight teams standing.

“We didn’t really know what to expect at the beginning of the season, but we knew we had a ton of potential,” sophomore attack Jaci Gassaway said. “We took our season one game at a time and, even though there were some ups and downs, we ended up where we wanted to be.”

The Tigers’ well-balanced attack was led by junior midfielder Cassie Pyle, senior first-team All-Ivy attack Lizzy Drumm and Gassaway, each of whom was a threat to score a hat trick in any game.

“I think what makes this team special is how well we click together on the field, and how much fun we have playing together,” said Gassaway. “On both defense and attack every single person out there can make big plays. After last year, we came out with something to prove and have been doing that all season.”

The Tigers’ season was exciting from the start, as they hosted Johns Hopkins in the opener. In an intense, playoff-like game, the hosts ran off five goals in the second half and held off a Hopkins comeback to win 9-8. Princeton won its second game at Rutgers by the same score with a Gassaway goal in overtime.

Three defeats against top-10 opponents brought Princeton’s record back to .500 before a 12-11 home victory over Georgetown, marked by a seven-goal run, gave the Tigers back some momentum. They won consecutive conference games at Cornell and Yale, improving their conference record to 3-0.

After a 17-10 loss at No. 1 Maryland, the Tigers hosted fellow Ivy League contender Harvard in cold, rainy conditions. The Crimson scored the game’s first five goals and held on for a 9-8 victory, as Princeton’s coaches and players agreed that they just did not show up that day ready to perform.

The Tigers, with a mediocre 6-5 record, then hit the turning point of their season. They traveled to then-No. 8 Penn, which had won 34 consecutive conference games dating back to a loss at Princeton five years earlier. But the Tigers took an early lead and never relented, winning 11-7 behind hat tricks from Drumm and Pyle.

“After that, we believed we could do amazing things,” Sailer said of the Penn victory. “It all came together for us after that win.” For the next three weeks, Princeton played its best lacrosse of the season, truly peaking at the right time.

A 15-10 loss at No. 14 Dartmouth was Princeton’s last defeat for nearly a month. In a game that had been postponed due to adverse weather conditions, the Tigers closed conference play with an 18-10 victory over Columbia behind a career-high seven points from Pyle. In their last regular-season game, the Tigers throttled No. 13 Penn State 19-10, as junior goalie Erin Tochihara stopped 16 shots.

Ranked fourth in the four-team Ivy League Tournament, the Tigers drew host Penn in the opening round. The Quakers scored twice in the final 10 minutes to force overtime, but Princeton netted a pair of goals in the extra period for a 10-8 victory. Two days later, Princeton avenged its regular-season loss with a 12-10 defeat of No. 3-seeded Harvard, winning the tournament and earning an automatic berth to NCAAs.

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Tochihara was recognized as the National Defensive Player of the Week for her crucial stops in both games, while Gassaway was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

“I think the most exciting game of the season was the Penn game in the Ivy Tournament,” Gassaway said. “They were the No. 1 seed, and we went into that game believing that we could beat them for a second time. Winning for a second time, in overtime, on their home turf felt awesome.”

The Tigers drew No. 8 James Madison in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, earning another chance at revenge. Princeton broke a halftime tie to take a three-goal lead, but the Dukes pulled within one goal in the final three minutes. JMU put two shots on the net, but Tochihara saved both to seal the victory.

Princeton’s luck finally ran out in the quarterfinals. The underdogs took a 3-1 lead on No. 1 Maryland, the defending champions, in the first 20 minutes of the game. The powerful Terps’ offense struck for seven goals before halftime, however, and Maryland rolled to a 15-6 victory.

“This year’s team has a very special place in my heart,” Drumm said. “I can honestly say that this is the tightest knit group since my freshman year here at Princeton. I think our chemistry off the field has definitely translated to our play on the field, and that is why we have seen success this season.”