Women's Lacrosse: Tournament victory solidifies NCAA bid

Then on Sunday, the Tigers earned the Ivy League Tournament title with a 12-10 victory over No. 3-seed Harvard, gaining an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament next weekend against No. 8 James Madison University. After the Tigers opened up the game with a five-goal lead, the Crimson crawled its way back into it, going ahead by one goal in the second half before Princeton clicked for the final three goals of the game. Five Princeton players earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team: Pyle, senior attacker Lizzy Drumm, sophomore midfielder Charlotte Davis, Tochihara and the Most Outstanding Player, Gassaway.

“It feels fantastic to win the tournament,” head coach Chris Sailer said after Sunday’s win. “We knew it was an open field and that we had a good chance. All the teams here were talented and I am so happy we pulled it out. It was great to get the win today.”

Of the Penn game, Sailer said, “We knew it was going to be competitive out here this weekend in all the games. It has been a really long four years since we’ve beaten Penn and so now to beat them twice in one year is really something special.”

The Quakers took the first lead of the game with a free-position goal two minutes into regulation. Several minutes passed before either team found the back of the net again, and then junior attacker Barb Previ fed Gassaway from the goal line for a quick-stick goal to tie the game 1-1. Penn again pulled ahead after winning the draw control and carrying the ball down field for a score. An offensive set in which Pyle gave Drumm a flip pass at the top of the arc tied the game again halfway through the first half. Princeton earned its first lead of the game a few minutes later when Davis buried a free-position shot in the top of the net. With just over two minutes remaining before halftime, the Quakers tied the game 3-3.

Drumm commented that during tournament time, when the opponents have scouted a team’s offensive sets, it is important to have a variety of weapons on offense.

“It is great to have a number of different threats and I think a number of underclassman tonight came through for us,” Drumm said. “That was huge and crucial for the win.”

As in the first half, Penn opened the scoring of the second half to put themselves back ahead for the first time in 20 minutes. The hosts were charged with a shooting space violation, sending Pyle to the hash to set up for a free-position shot. Instead of taking it in herself, Pyle fed Gassaway, who was waiting alone on the right side of the goal, to tie the game once again. Pyle then finished low and into the corner after a zigzag drive to goal to give the Tigers a momentary lead, but Penn answered within two minutes. A turnover by the Tigers put the Quakers on the fast break, which they converted to go ahead 6-5.

A strong play by Princeton’s defense and a quick series of outlet passes put the ball in sophomore midfielder Charlotte Rehfuss’ stick at the midfield. Rehfuss ran the ball all the way to the net and finished the pretty transition play with a goal. Pyle then netted a pair of goals, giving the Tigers the largest lead for either team during the game. There were still 11 minutes on the clock and plenty of time for either team to take the game for themselves. The Quakers did not give up and tied the game 8-8 with two minutes, 24 seconds left on the scoreboard. Penn won the final draw control in regulation, giving it the chance to score the final goal and win the game. Tochihara made two critical saves in the last seconds to send the game into overtime.

Although the Tigers struggled in the first half to win the draw, allowing the Quakers to scoop up all seven, they improved over the course of the game, grabbing five in the second half and three out of four in overtime.

“We kept control at that point, and our kids really went after it,” Sailer said. “We got [the draw] when it counted.”

Princeton earned possession off the first draw in overtime and held onto the ball until 40 seconds remained on the clock. Davis had the ball behind the goal, causing the Penn defense to overload that side, leaving Gassaway open on the opposite side crease where she finished and gave the Tigers their first overtime goal. Drumm came down with the next draw giving the Tigers another offensive opportunity and ,more importantly, possession of the ball. With only six seconds left in the first overtime period, sophomore attacker Sam Ellis sent a feed from behind the goal to Gassaway in front to take a 10-8 lead. Previ earned the final draw control of the game and Princeton began playing keep-away. Penn needed to cause a turnover to get the ball back, but its aggressive defense resulted in five fouls instead. The Tigers had possession of the ball as the clock reached zero, signaling their advancement into the finals on Sunday. Harvard had won its semifinal against No. 2 Dartmouth 11-10 on Friday.

“I’m just so proud and thrilled for our kids to get this win today,” said Sailer. “It wasn’t always our best game, things didn’t always go our way, we struggled in certain areas but we persevered and we came through and we kept fighting.”

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The last time the Tigers played Harvard, the Crimson earned a one-goal victory in the cold and pouring rain. “We felt like we didn’t show up,” Sailer said, commenting on the regular season competition with Harvard. “Harvard is an explosive team: They work so hard; they create a lot of headaches for you offensively with their movement and their hard challenges to goal. They are a team like us that really believes in themselves.”

In the opening minutes of Sunday’s game, Princeton committed four turnovers and was fortunate to have Tochihara ready on her line with three saves. The team turned it on, scoring the first five goals of the game. Previ scored first for the Tigers in the eighth minute of the game off of a crease roll and low shot. Drumm then ran the ball in and scored her first of three goals of the day. On the team’s next offensive opportunity, Ellis fed Drumm, who was curling toward the goal for a quick finish. Then it was Gassaway’s turn to tally for the Tigers by connecting with Pyle. The fifth goal in the opening run by Princeton came off of a crease roll by Davis. Harvard called a timeout to talk things over.

“Last time, [Harvard] got the early lead,” said Sailer. “It is hard to dig yourself out of that hole. We shot really well, played good defense, and Toch was great in net in the first half [with nine saves].”

After failing to convert on two free position shots, the Crimson finally got on the scoreboard 20 minutes into play with two consecutive goals. The Tigers fought back and netted two in response. Pyle drove into the middle of the 8-meter and passed the ball across the face of the net to senior attacker Maisie Devine for a quick finish. Taking it herself on the next one, Pyle drove down the side of the arc to the goal to put the Tigers ahead by five.

Harvard scored once before halftime, cutting the deficit to 7-3.

Though it appeared early on that the Tigers were going to have an easy day, the action in the second half made for a very exciting game down to the wire. Harvard had “more draw controls in the second half and some critical ones,” said Sailer. “They are a great team and have battled back all season. They don’t give up. They go hard and have a bunch of great athletes and were able to get some goals. We didn’t allow ourselves to get unsettled even when they got a one-goal lead.”

The Crimson took momentum after halftime, scoring three straight goals to cut the lead to one goal. The two teams then alternated scoring in the middle of the half. Princeton clicked for their first goal of the half 10 minutes in when Ellis fed Gassaway over the back of the cage to the back pipe for a quick finish. Bouncing in a free position shot with her left hand, Drumm tallied her final goal of the game for a hat trick. With less than 15 minutes remaining in the game, Harvard converted an 8-meter shot to tie the game 9-9, the first time the score was even since the opening minutes.

Watching the first half of Sunday’s game, it was difficult to imagine that Harvard was ever behind. Princeton’s defense struggled to stop Harvard’s offense from driving into net and had to work hard to get back on top. However, the Crimson only maintained their one-goal lead for 16 seconds before the Tigers evened the score after Davis drove to net from far out.

Davis placed the ball into the high corner off of a free-position shot for her third goal of the game, becoming the second Tiger to earn a hat trick on Sunday. Harvard began playing very high-pressure defense, double-teaming the ball all over with hopes of causing a turnover. Princeton passed the ball around to kill the clock for the final minutes of the game until, with six seconds remaining, Pyle tallied her third helper with a pass to Gassaway, who buried the shot for a final score of 12-10. Gassaway was the third Princeton player to record a hat trick.

At the end of the game, the Tigers charged the field for a group hug around Tochihara as the horn sounded.

Sailer said her team was absolutely thrilled to make the NCAAs. “We are very excited!”she said.