Women's Lacrosse: Balanced group aims to repeat last year’s tournament run

Hoping to build on the momentum it built at the end of the 2011 season, the women’s lacrosse team will take the field this Saturday for its season opener. Princeton impressed everyone in the postseason when it won the Ivy League Tournament as the No. 4 seed and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.

After finishing the season ranked No. 9 in the nation with an overall record of 12-7, the Tigers enter this season with confidence for another successful season.

“I think we have a lot of confidence coming into this year,” senior attacker Barb Previ said. “We understand the level of play necessary to get back to where we were at the end of last year, and I think we have the returners to do so. Obviously, we want to play our best lacrosse at the end of the season, but if we can begin the season at the level that we ended last year, we’re going to be off to a good start.”

Currently listed in two national top-10 preseason polls, the Tigers are the highest-ranked Ivy League team in both, sitting at No. 7 in Lacrosse Magazine and No. 8 in the IWLCA listings. The coaching staff and players are optimistic about the upcoming season after an inspiring preseason performance in two fall tournaments hosted by the Tigers and a scrimmage this past weekend at Georgetown.

“In the fall tournaments, we did really well,” head coach Chris Sailer said. “We were further along than in recent memory. We picked up where we left off.”

This year, 10 upperclassmen and eight sophomores return to the squad, offering valuable experience and talent at every position on the field. On attack, junior Jaci Gassaway brings consistency and smart play, which earned her the Ivy League Tournament Most Outstanding Player award last spring. Also on attack, Previ will be a “fire plug” for the Tigers, ready to assist them in transition. Senior Cassie Pyle and junior Charlotte Davis will again lead the midfield pack.

In the back, senior Lindsey deButts will hopefully return to the defense this weekend after missing time in the offseason with an injury. “She’s our lone returning All-American and a huge leader on the defense,” Sailer said.

Both of the 2012 team captains, senior Cathy Bachur and junior Caroline Rehfuss, will join deButts on the defensive unit.

“The upperclassmen are great team leaders,” Sailer said. “You are going to notice the presence of lots of kids on the field this year. There is a lot of leadership displayed by their play and an example they set with everything they do.”

Six freshmen join the Tigers’ roster this year. In particular, two freshman field players have already seen time and made an immediate impact in the preseason scrimmages. Erin McMunn, a member of the U.S. Women’s U-19 Team, will play on attack for the Tigers. “She has great hands and vision and an amazing stick,” said Sailer.

Fellow freshman Erin Slifer, a 2011 U.S. Lacrosse All-Academic player, who Sailer called “a real workhorse,” will be a solid force in the midfield this year. McMunn and Slifer already have experience playing together — they were teammates on their club team in Maryland. Additionally, Princeton’s starting goalie will be an underclassman this year, as freshman Annie Woehling and sophomore Caroline Franke battle for the job.

The Tigers’ preseason workouts have focused on incorporating these new players into important roles.

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“There are a few new rules in girl’s lacrosse, so we have been focusing on that,” Sailer said, referring to new restrictions on how many players a team can have in the attacking or defensive zone during a penalty. “Because we have lots of new kids, we needed to work on everything: transitions, offense and defense.”

“We are going to be looking to take advantage of a number of different offensive threats, as every player on the offensive side of the field has the ability to score,” Gassaway said. “We also have more speed in the midfield than we have had in years past, so we are really going to try to push the fast break to cause more turnovers in our re-defend. In preseason, we introduced a new high-pressure zone defense that should be extremely effective.”

“We put a strong emphasis on defense, on causing turnovers and on work ethic, so those are definitely strengths of ours, but I think our biggest strength overall would be our understanding of the game,” Previ said. “If we can continue to make smart decisions and perpetually elevate our play as the season goes on, like we did last year, we’ll be having a great season again this time around.”

Beginning with its opener at Villanova on Saturday, the Tigers kick-start a 15-game regular season schedule over an nine-week period. Eight of these games will be played on their new home turf at Sherrerd Field in the Class of 1952 Stadium. Seven conference games are evenly distributed across the season.

“We are going to take the season one game at a time,” Sailer said. “We have traditional rivals, like our top Ivy foes Penn, Dartmouth and Harvard. The Ivy League will be competitive this year. We have lots of NCAA competition, too, with Virginia, Duke and Maryland. Every game will be an opportunity and a challenge for us.”

Leading the Tiger squad from the sideline are two experienced and well-respected coaches. Sailer, recently inducted into the New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame, is entering her 26th season as head coach. In her time at Princeton, she has won three NCAA championships and nine Ivy League titles and earned National Coach of the Year honors three times. Assisting Sailer, Michelle DeJuliis returns for her seventh season with the Tigers. In November, she was named the IWLCA Assistant Coach of the Year.

“DJ has so much experience to offer and works closely with the attack,” Gassaway said. “She brings a number of creative plays and sets that really open us up for good scoring looks. She also plays a lot with us in practice, which adds a further dimension of competitiveness and fun to our drills.”

This weekend will be the first chance for the Tigers to test the skills they have been working on in the preseason and make their mark in the competitive Division I women’s lacrosse world.

“We could not be more excited for our first game on Saturday,” Gassaway said. “We definitely have goals for the season as a whole, but right now our focus is on Villanova.”