Women's lacrosse defeats Cornell 18–15 in final regular season game

Women’s lacrosse (12–3, 6–1 Ivy League) defeated Cornell University (8–7, 4–3 Ivy) 18–15 on Saturday afternoon, finishing the regular season with a stunning victory. After beating Yale last Saturday by a whopping fifteen point lead, Cornell was the last team they had to beat to win the Ivy League Title. This year, the Tigers will share the title with Dartmouth but will earn the number one seed after defeating the Dartmouth Big Green earlier this month. This marks the Tiger’s 15th title in program history and their sixth straight title.

“You play Princeton Lacrosse and that’s always your first goal, to win the Ivy Title,” Head coach Chris Sailer said, “We’re really happy that we were able to accomplish that. It’s really meaningful and something to be really proud of for the players.”

Starting off the game with a strong foot, senior attacker Elizabeth George found herself winning the first draw control and making a goal within the first three minutes of the game. Senior attacker Julia Haney put in the second goal and set the tigers up for a consistent first half. They ended with a 12–5 score in their favor. Those seven points safely carried the Tigers to victory as the Big Red managed to outscore them in the second half. All of the last five goals were put in by Cornell, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Princeton’s outstanding first half. By the end of the game, Princeton won 18–15.

Leading the Tigers was junior attacker Tess D’Orsi with four goals and two assists. Following her was George and sophomore attacker Kyla Sears with four goals apiece. Senior attackers Allie Rogers and Haney also managed to put in two goals each. Finally, sophomore goalie Sam Fish sealed the deal with ten saves.

As the season comes to the final games, Sailer recounts how proud she is of her seven seniors that will be graduating in just a short couple of weeks.

“They’ve been an amazing senior class. It’s probably been ten years since we’ve had such a large senior class where every single kid is a full-time player for us on the field,” Sailer said. “I think they’ve done a great job. They’ve each been in a lot of different roles. Some of them have changed positions and some have gone through injuries. I mean they’ve really battled through a lot, and I think they’ve led this team all year long. No question, they’re going to be hard to replace, so we want them to go out with the best possible season that they can have.”

After an exciting season, the first-seed Tigers move on to face fourth-seed Cornell in the first round of the Ivy Tournament this Friday at 5 p.m. Second-seed Dartmouth will play third-seed Penn this Sunday at 1:30 p.m., and the winners of those two games will play each other for a final match.

“We’re looking forward to the tournament this weekend,” Sailer said. “It’s great to be the top seed, and we’re look forward to getting better and playing stronger this weekend.”