Tigers lacrosse squad improves to 3-0
By: Bob Nuse
Lauren Vance was up to the challenge of trying to stop Amy Appelt. And she knew it would be a little easier with the help of her friends.
The Princeton University women’s lacrosse team used some solid team defense, with Vance leading the way, to hold Virginia’s leading scorer to three goals on Sunday, helping lift the top-ranked Tigers to a 12-9 win.
With the victory, Princeton improved to 3-0 heading into Wednesday night’s 7 p.m. showdown with second-ranked Duke.
"We just tried to keep her contained," said Vance, a sophomore from Lexington, Va. "I marked up on her but we tried to funnel her to where we could double her and contain her. It was a team effort on defense. She’s a great player and it’s hard to stop her with just one player."
Last year, Princeton had a player like Rachael Becker who could stop a player like Appelt on her own. But without the since-graduated Becker, the Tigers knew they would need to use the team approach on defense.
"You can’t stop her with just one person," said Princeton coach Chris Sailer, whose team has now won 12 straight games dating back to last season. "You have to have help and do it as a team, unless that one person is Rachael Becker. She did it last year, but she’s a different kind of player. For mere mortals, it takes a team to stop her."
Princeton’s team defense has helped the team open the season with three straight wins, a far cry better than the Tigers 1-3 start of a year ago. Now they can look ahead to a showdown with Duke, which lost to Notre Dame last week and is currently 5-1.
Princeton’s defense was aided by a big offensive day from Theresa Sherry, who scored a career-high five goals. The Tigers broke open a close game when they scored the last three goals of the first half to take a 7-4 lead. From there, the Cavaliers never got closer than three goals.
"We knew they were going to be tough because Virginia is such a good team," said Vance, who played in nine games last year and became a starter late in the season. "We knew they would be looking for blood after last year. It’s a big rivalry. It’s always going to be a good game, and after last year’s championship game where we won in overtime, it made it even tougher."
After opening the season with wins over Lafayette and Loyola, the Tigers put together their best effort of the season in knocking off Virginia.
"I thought we played really well over the entire field," said Sailer, whose team received two goals apiece from Lindsey Biles, Tara Hardiman and Kathleen Miller. "I was really pleased with how everyone played. It was a tight game and we didn’t take our first lead until 4-3. Then we got those three goals just before the half to go up by three and I thought that was huge.
"Our defense played tremendous. We knew we had to be ready to double Amy because she’s such a good player. That was our plan, to double her early and I thought we executed that well."
And if Virginia did manage to get past the defense for a good shot, Princeton goalkeeper Sarah Kolodner was usually there to make the stop. Kolodner finished with nine saves, seven of which came in the second half.
"Sarah did a great job," Vance said. "It helps to have her there. There were a few times when we would double and they would get off a pass for a good shot and Sarah would make the save."
Princeton, which rebounded from a slow start to win a national title last year, is off to a quick start this year. And that could mean trouble for the rest of the national title contenders.
"If you had asked me a week and a half ago I don’t know if I would have said we’re any further along at this point then we were last year," Sailer said. "We’re still young, but we play well together and the kids have come through. Hopefully we can keep improving.
"To have a game like Duke coming up right after this is tough. We need to get some people healthy. We’ve had some injuries and we’re just starting to get some people back. Duke is a similar team in that they’re young, too. So it should be a good game."
It is a game in which Princeton should be up to the challenge. Just as the Tigers were for Virginia on Sunday.