McGarvie helps Tigers top Cornell on Saturday
By: Justin Feil
Holly McGarvie is the fourth leading scorer for the Princeton University women’s lacrosse team, but her biggest role comes long before the goals are scored when the Tigers try to get possession on draws.
"Basically, possession is the game," said McGarvie, a freshman attack. "Draws are huge. We’ve had games in the past where we’ve won and haven’t won all the draws. And we’ve had games where we’ve lost and won more of the draws. Sometimes it doesn’t work out. But most of the time, the team winning the draws is winning the game."
So it was Saturday when the Tigers won their second straight Ivy League contest, 10-6, over No. 12 Cornell. The eighth-ranked Tigers fell behind early, 4-1, as Cornell won four of the first five draws of the game. Then McGarvie and Kathleen Miller and the Tigers turned that trend as they won 11 of the final 13 draws of the game and outscored the Big Red, 9-2.
"I took the draws in high school," said McGarvie, who is a Shawnee High School graduate. "This is the first time I’ve been on the circle. I like it. Just knowing you want to get the ball and you want to go down and score makes it that much more imperative.
"It definitely was a lot different. When you’re taking it, your job is done once you pull it to your teammates. Now my job is the next job, to get it. It did take some getting used to. It was definitely different. I practiced with the coaches a lot after practice. They know it’s important. It’s being competitive and wanting the ball."
Princeton coach Chris Sailer thought that what she saw in McGarvie early had the makings for someone good at winning draws. It wasn’t so much what she did on draws, though that was a factor, but how she played during the regular game flow.
"Holly, she’s all over the field," Sailer said. "She plays with reckless abandon. She’s such a competitor. She doesn’t sit back and wait. That’s what you need to be successful on draws.
"We’ve had (Katie Lewis-Lamonica) who takes draws. You want people on the draw who are real hustlers and have a good quick first step. She could read where the draw is going and she always was quick. We knew she was someone we wanted on the draw. Even when she wasn’t playing as much, she was always in for draw control."
McGarvie finished Saturday’s game with a team-high five draw controls, and added a pair of goals, including the tying goal with 1:21 left in the first half. Miller had three draw controls and scored three goals. Lewis-Lamonica scored the first two goals of the second half and added two second-half assists while McGarvie answered Cornell’s only goal in the first 29 minutes of the second half. With the win, Princeton improved to 4-4 overall, 2-0 in Ivy play. Princeton is the lone unbeaten team that has played at least one Ivy game.
"We want to establish ourselves in the Ivy League," said McGarvie, who was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week. "Last year we unfortunately lost. We want to establish our status and bring back the title to our name. We want to be the only undefeated team this season.
"We were surprised that we’re the only team without a loss in the Ivy League, but there’s one team that didn’t play an Ivy game yet. Everybody is getting losses. It is a little surprising, especially that Dartmouth lost early on."
Princeton will travel to Philadelphia to take on Temple this afternoon before returning to Ivy play Saturday when they host Yale 2 p.m. at Class of 1952 Stadium. The Tigers have won two straight since an out-of-character 16-3 loss to Virginia.
"We’ve moved on from that game," McGarvie said. "I’ve tried to forget about it. Not that it never happened, but forget about that’s how Princeton played. We came out and just showed how not to play. We have so much potential. We can play so much better than that. We just have to play to our potential or something like that can happen. We’re able to pull ourselves back together and we’ll see what we want to accomplish.
"It’s nice to get off well and start our league. We’ve moved on and moved up. Cornell, it was nice to come away winning. There are definitely things our whole team needs to work on. We’re all working hard out there. There are little details we need to work on. We’re all in it together. We figured out what we need to do. Now we’ll do it."
McGarvie’s role has been evolving for the Tigers. Not only is she important to their chances in getting possession, but she’s playing a bigger part at the offensive end.
"I feel like my two years at Shawnee have been like my two months here," McGarvie said. "I started out a defender and then I was transitioning to midfield and then helping on the attack. I’m doing the same thing here. I’ve gone from being on defense, to in the midfield to sometimes now I’m only going on the attack.
"I’ve never been this much of an attacker," she added. "I like it a lot. It’s been a lot easier because of the coaches and Kathleen Miller. As long as you’re willing to listen to them, they can really help. It’s been great."
McGarvie was moved to the offense when Kristin Schwab was lost to a knee injury. She has become a solid threat to score.
"We like her all over the field," Sailer said. "She’s a great defender. When Schwab-y went down, we wanted Holly on the field all the time. She has good speed. She’s good in transition. Then she started going to goal harder and harder. When Schwab-y hurt her ACL, we thought of the middies we could take out of defense. She was by far the best on offense."
McGarvie’s collegiate career got off to a quick start even before this spring. Last fall, she started for the Tigers field hockey team that reached the NCAA Tournament before losing in double overtime to Duke. McGarvie, who played three sports at Shawnee, has been thrilled to be such a big part of the lacrosse team as well.
"We have such a strong class in lacrosse," McGarvie said. "I thought it was going to be tougher in lacrosse. It definitely is. There are so many talented girls. We’re so competitive. She’s going to put the girls on the field that are playing the best every day. I’m not saying field hockey was any easier. It was a different situation."
McGarvie sees her field hockey experience as something she can draw on in her first collegiate season of lacrosse. Most helpful to her was understanding early the level of competition.
"We ended our field hockey season playing Duke," McGarvie said. "It was a huge game, playing under that pressure. They’re No. 3 ranked and going to double overtime with them, it was such a big game. Getting that playing time, I never played anything at that level before. That’s one of the things that’s been most helpful. Even being on a big-time team before (lacrosse) has helped."
And with back-to-back Ivy wins, the Tiger women’s lacrosse team is headed in the right direction for getting an NCAA Tournament berth.
"We want to keep the good play and the winning going in the Ivy games," Sailer said. "It’s great to see we’re the only team without an Ivy loss. That gives us a boost. We can keep getting better. We can keep playing better each time we’re out there."

