PU still looking for first road win
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
After a pair of big home wins, the Princeton University women’s lacrosse team heads on the road for what has been its biggest challenge.
The Tigers are 5-0 at home after an 18-7 win over Columbia on Wednesday night at Class of 1952 Stadium followed a 10-7 home win over No. 12 Johns Hopkins on Saturday. Away from home, Princeton is winless in three games.
”Two of them were top 20 teams for us, and we played well in the Virginia game,” said PU head coach Chris Sailer. “Clearly that’s the next step for us. We have to be able to win on the road. It’s not a matter of where we’re playing. It’s how we’re playing. We’re excited to get a chance to go away together and get ready for a big Ivy game.”
Princeton will be facing another highly ranked team, and this one is even bigger as it’s an Ivy opponent, No. 11 Cornell, whom they travel to for a 3 p.m. start Saturday.
”They’ve been playing really well,” Sailer said of Cornell. “They have wins over Penn State, Albany, a one goal loss to UNC, and I went down to see them against Penn, an overtime loss where they got off to a bad start and fought and clawed their way back. No matter what the score, they won’t count themselves out.
” They have some good dodgers. They clear out space well and their shooters go to goal. They’re one of the top teams and our sights are on trying to get a good ‘W’ up there.”
The Tigers come off a win over Columbia in which they matched their season-high for goals with 18, while their defense limited the Lions to seven goals.
”I thought we played a really nice game,” said Sailer after her team remained perfect at 2-0 in Ivy League play. “Our D did a really nice job, especially on the crease. Liz Bannatine continues to play well. Caroline Franke did good job in goal to stop the low angle shot that she looks for. It takes us a while to get into games this year, but we were able to get a couple runs where we got five or six goals in a row to really take control of the game.”
Leading the way for the offense is reigning Ivy League Co-Offensive Player of the Week Erin McMunn. She was last year’s Ivy Rookie of the Year as she posted 18 goals and a team-high 30 assists. This year, she has already eclipsed her goal output of a year ago with 21 goals and also has 15 assists, both are team highs. In Wednesday’s win, she had a career-high nine points on six goals and three assists. It is the fourth best output by a Princeton player in program history.
”This year, she realizes she has to do more than just feed,” Sailer said. “Last year, that was pretty much her role. She was behind the cage and just feeding. This year, we’ve challenged her to be more of a goal scorer. She’s getting in front of the cage, she’s moving more. She has exceptional hands and can get the shot off.
”She had a great night in setting her teammates up and finishing her opportunities. She’s an exciting kid to coach and watch.”
Alexandra Bruno had a career-high six goals to finish off several of McMunn’s feed’s. Mary-Kate Sivilli and Erin Slifer had a goal and two assists each. It was Franke’s fourth win of the year and her eight saves was one off her best. She has started the last four games for the Tigers and helped to anchor the defense.
In the Tiger wins, it has been the defense that has been the common link. Princeton is allowing 9.38 goals per game this year.
”We’ve played good defense in our wins,” Sailer said. “It all starts with defense. If we play a good defensive game, that usually gets things going for us. We stop the team from doing what they want, get some turnovers and get transition. Our attack builds and builds throughout the course of the game as we figure out the defense and the keeper and get some good looks for ourselves.”
Sailer has seen progress at both ends of the field. What pleased her about Wednesday’s effort at the offensive end was the Tigers’ accuracy.
”It was one of our best shooting nights,” she said. “Typically our teams are shooting 50 or over, but we’ve been under that this year. We had much better shot selection. We have worked on faking the goalie and putting it away. Our free positions have been a bit of an Achilles heel. We were 3-for-3 and that was huge for us as well.
”I think we are making progress,” she added. “I think we are getting better game in and game out. I think at times we slide back. We are progressing. We want to get better every game and every practice. We want to work better on the field and be confident and have the courage to take chances out there.”
The Tigers will have a good chance to show their progress as they look for their first road win of the year. A win would keep them unbeaten and tied atop the Ivy League standings, and it would propel them into their next two away games in the three-game streak with confidence, which they will need with no easy games left on the schedule.
”We like the hard schedule,” Sailer said. “We like to play games that matter. This is a big game for the Ivy schedule. Cornell has done well. They had tough loss to Penn, and a nice win over Harvard. It’s a great opportunity to get a win over one of the tough Ivy teams. They are competitors, as are we. I expect it will be quite the battle on Saturday.”