PRINCETON, N.J. -- For the Penn women's lacrosse team, it felt as if tax day came a few hours early last night. Only, its annual tormentor was not the IRS, it was the Princeton Tigers.
The top-ranked Tigers won their 11th consecutive game over the visiting Red and Blue, dominating the Quakers, 10-3, at a rain-soaked Class of 1952 Stadium. The win is a school record 21st in a row for Princeton (12-0, 4-0 Ivy)
Nine minutes into the first half, the Quakers had possession of the ball deep in Princeton's end for over four minutes. However, they could not manage a shot on goal, and senior Lindsey Cassidy missed a free position shot wide at the end of the four-plus minute stretch.
At that point, the Quakers (7-6, 3-2) were only trailing 3-0, but they never threatened to make it a game after that chance.
According to Penn coach Karin Brower, the delay tactics were part of the Quakers' game plan, an attempt to limit the Tigers' fastbreak tries.
"We wanted them to get confidence with the ball and not waste it," she said.
"If we had gone down right and tried to score and turned it over, it could have been 17-1 in the first half," Brower added.
But Penn could never get its attack going in this Princeton basketball-style offense, managing only six first-half shots on Princeton junior goalie Sarah Kolodner.
Brower felt that her team came out scared against arguably the best team in the nation. However, she praised them for a second-half performance in which they were only outscored 3-2. Princeton built their lead to 7-1 at halftime, as the Tigers outshot the Quakers 17-6.
"They feel that they played with the number 1 team in the country for 30 minutes ... they gotta do it from the first whistle," Brower said.
The Quakers were able to limit the damage from two of Princeton's top three scorers. Juniors Lindsey Biles and Elizabeth Pillion have combined for 59 of the Tigers' 162 goals on the season, over 36 percent. Last night, the Red and Blue limited the duo to just a goal and an assist from Biles.
However, other Princeton players picked up the slack, as senior Theresa Sherry had four goals and freshman Kathleen Miller had three.
Cassidy had two goals for the Quakers, and junior Katie Spofford added the other Penn goal.
The real surprise of the game was the play of sophomore backup goaltender Karrie Moore. She replaced junior starter Liz Lorelli with 8:42 left in the first half, and allowed only four goals on 20 shots in only her third appearance of the season. Moore had played 37:03 in her two previous appearances.
"I kind of just decided it was time to step up," Moore said.
"We didn't really have anything to lose," she added.
"I thought she did great," Brower said.
The Tigers put an overwhelmingly large percentage of their shots on goal, getting 24 of their 29 shots on the two Penn goalkeepers.
The loss in the windy, rainy night almost assures the end of the Red and Blue's quest for an Ivy League championship, as they are now two games behind both Princeton and Dartmouth in the loss column. The Quakers meet the Big Green Saturday in Hanover, N.H.
Princeton 10, PENN 3 First half
1, 27:18, Sherry (P'ton); 2, 25:29, Miller (P'ton); 3, 23:09, Goldberg (P'ton); 4, 14:43, Sherry 2 (P'ton); 5, 11:09, Miller 2 (P'ton); 6, 10:34, Miller 3 (P'ton); 7, 5:02, Cassidy (PENN); 8, 2:58, Sherry 3 (P'ton)
Second half
9, 21:50, Sherry 4 (P'ton); 10, 15:15, Goldberg 2 (P'ton); 11, 14:38, Spofford (PENN); 12, 11:44, Biles (P'ton); 13, 6:52, Cassidy (PENN)
