For the Princeton University women’s lacrosse team, its final game at Class of 1952 Stadium last season turned into a nightmare.
Facing Penn in the 2014 Ivy League tournament championship game, Princeton fell behind 6-2 at halftime on the way to a 9-6 setback that left the Tigers glum and teary-eyed.
Last Sunday, when Princeton faced the same scenario as it hosted Penn in this year’s Ivy title game, it was determined to not let history repeat itself.
“I think everybody remembered that, there is no worse feeling than being at your home field and watching perhaps your biggest rival take home the title,” said Princeton head coach Chris Sailer.
“I think we wanted to finish it off in the right way, not just because of last year but because of the great season we have had, we knew we were capable of winning both the championship and the tournament.”
This time, the 11th-ranked Tigers enjoyed a dream-like afternoon, finishing off No. 13 Penn in style, taking a 6-4 lead at halftime and extending its advantage to 13-8 with four minutes left in regulation on the way to a 14-11 victory.
“I am so proud of the team, they have worked so hard to get us to this point from the start of the year,” asserted a beaming Sailer, whose team improved to 14-3 overall with the win and completed a perfect league campaign with a 7-0 Ivy mark in the regular season and two wins in the tourney.
“I think we are playing our best lacrosse right now which is when you want to be playing our best. Everybody on the team today stepped up in a big way. We got some amazing goals from kids who might not be high on the scoring column, like Amanda Leavell, Cammie Sullivan, and Abby Finkelston. It was truly a team effort today, the defense was awesome. We put a new look in and they executed it really, really well. There was just a ton of heart on the field and we are excited to be Ivy tournament champions and headed to the NCAAs.”
On Sunday evening, Princeton learned that it will play Fairfield in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on May 8 at Stony Brook, N.Y. The winner will play host Stony Brook, the No. 6 seed on May 10 in the Round of 16 for a spot in the quarterfinals.
Senior midfielder Erin Slifer basked in the glow of helping Princeton win its first Ivy tournament title since 2011.
“As a team, this has been our goal from when we stepped on campus in September,” said Slifer, who tallied three goals and an assist in the win over Penn and was named to the All-Tournament team along with fellow Tigers, Anna Doherty, Amanda Leavell, Erin McMunn, Ellie DeGarmo, and Olivia Hompe, the tourney MVP.
“But as a senior, it is the finishing touch to go out and win the tournament for the first time and win the Ivy outright for the first time. It is just really exciting to see our four years really come to this peak. It is peaking at the right time and it is going to carry us into the postseason.”
As the season has unfolded, Slifer sensed that this Tiger squad could do some exciting things.
“This group just has a different edge to it; I think it is a confidence we really didn’t have before,” added Slifer.
“Even though we are the underdogs in a lot of games, we have the opportunity to beat any team when we step on the field and play at our best level. I don’t think in the past, it has always been that way. We have doubted ourselves sometimes. I think this group knows that we are a force to be reckoned with.”
Senior McMunn saw that confidence manifest itself on the offensive end against Penn as the Tigers went on a 7-4 run in the second half to break open the contest.
“I think our attack has just been clicking really, really well together,” said McMunn, who chipped in a goal and two assists in the win.
“We are playing our best lacrosse right now. In terms of being able to pull away in the second half, it was a great effort on the draw that allowed us to come up with the ball in the first place. From there, the coaches put a lot of trust in us as a unit to just work and play off each other and make the decisions and take the shots that we know we can score. It was really just a matter of playing within our game plan and being very disciplined.”
The Tigers showed discipline on defense as well, coming together in stifling the Quakers.
“We had our game plan and what I think went really well is that we stuck to it,” said sophomore defender Leavell.
“We just had each other’s backs and we were going 100 percent. I think when we do that, it is beautiful to watch and it felt good to just be with each other and working as a unit.”
Goalie Ellie DeGarmo benefitted from the strong defense, making 12 saves in Princeton’s 15-8 win over Harvard in the Ivy semis on Friday and then recording eight stops in the championship contest.
“I was seeing the ball really well and I can definitely attribute that to the defense, they were playing incredible one-on-one defense,” said sophomore DeGarmo.
“In the Harvard game, they were forcing the wide shots, the bad shots, and I could see the ball the whole time. Today we were throwing in new looks and I think they did such a good job adapting to that. We threw them off because they weren’t expecting the new stuff that we put in.”
McMunn, for her part, is expecting the Tigers to make a deep run in the NCAAs.
“I love our chances and I love our chances purely for the fact that I think this is a really special group in terms of how we all care about each other and we all really click with one another, on the field, off the field,” said McMunn.
“I think in terms of what makes a team dangerous, especially at this point of the year when people are starting to get fatigued and you have been playing a long season, is that extra little bit, and that playing for one another. Loving to play with one another is what is going to take us really far; that is something that is going to make us really dangerous in this postseason. I think that people might underestimate us a little bit and that is the spot we like to be in. We are excited to take this as far as we can go.”