No. 9 Tigers Face First Ranked Opponent in a Trip to No. 12 UVA

No. 9 Princeton at No. 12 Virginia l Saturday, Feb. 23 l 11 AM I Charlottesville, Va.
WatchESPN l Live Stats l @PrincetonWLAX

Opening weekend for the Princeton women's lacrosse team was a milestone one, as head coach Chris Sailer reached 400 wins and senior tri-captain Elizabeth George reached 100 career points.

Princeton defeated Temple 16-7 in Week 1 in a game that ended with celebrations and parties. Now as Week 2 arrives, Princeton's schedule ratchets up a bit – and does so quickly.

Princeton takes to the road for the first time as it heads to Charlottesville to take on Virginia Saturday at 11 a.m. That is then followed by a home game Wednesday against Penn State.

Virginia will be playing for the second time in three days, after its game originally scheduled for Wednesday at Richmond was pushed back a day.

Princeton at Virginia - Five Storylines

Getting Serious
Princeton is entering a stretch where four of its next five and five of its next seven opponents are ranked in the top 12 in this week's national poll. The other two are Ivy League opponents.

Princeton, ranked ninth in the poll, starts that run at No. 12 Virginia. Penn State, who comes to Princeton Wednesday, is ranked one spot ahead of UVa, in 10th.

After that it's the Ivy opener against unranked Columbia, followed by a home game against No. 6 Stony Brook and then, after 10 days off, a trip to No. 5 Florida during spring break. This takes you to late March, when the Tigers then host unranked Brown before a trip to No. 2 Maryland to end the month.

Series History
This will be the 38th meeting between Princeton and Virginia, and it's safe to say it's been a fairly even series. UVa enters the game with a 19-18 edge in a series that dates to 1989.

The teams have met at least once every year since the 1991 season. Virginia and Princeton are actually even at 14-14 in regular season games, and Virginia has a 5-4 edge in NCAA tournament games. The teams have played three times in the NCAA finals, with UVa wins in 1993 and 2004 and a Princeton win in 2003.

Virginia defeated Princeton 14-10 a year ago behind four goals by Avery Shoemaker, while the Tiger were led by three from Kathryn Hallett.

Coaching Matchup
Chris Sailer of Princeton and Julie Myers of Virginia, the two head coaches in this game, have combined to coach 1,016 games (prior to the UVa –Richmond game), all of which have been at their two schools. Their combined record is 713-303 (again, not including the Richmond game), for a winning percentage of .702 between them.

Sailer has won three NCAA championships and reached seven NCAA finals, while Myers has won one of her own while being the runner-up five times. Sailer reached the 400-win mark a week ago with the win against Temple, which made her the first coach in Division I men's or women's lacrosse history with 400 wins at one school.

This is the 30th meeting between Sailer and Myers, and Myers has a 16-13 edge.

Fish Factor
Sophomore goalie Sam Fish did not play in last year's game against UVa, which was also the second game of the 2018 season. In fact it wasn't until the Delaware game, which was in Week 9, that Fish took over the starting job.

Since then, Princeton has gone 10-2, and Fish was the starter through the Ivy League championship season – the fifth straight for Princeton – and then the Ivy League tournament title as well. She also has an NCAA tournament win on her resume.

Fish became a second-team All-Ivy League selection and was a preseason honorable mention All-America this year. She started her sophomore season anchored as the Tiger goalie, and she made 11 saves while allowing seven goals in the Temple game for a .611 save percentage that in the early going ranks seventh in Division I.

Highly Offensive
Princeton scored 16 goals in its first game, and Virginia opened with 26 goals in its first two games, which were wins over Navy and Elon. Will this game be high scoring?

If recent history means anything, it will be. In each of the last two games between the two and in five of the last six, both teams reached double figures in goals. Prior to that, such offensive outbursts were rare in this series.

In fact, in the first 31 meetings between these two, both teams reached double figures in goals just four times, and two of those were in 1994 (Princeton OT wins in the regular season and NCAA semifinals).

Other Notes:

It's early, but Tess D'Orsi ranks third in Division I in goals per game. D'Orsi had a career high of six in the win over Temple.
Kathryn Hallett had four goals on four shots in the Temple win. She is one of six players in Division I who has taken at least three shots per game and hasn't missed.
Elizabeth George got to 100 career points with two goals and two assists against Temple. She now has 82 career goals and 18 career assists.
Nonie Anderson and Alex Argo had four caused turnovers each against Temple, tying them for fourth in Division I. Anderson also added a goal in the game.
Princeton has four players who are Virginia natives, including junior Annie Cory and senior Julia Haney, both of whom are Charlottesville natives who attended St. Anne's-Belfield. The other two are Olivia Pugh, a sophomore defender and Alexandria native who has started every game of her career, and Jordan Marcus, a sophomore midfielder from Richmond.

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