Princeton Starts Ivy League Play Hosting Columbia

Saturday, March 2

Princeton, N.J.

3:00 PM

Princeton University

Columbia

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

March 01, 2019 | Women's Lacrosse

Columbia at No. 14 Princeton l Saturday, March 2 l 3 PM I Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium
ESPN+ l Live Stats l @PrincetonWLAX

The Ivy League women's lacrosse tournament is two months away. The Ivy League season is here.

There will be four league games this weekend as each team starts out down the path of chasing spots in the league tournament, not to mention an Ivy League championship. For Princeton, this means the hope of a sixth-straight league championship and a fifth Ivy tournament title.

This year's league tournament, for the first time, will be at a predetermined site, in this case Columbia University. Princeton starts the league season with Columbia, as the Lions come to Sherrerd Field.

Princeton vs. Columbia: Five Storylines

Ivy Opener
Princeton has won 14 Ivy League championships, and the current run of five straight is a program record. In addition Princeton has won four of the nine Ivy League tournaments; no other team has won more.

Princeton plays two Ivy League games in March and then five more in April. The other Ivy game this month will be March 23, when the Tigers host Brown.

Series history
Princeton has played Columbia 22 times and won all 22. In 22 of those games, Princeton has reached double figures while holding Columbia in single digits 19 times. Princeton also won 14 of the first 17 games of the series by double figures and all 17 of them by at least eight.

Having said that, the last five games in the series have included a five-goal game, two six-goal games and one seven-goal game.

A year ago, Columbia had a series-high 16 goals against Princeton in a 22-16 regular season Tiger win. Columbia also reached the Ivy League tournament last year, where it lost 17-7 to Princeton in the semifinals.

Recently
Princeton and Columbia played twice in a week last year, finishing the regular season and then in the Ivy semifinals.

Kyla Sears had 10 goals in those two games, while Elizabeth George had nine and Tess D'Orsi had eight. Columbia's Lindsey Ewertsen had five goals for Columbia – as well as 18 draw controls, of which 15 came in the first game.

The regular season game saw Columbia lead 6-3 in the first half before the Tigers came back to take a 12-9 lead at the break. A goal by Ewertsen with 9:15 left made it a 17-16 game before Princeton finished the game on a 5-0 run.

That run grew to 15-0 when Princeton scored the first 10 goals in the Ivy tournament semifinal.

Tewaaraton Nominees
Princeton had three players named to the Tewaaraton Trophy watchlist that was released Thursday night: senior Elizabeth George and sophomores Sam Fish and Kyla Sears.

Aw shoot
Princeton ranks first in the Ivy League and second in Division I in team shooting percentage. The Tigers have scored 46 goals on 86 shots, with a .535 team shooting percentage.

There are only nine teams in Division I who have made better than 50 percent of their shots. Coastal Carolina leads Division I at .588.

Kathryn Hallett leads Division I in shooting percentage, with eight goals on nine shots, for a .889 percentage. To be eligible, a player must have attempted a minimum of three shots per game.

Other notes

* Princeton comes into the game off a 21-10 win over Penn State Wednesday in which the Tigers scored the most goals and tied the largest margin of victory in the 41-game series history with the Nittany Lions.

* Through three games this year, Princeton has scored 37 goals in two home games (18.5) and nine goals in one away game. Princeton has allowed 16 goals in two home games and 14 in one away game. Princeton has reached double figures in 17 straight games on Sherrerd Field.

* Tess D'Orsi leads Princeton with 13 goals, including five in the first 18 minutes against Penn State.

* Kyla Sears had three goals and four assists against Penn State after having two goals and no assists in the first two games combined.

* Freshman Maria Pansini had her first career two-goal game in the win over Penn State.