No. 9 Princeton Tops No. 16 Florida 13-11 in First Meeting

Tuesday, March 19

Gainesville, Fla.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

5-1, 1-0IVY

Florida

3-6, 0-0AAC

Team	1	2	Final F
Princeton	7	6	13
Florida	7	4	11

Photo by: Matt Stamey

No. 9 Princeton Tops No. 16 Florida 13-11 in First Meeting

March 19, 2019 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

Florida's Haley Hicklen robbed Kyla Sears on a free position shot with less than three minutes to go, and now the Gators were going to try to complete their comeback after trailing by four goals a few minutes earlier.

The Gators had the ball. They trailed by one. They had the momentum … for a few seconds anyway. Then Shannon Berry took it away.

Berry, the Princeton freshman midfielder, outhustled everyone to corral a huge ground ball and then fed Elizabeth George for the layup that built the lead back to two. End of comeback. Final Score: Princeton 13, Florida 11.

The win came in the first meeting between Princeton and Florida, and the Tigers, playing for the first time in 10 days, improved to 5-1 on the year. Florida is now 3-6 on the year with six losses to ranked teams, four of which are by one or two goals.

"This is a very good win for us," said Princeton head coach Chris Sailer. "We got a lot of contributions from a lot of people on both sides of the field, and we made some really big plays when we needed them. Shannon's play to keep that possession going led to the clinching goal. If they got the ball back there, who knows what might have happened. It could have been a much different outcome."

Princeton led for pretty much the entire game but never really shook the home team, though it seemed like that was going to be the case when Elizabeth George, Izzy Mangan and Tess D'Orsi scored over a four-minute, 3-0 run that built a 9-8 lead into 12-8 with 13:36 to play.

Just when it seemed like Princeton was in control, Florida scored the next three, cutting it to 12-11 with 5:49 to play.

Florida had a possession end with an Alex Argo caused turnover, and Sears drew a free position shot on the other end. After Hicklen went down low to make a tough stop, Berry didn't give up on the play and controlled the loose ball, eventually getting to George for the final goal of the day.

Florida would have a pair of yellow cards after that, and the Tigers were able to run out the final seconds for the win.

NOTES

* Sears led Princeton with five points on three goals and two assists. She also had two caused turnovers.

* D'Orsi and George had three goals each, and Allie Rogers also had a three-point night with two goals and an assist while Maria Pansini had a goal and assist. George now has 98 career goals.

* Sam Fish made 11 saves for the Tigers and was particularly sharp in the second half as Princeton built the 12-8 lead.

* Argo and Mary Murphy had three caused turnovers each. Marge Donovan had two.

* Freshman Lillian Stout took the final draw of the first half and all of the draws in the second half. She and Nonie Anderson led Princeton with three draw controls each.

* Princeton, who was outshot 32-24, flies home to take on Brown Saturday at noon on Sherrerd Field in the first game of a doubleheader. The Princeton men take on Yale at 3.