Final Non-Conference Game Pits No. 15 Princeton vs No. 10 Loyola

A pair of Top 15 teams who will spend the rest of April playing for a league championship and hope to keep playing deep into May meet Wednesday on Sherrerd Field.

Princeton, ranked 15th and Loyola, ranked 10th, play for the 16th time in the final non-league game of the regular-season for both.

Princeton comes into the game after a huge win over Dartmouth Saturday, a 14-12 win that vaulted the Tigers back into the thick of the Ivy League race. As for Loyola, the Greyhounds come in after a huge Patriot League win, knocking off No. 14 Navy 16-6.

For both teams it's nothing but league games after this one.

Princeton vs. Loyola: Five Storylines

The league races
Princeton went a long way Saturday in helping itself try to chase down a sixth-straight Ivy League title with a 14-12 win over Dartmouth in Hanover. Princeton scored the final three goals of the game in the final 7:39, getting one goal and two assists during that run from Kyla Sears.

The win improved Princeton to 2-1 in the Ivy League. Had the Tigers lost, they would have been two games back of both Penn and Dartmouth.

At the same time, Loyola was topping Navy 16-6 to move to 5-0 in the Patriot League. The Greyhounds are one game ahead of both 4-1 Navy and Boston University.

Series history
Princeton leads the series 10-5, including a win in the 2003 NCAA semifinals when Loyola was the top seed. Of the 15 games in the series, 14 have come since 2000, after the teams played for the first time in 1989.

Princeton and Loyola met every year from 2000 until 2009, with the exception of 2008, and have since met every year since 2014. Princeton had won three straight before Loyola's 13-7 win a year ago in Baltimore. Elli Kluegel and Taylor VanThof had three each for the Greyhounds, while Kyla Sears and Kathryn Hallett led Princeton with two each.

Honors
Princeton and Loyola combined to have five league honorees this past week.

Princeton had the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week (Kyla Sears) and Defensive Player of the Week (Sam Fish), while Loyola had the Patriot League Attacker of the Week (Hannah Powers, Goalie of the Week (Kady Glynn) and Defender of the Week (Katie Detwiler).

Sears had a 13-point week, with two goals and five assists at Dartmouth and four goals and two assists in the win over Villanova. Her efforts earned Sears US Lacrosse Player of the Week honors as well.

By the way, Sears was two years behind Loyola's Powers at Skaneateles High School outside Syracuse.

Offense, Defense
Princeton and Loyola are both in the top 25 in Division I in scoring offense. They both basically average the same number of goals per game: Princeton is at 14.0, while Loyola is at 14.33.

The teams both lead their leagues in assists per game and are in the top nine nationally.

Loyola is also one of the top defensive teams in the country, allowing 9.25 per game. Again Princeton is fairly close, at 10.20. Both teams have strong goalies – Sam Fish has the second-best save percentage in the Ivy League while Loyola's Kady Glynn leads the Patriot League.

Common denominators
Princeton and Loyola have three common opponents. Both teams defeated Florida and Penn State, and both teams lost to Virginia.

In fact, Princeton and Loyola both beat Florida by two goals. Princeton defeated Penn State by 11 (21-10), while Loyola did by five (13-8), and Virginia defeated Princeton by five (14-9) and Loyola by three (12-9).

Other notes
* Kyla Sears had 19 assists in 19 games a year ago, an average of, obviously, 1.0 per game. This year she has 20 assists in 10 games, an average of, obviously, 2.0 per game. Sears is also nine goals away from the 100-goal mark for her career.

* Princeton leads the Ivy League and is 10th in Division I with 11.8 caused turnovers per game.

* Tess D'Orsi had five goals in the win over Dartmouth and now has 32 for the season. The junior has had at least 30 goals in every season of her career, and she needs just 10 to tie the 42 she had a year ago.

* Sam Fish leads the Ivy League with 9.2 saves per game.

* Marge Donovan continues to lead the team in caused turnovers (19) and ground balls (26).

* Elizabeth George is second on the team in goals, assists and points. She's also leading the team in draw controls with 47; the next two-highest players, Nonie Andersen and Kathryn Hallett, have 46 between them.

* Princeton has four players with at least 100 career points – Tess D'Orsi (147), Elizabeth George (140), Kyla Sears (130) and Kathryn Hallett (102).

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