Princeton Faces Cornell in Ivy League Tournament Semifinal

No. 9 Princeton vs. Cornell l Friday, May 3 l 5:02 PM I New York, N.Y.
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The second meeting of the season between Princeton and Cornell will be separated from the first by six days, 225 miles and close to 40 degrees.

Princeton and Cornell will meet for the second time in a week, this time in the second semifinal at the Ivy League tournament at Columbia University, where the Tigers are the top seed and the Big Red is seeded fourth. Dartmouth, the second seed, and Penn, the third, play the first game at 2, and the championship game will be Sunday at 1:30.

The winner of the tournament gets the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Princeton is virtually assured of a spot in the field regardless of the outcome of the ILT.

Princeton defeated Cornell 18-15 this past Saturday in Ithaca. This is the first Ivy League women's tournament held at a neutral site.

Princeton vs. Cornell - Ivy League tournament semifinals: Five storylines

ILT history
Princeton has won the last two Ivy League tournament championships and three of the last four. The only one Princeton didn't win in the last three years was won by Cornell.

Princeton's four Ivy League tournament titles are the most of any school, followed by Penn with three.

Princeton has been in eight of the nine Ivy League tournaments that have been contested, missing the field only in 2012. Penn is the only school to have reached all nine.

The rematch
Princeton defeated Cornell 18-15 last Saturday on a day that began with snow showers and featured windchills in the low 30s and upper 20s in the afternoon. The win game the Tigers a share of their sixth-straight Ivy League championship and the No. 1 seed in the tournament.

Princeton led 6-1 after 11:31 and 12-5 at halftime and then extended the lead to 14-5 with the first two of the second half. Cornell then closed on a 10-4 run to get within the final margin of three.

Tess D'Orsi, Kyla Sears and Elizabeth George had four goals each for the Tigers. Cornell's Shannon Bertscha led everyone with five goals, while Tomasina Leska had four.

The most fascinating number from the game was the draw controls. Princeton had a 12-6 edge in the first half (and a 12-5 lead at halftime); Cornell had a 10-6 edge in the second half (and outscored Princeton 10-6 in the second half).

More rematches
Princeton has played 13 Ivy League tournament games. The team that won the regular-season game is 8-5 in the rematches.

Ivy honors
Princeton enters the league tournament with the Ivy Attacker of the Year (Elizabeth George), Defender of the Year (Nonie Andersen), Goalie of the Year (Sam Fish) and Co-Coach of the Year (Chris Sailer).

George, Andersen and Fish were all first-team All-Ivy League selections, as was Kyla Sears, who like George was a unanimous choice.

Princeton also had three second-team selections – defender Alex Argo, midfielder Kathryn Hallett and attacker Tess D'Orsi. Defender Marge Donovan was an honorable mention pick.

Sears has now been first-team All-Ivy as a freshman and sophomore. Princeton has never had a four-time first-team All-Ivy selection.

Gillian Thomson, Amory Rowe, Erin O'Neill, Lisa Rebane, Carter Marsh, Cristi Samaras, Lauren Simone, Rachael Becker, Theresa Sherry, Lindsey deButts and Olivia Hompe were all three-time first-team All-Ivy selections.

Swish
Princeton went into the game last weekend at Cornell fourth in Division I in team shooting percentage and then shot 18 for 31 against the Big Red, pushing the Tigers to second in the country at .507, behind only Northwestern (.514).

Princeton has shot better than 50 percent in nine of its 15 games this season. The Tigers were below 50 percent in all three of their losses.

Other notes

* The win last Saturday improved Princeton's lead in the all-time series to 40-5 over Cornell.

* Neither Princeton nor Cornell has ever lost a game at Columbia.

* Princeton has three players with at least 40 goals (Tess D'Orsi, Kyla Sears, Elizabeth George). All three of them have passed the 100-goal mark for their careers this season. Princeton had three 40-goal scorers a year ago as well. In fact, it was the same three, D'Orsi, George and Sears.In the 10 years prior to that, Princeton did not have three 40-goal scorers and had two 40-goal scorers only twice.

* Kathryn Hallett has 25 goals on 33 shots, a .758 shooting percentage.

* The NCAA women's lacrosse committee released what the tournament seedings would possibly look like if the selections were made prior to this last week's games and had the Tigers at No. 7, which would mean Princeton would be hosting in the NCAA tournament if that seed holds up. Princeton is ranked ninth in the IWLCA poll this week. The 11-3 Tigers have losses to No. 1 Maryland and No. 6 Virginia and wins over No. 11 Loyola, No. 12 Penn, No. 17 Stony Brook, No. 18 Florida and fellow No. 18 Dartmouth and No. 25 Penn State.

* Marge Donovan was the final Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week after her seven draw controls, four ground balls and one caused turnover. Donovan had seven draw controls for the year prior to that after not playing on the circle, though she had 70 a year ago.

* Princeton ranks second in the Ivy League in assists per game, caused turnovers per game, clearing percentage, free position percentage, points per game, save percentage, scoring defense, scoring margin and scoring offense.

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