Tigers Take on Boston College in NCAA Quarterfinals

Saturday, May 18

Newton, Mass.

1:00 PM

Princeton University

#1 Boston College

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Tigers Take on Boston College in NCAA Quarterfinals

May 16, 2019 | Women's Lacrosse

No. 8 Princeton at No. 1 Boston College l Saturday, May 18 l 1 PM I Newton Lacrosse Field
WatchESPN l Live Stats l Princeton Notes

The challenge is big. The prize is huge. It's what lacrosse this time of year is supposed to be about.

The seventh-seeded Princeton women's lacrosse team heads to Massachusetts to take on second-seeded Boston College in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA tournament. For the winner, there's a spot in Championship Weekend, with a date against the winner of the game between No. 3 North Carolina and No. 6 Virginia.

This is the second all-time meeting between the teams, and it comes 53 weeks after BC defeated Princeton 16-10 in the second round of last year's NCAA tournament.

Princeton vs. Boston College: Five Storylines

The draw
Boston College comes into the game with a record of 20-1, and the Eagles have been ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 all season. Beyond the obvious talent the team has – including Tewaaraton finalists Sam Apuzzo and Dempsey Arsenault, what statistically makes BC so good?

Well, it's relatively easy to figure out. Boston College ranks fourth in Division I shooting percentage, making better than 50 percent of its shots. BC also ranks eighth in Division I in shots taken per game. Add those two together, and you have a lethal offense.

Then factor in that BC is fourth in the country in both draw controls per game and draw percentage, and that lethal offense has the ball a lot. The challenge for Princeton is to be successful on the circle.

The Tigers are led there by the program's top two single-season leaders in draw controls, Elizabeth George (84) and Nonie Andersen (73). George is Princeton's career leader with 185.

Princeton has won 52.3 percent of its draws for the year; BC has won 62.9 percent.

Goal oriented
Princeton is the only team in the country with three players with 54 or more goals: Tess D'Orsi (63), Elizabeth George (61), Kyla Sears (54). Princeton is one two teams (Florida is the other) with two players with at least 60 goals.

BC's Sam Apuzzo has scored 85 goals, the second-best total in Division I. She leads four players with at least 40 goals and two more with at least 30.

In fact, along with Princeton's three leading scorers and Kathryn Hallett, there will be 10 players in this game with at least 30 goals on the season.

Assist oriented
Kyla Sears had 19 assists in 19 games last year. This year she has 38 assists in 19 games, so she's gone from 1.0 assists per game last year to 2.0 this year.

Sears is tied with Colby Chanenchuk for the program record for assists in a season. Chanenchuk had 38 two years ago.

Kenzie Kent, the only player ever to the MVP of the Final Four from a team that didn't win the championship, is second in the country with 66 assists. The player who leads the country is Loyola's Livy Rosenzweig, who had two assists against Princeton in the Tigers' 17-13 win over the Greyhounds in the second round.

Kent's 66 assists are a school record, 25 more than the 41 Apuzzo had a year ago and that Lauren Miller had in 2000.

Swish
Boston College and Princeton are both in the top five in Division I in team shooting percentage. BC is third, at .501. Princeton is fifth, at .496.

Combined, they have shot 640 or 1,284, which is just short of .500 between them.

In their three NCAA tournament games, Princeton and BC have combined to shoot 57 for 103, or 55.3 percent. In their second round wins last Sunday, the teams were a combined 38 for 62, or 61.3 percent.

Series history
The series history is this: BC defeated Princeton 16-10 in last year's NCAA second round. That's it. The teams have never played a regular-season game against each other.

Elizabeth George and Tess D'Orsi scored three times each, while Kyla Sears had two goals and an assist. Dempsey Arsenault and Sam Apuzzo, BC's two Tewaaraton finalists this year, had two goals and five assists, while the Eagles got five goals each from Tess Chandler and Kaileen Hart, both of whom graduated.

BC won 17 of 28 draws.

Other notes

* Kyla Sears is one of six players in Division I with at least 50 goals and 35 assists. She is also the only one of the six players who is on a team that has reached the quarterfinals.

* Princeton is in the quarterfinals for the 21st time and the 20th time under Chris Sailer.

* Tess D'Orsi's 63 goals are the third-most in a single-season in program history, trailing only Olivia Hompe (75 in 2017) and Kyla Sears (64 last year). Elizabeth George is fourth, with 61. Elsewhere in the record book, D'Orsi is 52 goals away from matching Olivia Hompe's career record of 195, while Sears is second to Hompe (110) with 92 points this season. George (185) is Princeton's career leader in draw controls.

* Izzy Mangan has scored 12 goals this season, eight of which have come in the last six, including five in the first two NCAA tournament games. Mangan had her first career three-goal game in the win over Loyola last weekend.

* Alex Argo's 70 career starts are the most by any current player.

* Sam Fish leads the Ivy League in save percentage, goals-against average, total saves and saves per game. The sophomore is already ninth all-time at Princeton with 325 career saves, and her 189 this year rank fifth in a season.

* Allie Rogers has at least two goals in four of the last eight games and at least one in seven of the last eight.

* Princeton had never had more than one 50-goal scorer in a season prior to this year; now the Tigers have three for this season.

* Kathryn Hallett has 31 goals on 47 shots for a .660 shooting percentage.