No. 9 Princeton Tops Cornell 11-6 to Advance to Ivy League Championship

Friday, May 3

New York, N.Y.

5:00 PM

Princeton University

13-3

Cornell

8-8

Cornell

Princeton

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

No. 9 Princeton Tops Cornell 11-6 to Advance to Ivy League Championship

May 03, 2019 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

The Princeton women's lacrosse team needed to go back only six days to realize that its opponent in its Ivy League tournament semifinal wasn't going to give up after it fell behind early.

For the second straight game, the Tigers jumped out to a big early lead and then had to hold off a Cornell rally, and for the second straight game did just that. A week ago, it meant an Ivy League championship. This time, it meant a spot in the Ivy League tournament final.

Sam Fish made 15 saves and Kyla Sears had three goals to lead Princeton to an 11-6 win over Cornell in the second Ivy semi at Columbia. The win advanced the Tigers to a championship game meeting Sunday (1:30) with Penn, who defeated Dartmouth 14-13 in the first game Friday.

Princeton and Penn will meet in the Ivy tournament final for the second straight year and the third time in five years. The teams have combined to seven of the nine Ivy League tournaments to date.

"We came out strong again," said Princeton head coach Chris Sailer. "We were focused and ready to go. Cornell has a lot of pride. They showed us last week they'd never give up, and they did the same thing again this time."

Last Saturday in Ithaca, Princeton led 6-1 after 12 minutes. This time, Princeton led 6-0 after 16 minutes.

The lead last week grew to 12-5 at the break and 14-5 early in the second half before the Big Red scored 10 of the last 14 on the day in an 18-15 Princeton win. This time, Cornell again got within three in the second half but no closer.

Allie Rogers scored the first two goals of the day, and Sears, Elizabeth George, Izzy Mangan and Kathryn Hallett then scored one each to make it 6-0. The Big Red then scored twice, but the lead was back to six at 8-2 at the break after goals from Sears and Shannon Berry.

Would Cornell give up? Not at all. The Big Red shut out Princeton for the first 17 minutes of the second half, making it an 8-5 game and putting the pressure squarely on the Tigers. George finally broke through for Princeton to make it 9-5 with 13:07 to play, and Cornell would score again less than a minute later, making it once again a three-goal margin.

The Tigers didn't allow another goal after that, though, and Sears and Tess D'Orsi sealed it with the final two goals of the day.

Fish's 15 save-performance was one of her career high. The first-team All-Ivy goalie was strong all day and was very much the difference in this one.

"Sam had a tremendous game," Sailer said. "Cornell had a lot of chances early in the game, and Sam made a lot of big saves. She gave the entire team confidence, like she always does."

Princeton outshot Cornell 29-28 and had a 12-7 edge on draw controls. The Tigers were also a perfect 20-for-20 on clears.

Princeton defeated Penn 13-11 back on April 17. The winner of the game gets the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, though both teams are almost surely going to be in the field when it's announced Sunday night.