Montes' Five Goals Lead Offensive Onslaught As Princeton Tops San Diego State 27-18

Saturday, March 12

San Diego, Calif.

4:00 PM EST/1:00 PM PST

Princeton University

5-0

San Diego State

2-4

PRIN

SDSU

Nina Montes had five goals in Princeton's 27-18 win at San Diego State.

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Montes' Five Goals Lead Offensive Onslaught As Princeton Tops San Diego State 27-18

March 12, 2022 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

There were football lines on the field, and there were football numbers on the scoreboard.

The Princeton women's lacrosse team put up its second-highest goal total in program history with a 27-18 win at San Diego State Saturday afternoon. The win improved the 10^th-ranked Tigers to 5-0 on the season and completed a two-game sweep of the team's Spring Break trip to the West Coast, after an 18-13 win over USC Tuesday night.

The 27 goals were two short of the program record for goals in a game, set in a 29-9 win over Brown in 1981. There is no record kept for shots in a game, but the 58 that the Tigers took against the Aztecs have to be way up there.

Princeton, debuting its orange uniforms, had four players rush for more than 100 yards, er, scratch that, score at least four goals, led by a five-goal, one-assist afternoon from freshman Nina Montes, who came into the game with one goal on the season to date. Kyla Sears, McKenzie Blake and Grace Tauckus had four goals apiece.

With so many goals, there were also a ton of draws. Marge Donovan tied the program single-game record with 11.

The tone of the game was set with the opening draw, as San Diego State won possession and score the first of the game's 45 goals just 10 seconds in. The Aztecs would lead 2-0 before the Tigers got going, and once they did, they never stopped.

The goals came in bunches, and Princeton would lead 7-6 after the first quarter and 14-11 at halftime. Montes scored four of her five goals by intermission. Princeton had its first two-goal lead at 9-7 early in the second, but after San Diego State got to 9-8, Kari Buonnano built it back to two and the Tigers began to pull away.

Buonnano finished with three goals and an assist, while Kate Mulham and Samantha Devito had two each, which for Devito were the first two of her career. Sophie Whiteway, Shannon Berry and Gaby Hamburger had one each.

Sears had a five-point day with an assist to go with her four goals, and she now has 233 career points, third-best at Princeton and 37 away from Crista Samaras for second.

Princeton, who flies back to New Jersey Sunday morning, had a great week in California, with the two wins and with team outings to, among other destinations, Hollywood, the San Diego Zoo and a barbeque on the beach. The Tigers' next game is this coming Saturday at Penn State.