Moving On! Women's Lacrosse Downs UMass To Advance In NCAAs

Friday, May 13

Princeton, N.J.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

15-3

UMASS

16-4

UMass

Princeton

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Moving On! Women's Lacrosse Downs UMass To Advance In NCAAs

May 13, 2022 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

PRINCETON -- Still Dancing!

Princeton never trailed in its First Round game to open the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Tournament, building a 5-1 lead on UMass and never looking back en route to a 15-9 win at Sherrerd Field. With the win, Princeton advances to take on No. 5 Syracuse on May 15 at noon.

Kyla Sears had four goals and an assist, while Grace Tauckus and Kate Mulham each scored three times. Marge Donovan had six draw controls and two caused turnovers, and Sam Fish made 12 saves.

Notes To Know

Princeton is now 39-24 all-time in NCAA Tournament games and 22-3 in games played at Princeton.
Chris Sailer is now 38-23 all-time in NCAA Tournament games and 21-2 in games played at home.
Princeton has now won seven NCAA Tournament games in a row that have been played at Princeton.
Princeton has now won its first game in its last four trips to the NCAA Tournament (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022)
With her five points, Kyla Sears extended her program record for career points to 304. Her first goal of the game was her 300th career point. She has now scored a goal in all 62 career games played.
Sears now has 96 points and 67 goals this season, both new career highs which rank No. 2 all-time in a season by a Tiger.
Of Princeton's seven players to score a goal in the game, six did so in their first NCAA Tournament game.

How It Happened

It took a while for Princeton to get going, needing 5:15 to open the game's scoring before Kate Mulham netted a free position goal. Sears would follow 1:18 later to give Princeton a 2-0 lead and the Tigers were off and running.

Q1: Princeton 2, UMass 0

There it is! 300 points for Kyla Sears! pic.twitter.com/BvPJKizDhe
— Princeton Women's Lax (@princetonwlax) May 13, 2022

The Minutewomen answered with 6:07 to play in the first quarter, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way. Princeton scored the next three goals -- including an acrobatic strike from Samantha DeVito which made it 3-1 with 3:20 left in the opening quarter, That goal seemed to spur on both attacks as the twi teams combined to score six goals in the final 3:20 of play in the first. UMass scored two of those goals to get back within two, but Tauckus scored on an extra-woman play with 0:14 left in the first frame to stymie any UMass momentum.

Q1: Princeton 6, UMass 3

Grace Tauckus tallies her second goal of the evening as the Tigers double up the minute-women! pic.twitter.com/lRZQFSkbdc
— Princeton Women's Lax (@princetonwlax) May 13, 2022

In the second quarter, Princeton scored the first two and started to effectively pull away. After an Olivia Muscalla goal from UMass, Tauckus and Sears countered for the Tigers as Princeton entered halftime ahead by a score of 10-5 bolstered by five saves from Sam Fish.

The third quarter was low scoring, but that was okay by the Tigers who only scored once but limited UMass to just two goals.

Kate Mulham scored an extra-player goal to open the fourth and give Princeton a 12-7 lead, but Alex Finn answered for UMass quickly to make it a four goal game with 11:49 to play. The next three goals were Princeton's, as Kyla Sears, Lillian Stout and McKenzie Blake scored 2:36 midway through the period to add some comfirt to the lead and send the Tigers on to the second round.

Q4: Princeton 14, UMass 8

Lillian Stout with a brilliant shovel shot as the Tigers extend their lead! pic.twitter.com/X4b81khcxx
— Princeton Women's Lax (@princetonwlax) May 14, 2022