No. 22 Women's Lacrosse Hosts No. 11 Loyola Wednesday Night

Wednesday, April 12

Princeton, N.J.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

No. 11 Loyola (MD)

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

No. 22 Women's Lacrosse Hosts No. 11 Loyola Wednesday Night

April 11, 2023 | Women's Lacrosse

Game #11: #22 Princeton (5-5, 2-1 Ivy League) vs. No. 11 Loyola (10-2, 5-0 Patriot League)
April 12 | Sherrerd Field | 7 p.m.
ESPN+ | International Stream | Live Stats

Princeton And Loyola Set For 19th Meeting All-Time
Two teams with a lot of history on the world of women's lacrosse will meet for the 19th time on Wednesday. Princeton enters the contest with a 12-6 record all-time against the Greyhounds. After dropping the first meeting in New Jersey between the two teams -- a 9-8 win in three overtimes in 2003 -- Princeton has won the last seven games played on home turf against Loyola -- including a 17-13 win in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

Last year, the two teams tangled in a classic in Baltimore, as Loyola escaped with a 16-15 win. The Greyhounds had control of the first quarter, building a 7-3 lead before Princeton flipped the script in the second, outscoring Loyola by a 6-3 margin. Things were even in the second half, each team scoring six times -- the last goal a Nina Montes strike with 1:34 remaining which brought Princeton within one. Loyola would win the ensuing draw and was able to hold the ball the rest of the way to secure the win.

Kyla Sears (4g, 1a), Sophie Whiteway (3g, 1a), Nina Montes (2g) and Kate Mulham (2g) each had multi-goal games for the Tigers.

Say Grace!
Grace Tauckus is closing in on 100 career points, entering the game with 95 points in 34 career games -- averaging 2.8 points-per-game. She has 79 goals and 16 assists in her career, scoring her 79 goals on 114 career shots on goal. She has at least one goal in every career game played -- and has scored 2+ in 24 of her 34 games.

Keeping Track Of Kari
Kari Buonanno has 89 career points in 29 career games entering this week, with 63 goals and 26 assists. She has scored at least one goal in all 29 games she has played as a Tiger, and she has at least two goals in 12 of her last 15 games dating to last season. Named an honorable mention Midseason All-American by Inside Lacrosse, Buonanno has 22 goals and 11 assists for 33 points over her 10 games this season. Her 11 assists are a new single-season high, and she is five goals away from tying her singe-season high mark set last season when she scored 27. She has also set a new single-season best with 27 draw controls.

MacDonald's Serving Up Points
First-year attacker Jami MacDonald has made a great first impression, tallying 33 points (21g, 12a) over her 10 games. MacDonald is following the lead of her older brother Mike, a 2015 Princeton graduate and a Roper Trophy winner as the top senior male athlete in his class who ranks fifth all-time with the Princeton men in career points with 208. MacDonald's single-game high in points this year came at Rutgers where she tallied seven (6g, 1a). She also has a pair of five-point games, doing so against Penn State (2g, 3a) and Columbia (4g, 1a).

Shake And Blake!
Sophomore McKenzie Blake had 46 points (36g, 10a) over her first 19 collegiate games last season as a rookie, averaging 2.42 points-per-game. This year, she is already up to 33 points (29g, 4a) over 10 appearances -- averaging 3.3 points-per-game. Through 29 career games, she has 79 points (65g, 14a) and is averaging 2.72 points-per-game. Blake played more of a two-way game last season, with 12 CTs and 34 GBs. This year, her primary focus has been working on attack from X but she has still chipped in 14 GBs and added 15 draw controls after winning just three last season.

Young Guns
Amelia Hughes and Jami MacDonald are two of the 20 freshmen named to the Inside Lacrosse Freshman Impact Rankings. The two are the only Ivy League players on the list, which was presented alphabetically. Hughes, who has started every game in goal for the Tigers, is fifth nationally in saves per game at 11.3 while leading the Ivy League in saves-per-game, saves (113) and save percentage (.471). She has also been the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week (after a 14-save outing against USC) and the IWLCA Defensive Player of the Week, after a 19-save performance against Temple. MacDonald is No. 6 in the Ivy League in assists-per-game (1.20) and No. 7 in points-per-game (3.30).

Coming Up Hughes
First-year goalkeeper Amelia Hughes has acclimated herself well to college lacrosse, drawing the start in each game to commence her career. She has registered 10+ saves in 7 of her 10 games, and has four games with a save percentage north of .500. Her high-water mark in saves this season came in a 19-save performance at Tempe which earned IWLCA National Defensive Player of the Week honors. Her 11.3 saves-per-game and .471 save% are most among rookie keepers and her 113 saves is second among first-year goalies.

Goal Oriented
Blake McKenzie (vs. Temple), Nina Montes (vs. Cornell) and Jami MacDonald (vs. Rutgers) have both had six-goal games this season. For the season, Princeton has seven players in double figures in goals — Blake (29), Buonanno (22), MacDonald (21), Kate Mulham (16), Grace Tauckus (15), Nina Montes (13) and Ellie Mueller (11).

On The Draw
Ellie Mueller leads the team in draw controls with 31, followed by Kari Buonanno with 27 and Sophie Whiteway with 26. Mueller's top performance was nine against USC, followed by an eight-draw game against Penn State. Whiteway won eight darws against Columbia, while Buonanno's single-game high was six at Rutgers.

First-Rate Fourth Quaters
Princeton is outscoring opponents, 40-19, in fourth quarters this season -- including a 5-1 "win" in the fourth quarter at Cornell which turned a 10-10 game into a 15-11 win. At Maryland last week, Princeton outscored the Terps, 4-1. Last Wednesday at Saint Joe's, the Tigers had a 7-3 edge in the fourth quarter.

Mueller Time!
Junior Ellie Mueller has 31 draw controls and has done so over the last six games, averaging 5.2 DCs-per-game after not winning a single one over her previous 22 games. She had 24 points in 18 games last season in her first year of college lacrosse, scoring 14 goals and adding 10 assists while also scooping up 24 ground balls. This yer, in addition to her work on the draw team, she has 16 points (11g, 5a) and 6 ground balls. Her father, Kit, played basketball at Princeton, graduating in 1991 after a career that saw him twice be named Ivy League Player of the Year and win three Ivy League championships. Scoring runs in the Mueller family, as Kit ranks No. 4 all-time in scoring by a Princeton men's basketball player with 1,546 points.

Kate The Great!
Kate Mulham missed all of the 2019 season with an ACL injury, but returned to form in the 2020 season with eight points in five games. Last year was a breakout season for Mulham with 35 goals and 48 points in 19 games -- including five-goal games against Maryland and Penn. She has 21 points (16g, 5a) in nine games this season, including a season-best five goals at Saint Joseph's last Wednesday. All total, she has 2+ goals in six of her nine appearances this season.

Know The Name Nina
Sophomore Nina Montes had 23 points in 17 games last season, playing mostly in the second line of attack. This year, she has 16 points in 10 games. She had a six-point game at San Diego State (5g, 1) last season and has twice matched that number this season with a 4g, 2a day against Virginia and a six-goal game against Cornell. Starting with her six-goal game against the Big Red, she has goals in each of her last four games -- adding single goals in all three of Princeton's most recent games.

Let's Cook!
Jenn Cook is in her first season as head coach of the Tigers and 11th overall on staff at Princeton. The 2007 North Carolina grad takes over for Hall of Famer Chris Sailer after serving 10 seasons as an assistant and associate head coach. During her 10 previous years with the Tigers, Cook has been part of seven Ivy League championships during the eight seasons contest around COVID-19 pauses. She has helped guide the Tigers to eight NCAA appearances in those eight full seasons, reaching the NCAA Quarterfinals three times. A three-time All-American and two-time Tewaaraton Award nominee as a player, Cook was the 2007 Inside Lacrosse Defender of the Year and graduated as the Tar Heel's all-time leader in ground balls (200) and games played (76). Cook's first career win came on February 25 at Temple via a 17-9 victory, and her first career win over a Top-25 opponent was an 18-12 win at No. 14 Rutgers on March 1.