Women's Lacrosse Season Preview: Depth & Experience Lead Tigers Into 2025

Photo by: Brian Foley

Women's Lacrosse Season Preview: Depth & Experience Lead Tigers Into 2025

January 29, 2025 | Women's Lacrosse

The 2024 Princeton women's lacrosse team came within one game of the Ivy League championship and then went two games deep into the NCAA tournament, defeating Drexel in the opening round before losing to eventual-champ Boston College in the second round.

What does the 2025 season have in store for Jenn Cook's team? With the season opener against Virginia at home on Feb. 15 not that far away, Princeton figures to again be in the mix for its usual goals, meaning competing for the Ivy League title and returning to both tournaments this May.

Leading the way will be one of the nation's top attack units and a defensive group that returns important starters as well. The midfield is shaping up to be younger in experience, but enters the season with a hunger to contribute on both ends of the field immediately.

Here is a position-by-position look at the 2025 Tigers:

Attack
Starters returning – McKenzie Blake, Haven Dora, Jami MacDonald
Other letterwinners returning – Nina Montes, Meg Morrisroe, Kendall Dean
Newcomers – Dylan Casazza, Maddie Mitchell, Grace Mulham

Princeton's returnees on attack combined for 153 goals a year ago. It's a group that includes a player who is already in the top 10 in career goals at Princeton, with two others who met in the final of the World U20 Championships in Hong Kong last summer and a fourth player who scored 23 off the bench as a freshman last year. In other words, this a team that should be able to score some goals. It starts with tri-captain and preseason All-American McKenzie Blake (67G, 5A, 72Pts in 2024), a two-time first-team All-Ivy League selection who enters her senior year 10^th all-time at Princeton with 142 goals. If she puts up the same number as last year, that would take her to 209, which just happens to be the Princeton career record, held by Kyla Sears. Blake is also a huge part of the Tigers' possession game who led the team with 63 draw controls. Junior Haven Dora (29-40-69) had a breakout 2024 season, going from 15 points as a freshman to the 69 she had a year ago to her earn second-team All-Ivy honors. Dora, who won a gold medal with the U.S. team at the World U20 event, tied the program records for assists in a season (40) and game (six, against Dartmouth). Jami MacDonald (34-21-55) was on the silver-medal Canadian team at the U20s, where she was named to the All-World team after being the second-leading goal-scorer at the event. For Princeton, she has 97 career points in two years, and a year ago she joined some pretty serious company — Sears, Elizabeth George, Olivia Hompe, Erin Slifer — as Princeton women's lacrosse players who have had at least 30 goals and 20 assists in a season in the last 10 years. Meg Morrisroe (23-1-24) tied the school record for goals in a game with eight against Brown last year as a freshman. Nina Montes (9-1-10) is a veteran who is one of the best dodgers with one of the quickest releases anywhere. Kendall Dean (1-0-1) is a junior who looks ready to make a jump in playing time, and freshman Grace Mulham will look for early playing time as well. If her last name is familiar, it should be — she is the younger sister of former Tiger Kate Mulham.

Midfield
Starters returning – Sophie Whiteway
Other letterwinners returning – Lane Calkins, Ava Keenan, Maggie Molnar, Sarah Nelson, Colette Quinn, Ella Sloan, Merrill Watson
Newcomers – Maggie Bacigalupo, Addison Barrett, Cassandra Kitchen

Unlike the attack unit, where there is only one starter lost, the midfield has only one starter back for 2025, which means there are considerable opportunities for new faces to get major playing time. The lone returning starter is senior Sophie Whiteway (6-2-8), who had 42 draw controls last year and who enters this season already fifth all-time at Princeton with 145. Whiteway has been a consistent factor in the midfield from Day 1 of her Princeton career. Who will be joining her this season? Sarah Nelson is one of the team's three captains, and she's back after missing last year due to injury. Maggie Molnar (3-0-3) and Lane Calkins (5CT, 4GB) figure to have greatly expanded roles, though the door is basically wide open for every midfielder on the roster.

Defense
Starters returning – Dylan Allen, Abigail Roberts, Sam Whiting
Other letterwinners returning – Kate Garlinghouse, Mia James, Siena Puglisi, Paige Vegna, Juliana Williams
Newcomers – Zoe Bye

Tri-captain Sam Whiting (6CT, 24GB) started all 18 games a year ago on defense, making her the only returning player to have done so. Still, this is a very experienced group, one that brings back considerable minutes played. Abigail Roberts (23CT, 16GB, 46DC) had a great sophomore season last year, when she was among the Ivy leaders in caused turnovers per game while earning second-team all-league honors after starting 13 times. It was a huge jump for Roberts, who played in seven games as a freshman. Dylan Allen (0-1-1, 4CT, 5GB), another junior, made six starts in 2024, including the Ivy League tournament game and both NCAA tournament games. Senior Paige Vegna (1GB) started one game last year and then had a very strong fall season, as did senior Mia James and sophomore Siena Puglisi (2CT, 1GB). The lone newcomer in the group is Zoe Bye who was ranked the No. 36 overall recruit in the nation by Inside Lacrosse and the No. 5 defender.

Goalkeepers
Starters returning – Amelia Hughes
Other letterwinners returning – Ellie Nicklas, Tia Reaman
Newcomers – Elizabeth Gonnella

Princeton returns the Ivy League Goalkeeper of the Year from a year ago in junior Amelia Hughes, who played nearly 1,000 minutes in 2024. Hughes, who has started every game her first two seasons, led the league in saves per game with 8.72. There is intense competition for the starting job this time around, including senior Tia Reaman, who has a career .524 save percentage in a backup role, and freshman Elizabeth Gonnella, the No. 45 incoming recruit according to IL Women.