Lacrosse visits Ivy powerhouse Princeton

The Columbia lacrosse team will try to notch its first conference win of the year this evening at Princeton. In previous action, the Lions (5-3, 0-2 Ivy) dropped a 16-11 decision to Penn.
Columbia began its season with five straight victories, including a triple-overtime win at Marist, a nonconference opponent. In their last three games, however, the Lions have had trouble controlling the game, falling behind each time in the first half of play. The Lions tied or outscored their opponents in the second halves of those games, but Columbia’s efforts could not undo the team’s earlier struggles.
Princeton (7-1, 1-0) has only faced one league opponent this year, but the Tigers overtook Cornell in a decisive 15-8 victory. Sophomore midfielder Lizzy Drumm leads Princeton with 19 goals on the season, while sophomore goalkeeper Erin Tochihara has already earned Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week honors twice this season.
While the Lions have suffered three straight defeats, they are not lacking in offensive ability. Junior attacker Brittany Shannon scored three goals against Penn and leads Columbia with 24 goals on the year. In addition, senior attacker Lauren Olsen and sophomore attacker Gabrielle Geronimos scored two goals apiece in the loss to the Quakers.
In Columbia’s narrow loss on the road to Lehigh, senior midfielder Rachael Ryan scored five goals for the Lions, while Geronimos added a hat trick in the 15-13 defeat.
The Lions have scored an average of 10.7 goals per contest in their current skid, and their struggles have largely been on the defensive end. In order to pick up a win today, they will need to focus on slowing Princeton’s potent attack.
If the Lions want to come out of the day with their first Ivy victory of the year, they will have to do it on the road. Game time is set for 7 p.m.