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 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption:
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Goldberg Makes Noise With 3-Goal Effort As Tiger Women's Lax Improves to 2-0
By Bill Alden
With the Princeton University women's lacrosse team trailing Loyola 4-1 after just six minutes last Sunday, Tiger senior attacker Ingrid Goldberg knew it was time to speak up. "The seniors in general are more responsible for keeping everybody's head on straight," said Goldberg, who scored a first-half goal to help Princeton claw back to an 8-8 tie by halftime. "We had to keep everybody's mentality high. Communication is one of the big things in the game, it's very easy to shut your mouth at a time like that. We were telling the younger players there are 50 minutes left, get it back, things like that." When Princeton found itself behind the Greyhounds 9-8 early in the second half, Goldberg let her stick do the talking. She scored two goals to help spark a 6-0 Princeton run as the second-ranked Tigers pulled away to a 15-11 victory over 11th-ranked Loyola at a windy, sun-splashed Class of 1952 Stadium.
A beaming Goldberg was proud of the mentality the Tigers demonstrated in improving to 2-0 on the season. "We pulled together, our team is usually a strong second half team," said the affable Goldberg, who is called "Iggy" by her teammates. "Colleen O'Boyle, our second goalie, came and stepped up with a huge save. Our attack played solidly."
Goldberg, who scored 15 goals last season, downplayed her contribution to the Tiger attack. "Just take your shot," said Goldberg, in reflecting on her mindset during the second-half rally. "You know how to do it, you do it every single day in practice. Get it done."
With the Tigers having played in the last three straight NCAA title games, having won the crown in 2002 and 2003, Goldberg acknowledged that she and her teammates know that every opponent is gunning for them.
"We've played two really strong teams," said Goldberg, referring to Loyola and Johns Hopkins. "Both of the teams we have faced are in the Top 10. There is an aura around the Princeton Tigers and everyone comes out harder to beat us. We have to get up more for every game."
Princeton head coach Chris Sailer was pleased with how her team's defense got up in the second half. "We really picked it up," said Sailer, whose club held the Greyhounds to eight shots over the last 30 minutes of the contest.
"We started to make big stops. We started to play as a team more. We were sliding much better, seeing the play, and communicating. We were just so much more aware on defense. I thought that was a real turnaround."
Princeton's attack also got into a rhythm. "I thought we made a lot of progress on attack," said Sailer, whose senior star Lindsey Biles fired in a career-high six goals on the afternoon. "In the Hopkins game, it was all basically individual efforts we didn't have much of a flow on attack. Today we moved the ball much better, we were much more patient."
The prolific Biles certainly created much of the offensive flow. "She's a special player," said Sailer of the senior from Annapolis, Md., who scored 71 points last year and now has 130 goals in her Princeton career, the seventh most in program history.
"She is aware that a lot of firepower from the last couple of years is gone and that the focus is going to be on her. We need her posting those kind of numbers."
But as important as Biles is to Princeton's attack, the Tigers need supporting players like Goldberg to assume leading roles. "Iggy really stepped up, especially after we took her out in the first half," said Sailer, who got two goals apiece from Elizabeth Pillion and Courtney Bird and one each from Mary Minshall and Leigh Slonaker as her club won its 23rd straight regular season game.
"She came in with a lot more fire. She really started to make a difference on the field, she got a few shots in. We're counting on her. I've said it before, people like Iggy are the ones that are going to make or break this season."
Sailer hopes that her club's performance in the second half will be a harbinger of things to come this season. "I think the second half really did a lot for our confidence going into the week," said Sailer, whose team takes on two more top ten teams this week as it plays at Duke on March 16 before hosting Penn State on March 19. "It is so much better for our team to have this under our belts."
In Goldberg's view, the team's pre-season trip to Australia this past December helped it build the confidence to keep progressing. "In Australia, we played the national team three times and each game got better and better," recalled Goldberg, noting that Princeton lost the opener against the Aussies 18-2 and then finished the series by losing just 9-8.
"The experience showed us that we can improve every game, even against a team that is far superior. It also showed us that we can work together as a team and fix things. Our transition game can always get better. We'll just keep working on keeping the attack going at a good tempo."
With Goldberg making noise up front, the Tiger attack figures to set a torrid pace this spring.
