MAC ATTACK: Princeton University women’s lacrosse player McKenzie Blake unloads the ball in a 2022 game. Last Saturday, junior attacker Blake tallied three goals in a losing cause as Princeton fell 11-9 to Yale in the Ivy League opener for both teams. The No. 21 Tigers, now 2-2 overall and 1-1 Ivy, host Monmouth on March 6. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Justin Feil

McKenzie Blake and the Princeton University women’s lacrosse team will try to get back on track against Monmouth this Wednesday evening as they host the Hawks in non-conference play.

A dreary afternoon last Saturday with driving rain all game was made a little worse for the Tigers when they lost, 11-9, to Yale in their Ivy League opener. Princeton dropped to 2-2 overall as it heads into three straight non-conference games.

“We have to focus on the little things,” said Blake, a junior attacker who scored three goals in the loss to Yale. “Our big game overall is getting better. We looked more like a good true team in the past two games – defense, turnovers, transition, down two and offensive goal. We need to get back to that. To stay at that level you have to do little things right. We have to scrap harder on 50-50 balls and draw controls. Offense, we have to cut out that sloppiness and make sure we’re playing clean and good lacrosse in order to string those plays together.”

After dropping its season opener to a Virginia team that is ranked 15th nationally and looks talented enough to compete well in the ACC, Princeton, now No. 21, picked up a pair of big back-to-back wins over ranked teams Penn State and Rutgers. The Tigers had their offense humming in an 18-13 win at Penn State on February 24, then returned home last Wednesday for a 13-10 win over Rutgers in soggy weather conditions again. The victories had Princeton feeling good about their development early in the season.

“We start a little later in the Ivy League than other schools,” said Blake. “We start with three tough out-of-conference games and then one very tough in-conference game. So I think those two wins were huge for us. It showed people that we are here to compete and we’re not just a team that’s going to roll over after having a bad year. Those are huge for our confidence, huge for our younger players who got some minutes and some goals. We just need to build off of that. This game today wasn’t how we wanted it, but we need to keep that mindset that we had last week with Rutgers and Penn State.”

Princeton was feeling pretty good at halftime Saturday as it was tied with Yale despite a big discrepancy in draw controls. The Bulldogs held an 11-5 edge in draws.

“The energy was good,” said Blake. “It was a tied game. It was competitive on both ends of the field. The mindset was we knew we needed to start controlling the draws a little more. We were down six in draw controls at half. That was our biggest focus going into the third quarter. Obviously it didn’t turn out exactly how we hoped.”

Yale, now ranked 18th, ended up with a 16-8 draw control advantage and pulled away in the third quarter when it outscored Princeton, 3-0.

“The third quarter, they came out and scored a couple goals and we got a little sloppy then,” said Blake. “Offensive possessions were few and far between and we didn’t value possession like we needed to. Defense played long, hard sets, and then it’s not very good when they have those long, hard sets and come up with a turnover and we can’t finish on the offensive end. I think that was a little demoralizing. But I would say we played sloppy in that third quarter. Offensively, we had a couple turnovers that we’re not used to having and we really shouldn’t be having.”

The deficit grew to 11-7 early in the fourth quarter before Blake scored twice in the final six minutes of the fourth. Blake has been a proven finisher. She led the team in goals last year with 39 and has a team-high 12 goals through four games after adding her three Saturday.

“I think a couple of my goals were scrap goals from my other teammates that I just got out on the end of,” said the 5’9 Blake who was joined on the score sheet by Ellie Mueller (2 goals) with Haven Dora, Kari Buonanno, Jami MacDonald, and Grace Tauckus adding one goal apiece.

“Sam DeVito had one great interception towards the end of the game and passed it to me and it was a one-on-one with the goalie and I knew I needed to finish. I’m not really sure. Another was a transition goal so again, we have to give the defense credit and I just ended up on the goal end of it, which was nice. A lot of it just came from the defense and defensive turnovers which was the key in that game.”

Princeton had to cause turnovers and get stops to try to overcome the draw deficit. Blake has been an important asset on the draw this year. After finishing with 21 draw controls last year, she has 21 through four games this year, but only one on Saturday.

“As a midfielder in high school, I took the draw my whole career in high school and before that,” said Blake. “Coming into here I wasn’t taking the draw, but I’ve definitely been itching at getting up on the circle, which is a lot more of what I’ve been doing this year. I started to at the end of last year, but then I had a little injury and that put me out for a little bit and I wasn’t able to get back up there. This year, I wanted to focus on getting up on the circle. I know I’m capable of helping my team in that way — scrapping for those 50-50 balls, getting it out of the air, and the communication on the draws has been really good this year I think, which is something we’ve struggled with in the past. It’s just an extra part of my game that I’m excited to be able to bring to the team this year.”

Blake has found ways to contribute to the Tigers since she arrived from nearby Haddonfield. As the daughter of Haddonfield coach Jessica Blake, she brought a good IQ and skills that enabled her to make a big move as a freshman.

“I’m pretty well coached, and I can adapt pretty well to that, which is nice,” said Blake. “I would say my biggest transition coming in my freshman year was transitioning from middie to low attack. I was the only lefty on the team, so naturally I’m going to play more of a low attacking role. That was pretty tough. Other than that, the transition, it was the pace of the game — the level is just so much better at the college level, general things like playing harder against bigger, stronger defenders. My biggest challenge was that transition from midfield to a low attacker.”

Princeton has been thrilled that Blake chose to stay close to home for her college career. She’s now working on becoming an even bigger part of the Tigers in her third season. She has been focused on being a better leader.

“You’re an upperclassmen, so you have to focus on being a vocal leader on and off the field, helping the underclassmen when they need it just so they can adapt more to the college game,” said Blake. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores who are getting a lot of minutes. So I think helping to lead them and help them when they need it, and offensively I wanted to be more of a force on the field, step up in big moments. I’m trying to focus on that — playing well offensively, working well with teammates, and building a good attack unit.”

Blake and the Tigers are keeping their focus on building together. She is one of the veteran performers who is determined to get Princeton back to its winning ways after the Tigers were 7-9 a year ago and 4-3 in Ivy play.

“Last year we had a down year,” said Blake. “This year our focus is more on making a statement. We had a lot of seniors graduate after my freshman year and a coaching change last year, and we weren’t where we wanted to be. Our main focus this year has been making that statement and proving to people we are a really good team and we can compete with the best teams out there. Our focus is more of a winning mindset and playing with confidence especially after a year like last year.”