FOR THE RECORD: Princeton University women’s lacrosse player McKenzie Blake, right, looks to get past a Brown defender last Friday in the Ivy League tournament semifinals at Class of 1952 Stadium. Senior attacker Blake fired in five goals in a 17-16 win over the Bears, making history in the process as she scored her 209th goal as a Tiger to break Kyla Sears’ program record for career goals. On Sunday, Blake scored two goals but it wasn’t nearly enough as the top-seeded Tigers fell 17-6 to second-seeded Yale in the Ivy final. Princeton, now 14-3, received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and will face Massachusetts in a first-round contest on May 9 in Baltimore, Md. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Last Friday, McKenzie Blake helped spark a rally for the top-seeded Princeton University women’s lacrosse team as it overcame a 7-3 second quarter deficit to edge fourth-seeded Brown 17-16 at the Class of 1952 Stadium in the Ivy League tournament semifinals.

Senior attacker Blake fired in five goals, making history in the process as she scored her 209th goal as a Tiger to break Kyla Sears’ program record for career goals.

“That was awesome, it is really cool to leave a legacy at Princeton and hear your name up there with some of the greats,” said Blake, a 5’9 native of Haddonfield. “I have met a lot of girls that are up on that top-10 list so it is really cool to be recognized in that top-10.”

On Sunday, as Princeton hosted second-seeded Yale in the Ivy tourney final, Blake scored an early goal as the rivals found themselves knotted at 2-2 midway through the first quarter.

The Bulldogs, though, went on a 6-1 run to build an 8-3 halftime lead but this time the Tigers were unable to overcome a deficit. Princeton narrowed the gap to 8-4 early in the third quarter but never got closer as Yale rolled to a 17-6 win, earning the league’s automatic berth to the upcoming NCAA tournament.

“We were expecting a really good game, Yale played really well,” said Blake in assessing the defeat. “I just think we didn’t show up to be honest. We were expecting a fight and we kind of rolled over a bit and that is how it ended up like that. We didn’t fight back like we did on Friday. On Friday we came back from four goals or something like that but I think that is because we played as a team. Today we didn’t really have that fight in us.”

The Tigers, now 14-3, will get the chance to fight another day as they received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament where they will face Massachusetts (15-3) in a first round contest on May 9 in Baltimore, Md. The victor of that game will face the winner of the Johns Hopkins-Liberty opening round matchup in a second round contest on May 11.

In the wake of the disappointing defeat, the Tigers held a postgame players-only meeting in their team room.

“We just talked about how nothing is guaranteed,” said Blake. “The selection show is tonight and if we do get lucky enough to get called, we really have to make some changes in our mentality and just playing together as a team.”

Princeton head coach Jenn Cook credited Yale with being the better team on the day in the final.

“Yale is an incredibly talented team, they have been highly ranked all year,” said Cook. “They have some amazing athletes. They are really well coached, we knew today was going to be a battle.”

Cook acknowledged that the Tigers committed some uncharacteristic miscues as they dealt with a deluge of Yale goals as a downpour drenched the stadium in the second half.

“There were some mental errors regarding our stacking and ball movement offensively,” said Cook. “Defensively there were some moments where weren’t executing our systems. I think we needed to hunt the ball better together off the draw.”

As Princeton looked to rally in the second half, the focus was on playing as a unit.

“The halftime message was we have to play together,” said Cook. “Our best is when we are playing as a group, not as individuals. I think that is what happened today.”

The high-powered Tiger attack never got it together as it couldn’t solve a stifling Bulldog defense.

“Our offense has not played against a zone defense in two and a half weeks,” said Cook. “I thought our coaches did a good job of setting them up initially for those looks that we needed to execute and we just didn’t.”

Blake did execute over the weekend as she was named to the All-Tournament team in addition to making program history.

“McKenzie is a gamer, in big moments she wants the ball,” said Cook of Blake who now has 73 goals this spring, two short of the program’s single-season record, and has upped her career record total to 215.

“She does so well, not only handling these pressure situations but making everyone around her better. That is what is so special about her.”

Looking ahead to the NCAA tourney, Cook knows that her squad will have to play much better to advance past the UMass team that has won 13 straight games and is led by the trio of Kassidy Morris (77 goals, 23 assists), Tessa Shields (51 goals, 31 assists) and Delaney Rodriguez-Shaw (48 goals, 34 assists).

“It is a tough lesson to learn right now but it is a new season next weekend,” said Cook, whose attack features Jami MacDonald (49 goals, 28 assists) and Haven Dora (25 goals, 51 assists) in addition to Blake. “The focus is growing and being better and really understanding that we are stronger together when we are playing our systems both offensively and defensively and executing the pieces we know we are going to see.”

Blake, for her part, is confident that the Tigers will come out strong in the NCAA tourney.

“We didn’t play as a team today; the defense would make a stop and then we would turn it over on offense or the offense would score a goal and we wouldn’t get the next draw,” said Blake. “We just weren’t stringing things together like we normally do. It is definitely a very late point in the season to be having this lesson. It sucks but I think people will be hungry after this.”