3/28/03 Princeton, N.J. - Senior Whitney Miller took a pass from senior Alex Fiore and fired the game-winning goal past Georgetown freshman goalkeeper Dosha Stright (West Chester, Pa./Westtown School) almost 62 minutes after the opening draw on Friday night. Princeton came back from an early two-goal deficit and won the rematch of last season's NCAA Championship Game in a thrilling 13-11 overtime contest at Class of 1952 Stadium.
Georgetown opened the game with a quick goal and held its largest lead 13 minutes in when sophmore midfielder Lauryn Bernier (Strafford, Pa./Conestoga) made the score 4-2 in favor of the Hoyas. Whitney Miller and Liza Hillenbrand scored back-to-back goals to even the game and Theresa Sherry beat her defender one-on-one to give Princeton a 5-4 edge. The Hoyas leading scorer, senior attacker Wick Stanwick (Baltimore, Md./Notre Dame Prep), answered before the half and teams were nodded at 5-5 at the break.
The Hoyas took their third lead of the game when junior midfielder Anouk Peters (Ipswich, Mass./Millbrook School) scored her first of three second-half goals only 1:35 into the period. Neither team would score in the game's next nine minutes and then Theresa Sherry scored her 17th goal of the season and third goal of the night to open the offensive floodgates.
Hillenbrand scored 1:15 later and Princeton was back on top, 7-6. Peters tied the score back up for the Hoyas, but on the following draw control, Katie Norbury raced downfield and handed off to Miller, who make a quick inside move and then punched in her second goal of the night. Senior Alex Fiore followed with an unassisted goal of her own and Princeton held its largest lead of the night at 9-7.
"Georgetown had a lot in incentive coming in here after we beat them in the NCAA Final last season," says Fiore. "This was a huge game for us. We needed a win to get our season back on track."
Two unanswered GU goals tied the game at 9-9. Sophomore Elizabeth Pillion gave the Tigers a temporary lead, but the eighth tie of the night had the game nodded at 10-10 with a minute to play.
The Princeton offense was in possession of the ball and with under a minute to go, Sherry made her move to the goal. After spinning around a Hoya defender, she lobbed a pass to sophomore Leigh Slonaker, who shot and scored with 19.4 seconds left in regulation.
Junior midfielder Gloria Lozano ( Pittsburgh, PA/ Sewickley Academy), who dominated on draw controls, won her 10th draw of the night and the Hoyas had one more shot at a tie. A loose ball scramble resulted in a free-position attempt for sophmore midfielder Allison Chambers (Valley Cottage, NY/ Nyack ), who knocked in her shot with 1.2 second left to send the game into overtime. In the overtime session, Princeton scored two goals, to defeat the Hoyas with a final score of 13-11.
The Tigers have played only three overtime contests since 2001 and two of those have come against the Hoyas. Princeton has played Georgetown nine times in program history and it's been two goals or fewer deciding seven of those games. Georgetown went to Princeton a year ago and won by a 15-13 overtime score.
The Tigers have won three straight and improve to 4-3 on the year. The Hoyas went in ranked No. 4 in the nation and dropped to 5-2 overall with the loss. They travel to Rutgers on Sunday, March 30 for a game against the Scarlet Knights at 12 noon.
