Sophomore midfielder Sarah Bancroft had four shots, three on goal, but no scores, part of a stagnant offensive attack that netted just five goals. Classmate Kaitlin Martin, the team’s leading scorer, had four goals.

The Harvard women’s lacrosse team struck first in Saturday’s game against Princeton, but the Tigers had the last laugh in a 19-5 win over the Crimson.

The defeat by No. 13 Princeton (6-4, 2-1 Ivy) in the Class of 1952 Stadium marks the sixth consecutive loss for Harvard (2-9, 0-3 Ivy).

Sophomore attack Kaitlin Martin opened the scoring, notching an unassisted goal for the Crimson at the 4:19 mark. The goal came as a result of a new play the team implemented this week.

However, the team’s primary focus was on defense, as giving up too many goals early has been a consistent problem for the Crimson this season.

“We wanted to focus this game on our strengths,” senior attack Perry Barlow said.

“In the [Boston University] game, we had let up a lot of goals at the beginning, but our defense is one of our greatest strengths,” she added. “We actually increased the number of defenders we started behind the restraining line.”

Nevertheless, Harvard once again succumbed to the early onslaught. The Tigers quickly demonstrated the form expected of the 13th-ranked team in the country, reeling off nine straight goals to quash Harvard’s hope of an upset.

Ashley Amo and Katie Cox both scored for Princeton, followed by a three-minute span in which attack Kathleen Miller scored a hat trick for the Tigers. Princeton scored four more goals before the Harvard got on the board again.

Finally, junior attack Tara Schoen stopped the Tigers’ streak, scoring for the Crimson to cut the lead to 9-2.

However, Princeton would not stay quiet for long. The Tigers fired off more goals the halftime whistle to send Harvard into its team meeting down 13-2.

While it was too little, too late, the second half went better for the Crimson. Martin scored her second goal of the game off an assist from junior attack Caroline Simmons.

Princeton’s Cox scored her second of the game, but Martin, carrying the scoring burden almost single-handedly for Harvard, put in her third.

The Tigers then scored thrice more. Cox completed a hat trick of her own, followed by goals from Jenna Washabaugh, Kristin Morrison, and Christine Casaceli. Morrison’s tally marked her fifth score of the match.

“I just don’t think we can let teams like Princeton get a run on us,” Martin said. “They’re so skilled that once they get a few goals going forward, they’re pretty unstoppable. Princeton had so much possession, it was really hard for us to score goals on the few chances we had.”

Martin then scored her fourth goal of the game and team-leading 27th goal of the season to make the score 18-5 before Washabaugh scored the final goal of the match for the Tigers.

One positive for Harvard was the strong play of junior midfielder Jacqueline Hehir. Hehir had the assignment of guarding Princeton’s best player, midfielder Katie Lewis-Lamonica. Determined before the game to stay in Lewis-Lamonica’s face, Hehir effectively denied her the ball.

As a result, Princeton was eventually forced to take Lewis-Lamonica out of the game.

“I think this is another Ivy game we played where we felt like if we were given another shot at them, we could have kept the score a lot closer,” Barlow said. “That was kind of how we felt against Penn last weekend. Despite what the score said, we really feel like we’re on the verge of breaking open the Ivy League and really making a difference.”

—Staff writer Tyler D. Sipprelle can be reached at sipprell@fas.harvard.edu.