The snowbanks around Sherrerd Field said winter. The warm temperature and sunshine suggested early spring. The play on the field smacked of May. Down four with 10 minutes to go, the ninth-ranked Princeton women's lacrosse team scored the final five goals of the afternoon to rally past No. 18 Stony Brook for a thrilling 15-14 win that had the look and feel of an NCAA tournament game. The game-winning goal came from Tess D'Orsi with 2:06 to go and then was preserved on Sam Fish's 13th save, off a shot in front with 35 seconds to go. The win improved Princeton to 4-1 on the season, and 4-0 at home, heading into a 10-day break during midterm exams. Stony Brook, who spent much of last year as the No. 1 ranked team in the country, fell to 2-3. "We want to play the toughest teams we can because we want to play in games like this," said Princeton head coach Chris Sailer. "This game helps prepare us for where we want to be at the end of the season. Both teams fought really hard. When one team would go on a run, the other didn't put its head down. We knew they would answer us, and we played really hard all the way until the end and that helped us overcome the last deficit and get the win." It was clearly a game of momentum swings. Princeton scored the first three goals in the first five minutes of the game, but nobody on either team at that point thought this was going to be an easy one. The Seawolves rallied quickly, going up 4-3 with a 4-0 run in the next five minutes, before Princeton turned it back around to lead 9-6 late in the first and then 9-8 when Stony Brook got the last two of the half. Princeton began the second half with the ball and a two-minute advantage after a yellow card as time expired for a dangerous shot, but the Stony Brook defense forced a shot clock violation on that possession. With that momentum, Stony Brook quickly tied it and then took the lead, getting the first four of the second half to go along with the last two of the first and make it a 6-0 run and 12-9 lead less than seven minutes in. Kathryn Hallett got Princeton's first of the second half on a free position to make it 12-10 with 20 minutes to go, but two more goals by the visitors made it a 14-10 game with 14:03 on the clock. "We knew there was plenty of time left," Sailer said. "We needed to start to score and win some draws, but nobody panicked. Once we got the first one, we had a lot of confidence that we could pull it out." That first one came from Elizabeth George with 10:01 left, and then Julia Haney added one less than a minute later, making it 14-12. It stayed that way until the Tigers tied it on two goals 17 seconds apart, from George and Kyla Sears. D'Orsi's game-winner came off a perfect feed from Allie Rogers, and then the Tigers were able to run out the clock after the last save by Fish. NOTES * Sears tied her career high wtih six goals and two assists, which came on the goals by George and Haney that started the winning 5-0 run. The eight points were a career high as well. * George finished with three goals, four assists and nine draw controls. D'Orsi had three goals and an assist. * Marge Donovan had two caused turnovers and four ground balls. * Stony Brook outshot Princeton 35-29. * Princeton next plays March 19 at Florida in the first meeting between the two Top 10 teams.