Princeton University Athletics
No. 5 Princeton Falls To No. 1 UVa 10-7
March 08, 2003 | Men's Lacrosse
March 8, 2003
Box Score
Chris Rotelli scored four goals to lead top-ranked Virginia to a 10-7 win over Princeton in front of 4,330 fans at the Class of 1952 Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Princeton slipped to 0-2, opening its season with losses to co-No. 1's Johns Hopkins and Virginia for the second straight year. Princeton rebounded from that start a year ago to advance to the NCAA championship game for the third straight season.
UVa improved to 3-0.
"We've lost to two pretty good teams," said Princeton middie Owen Daly. "We played pretty hard today. We didn't always play smart. We have to work through that."
A.J. Shannon's goal with 1:25 remaining in the third quarter snapped a 6-6 tie, and the Cavaliers then outscored Princeton 3-1 in the fourth quarter. Rotelli's final goal, with 2:26 left, sealed it. Princeton did not score for the first 20:59 of the game when Jason Doneger scored on a feed from Daly, but Virginia scored only twice prior to that, once by John Christmas at the 1:48 mark of the first quarter and again by Rotelli at the 2:00 mark of the second quarter.
The Tigers had a huge opportunity when Jack deVilliers, Virginia's face-off man, was called for a three-minute, non-releasable illegal stick penalty after a Matt Ward goal made it 3-2 with six minutes to go in the half. Daly scored on an assist from Josh White to tie it one minute into the penalty, but Virginia regained the lead when Rotelli beat a double-team to score a man-down goal another minute after that. Princeton did not score again on the advantage.
Still, Princeton did take momentum into the locker room when Will MacColl scored with one second to go in the half to make it 5-4 at intermission. Brad Dumont and Sean Hartofilis scored the first two goals of the third quarter to give Princeton the lead at 6-5, but the Cavs answered on Christmas' second goal six minutes later. UVa killed off two Princeton man-advantage situations while down a goal.
Princeton's last chance came when Daly scored five minutes into the fourth quarter to make it 8-7. The Tigers had another extra-man opportunity on an illegal substitution penalty but could not get the equalizer, and it became 9-7 when Joe Yevoli set up Bill Glading with 8:10 to go.
Up two goals, UVa was called for a slashing penalty on Brett Hughes, giving Princeton a one-minute advantage with 4:29 to go. Trey Whitty forced a turnover in the first 10 seconds of the advantage, and the Tigers did not regain possession until the teams were at even strength.
Rotelli then scored his fourth on another strong inside move with 2:26 left.
Princeton was 1 for 8 on extra-man opportunities, and the one goal came during the three-minute advantage when Virginia scored once as well.
"Rotelli's a great player," said Princeton coach Bill Tierney. "He was fabulous. We played very hard. I'm not worried about repeating last year's tart. We were in a much different situation last year. And this year, even if we do get off to the same start, I'm sure we'll be fine."
Princeton is at Hofstra next weekend and at Syracuse the following week in a matchup of teams that have played in eac of the last three NCAA championship games. The Tigers started off 1-3 and 2-4 a year ago before winning eight straight.
Virginia. Who hosts Notre Dame Tuesday, outshot Princeton 43-27 and won 11 of 19 face-offs. Julian Gould made 11 saves for Princeton, while Tillman Johnson had nine for UVa.