Princeton Men's Lacrosse 2004? Better Get A Scorecard

Feb. 12, 2004

The 2004 men's lacrosse season begins Feb. 28 at home against Quinnipiac and continues with games the next two weekends at Johns Hopkins and Virginia. If you're expecting to see the same old familiar names that you're used to seeing for the Tigers, think again.

I - Introduction

"He graduated."

"Who?"

"Doesn't matter. If he played a lot last year, he probably graduated."

II - Who's not here anymore?

Welcome to the 2004 Princeton men's lacrosse season. Do yourself a favor. Get a scorecard.

Damien Davis? Started every game for four years. First-team All-America. Graduated.

Sean Hartofilis? The eighth-leading goal scorer in NCAA tournament history and the third-leading goal scorer in Princeton history? Graduated.

Brad Dumont? First midfield for four years. Two-time second-team All-America. Graduated. Owen Daly? Four years in the first midfield. Graduated.

Julian Gould? The starting goalie the last two seasons. Graduated.

Matt Trevenen? Started from Day 1 back in 1999, one year before the rest. Graduated.

Josh White? Will MacColl? Anthony Perna? Graduated, graduated, graduated.

Brian Lieberman? Joe Rosenbaum? Four-year starters on defense. Graduated and graduated.

Even four-year manager Allison Binns graduated.

No. 25 is no longer Davis. Now it's John Adamo. No. 3 is no longer Daly. Now it's Whitney Hayes. No. 6 is no longer Dumont. Now it's Michael Biles.

White's No. 36 is now Zachary Jungers. MacColl's No. 15 is now Will Presti.

Hartofilis has given No. 20 to Peter Trombino, a graduate of the same high school, St. Anthony's on Long Island, that sent Hartofilis to Princeton four years ago.

No. 5? It's not Rosenbaum's anymore. It belongs to Scott Sowanick. No. 32? It's not Anthony Perna; it's Mike DeSantis.

No. 43 now belongs to a somewhat familiar name, junior Andrew Sung, who switched his No. 46 to take Lieberman's old number. Nobody took No. 47, Gould's old number.

You would think that after six NCAA championships, eight NCAA championship game appearances, nine NCAA Final Fours and 11 Ivy League championships that Princeton head coach Bill Tierney would have seen it all in his tenure at Princeton. The 2004 season will be something completely new for him as well.

The Tigers return three starters and two of their top 10 scorers from a year ago, when Princeton went 11-4 and finished in a three-way tie with Dartmouth and Cornell for the Ivy League championship. Princeton then advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament, marking just the third time in 12 years the Tigers were not in the Final Four.

Never before has Tierney had his team wiped out by graduation the way he has for this season. Not even the graduation of the classes of 1994 or 1998 left this many holes.

Consider that Princeton has only four players who prior to the 2004 season have ever started a game.

There are only eight returning players who have ever scored a goal, and only four returning players who have more than five career goals. In fact, two players (Ryan Boyle, Jason Doneger) have combined for 83% of the career goals scored by returning players (97 of 117) and 92% of the career assists (121 of 131).

The Class of 2003, which won one NCAA championship and played in three NCAA championship games, combined for 204 goals and 134 assists, all of which have been lost to graduation.

III - Returning starters

This won't take long.

The Tigers do return two of the best players in the country on attack. Ryan Boyle, a first-team All-America last year, tied Jon Hess' school record with 48 assists last year, and he enters his senior year with 118 career assists, 15 behind Hess for second all-time at Princeton and 56 behind Kevin Lowe for first. He also has 165 career points, seventh-best all-time in school history. He is one of the elite players ever to play for Tierney and one of the elite players in college lacrosse this season.

Joining Boyle will be Jason Doneger, who scored 41 goals last season as a sophomore, the seventh-best total in school history. Doneger was an honorable mention All-America and Academic All-Ivy League selection a year ago; he is one of the best finishers in the game right now.

Princeton's most experienced defensive player is Ricky Schultz, a senior who has been a starter for much of the past two seasons. He also is the only remaining Princeton defensive player who played in the 2001 championship game win over Syracuse.

IV - Other experienced returnees

This will take a little longer, but not much.

Oliver Barry, a junior who played both shortstick and longstick defense last year, actually started when Schultz was injured late last season, making him the fourth member of this team who has ever started a game prior to the 2004 season. Barry obviously has great versatility, and he can be used in any number of roles this season.

Face-off man Drew Casino, who also developed as a scoring threat in the midfield last year with five goals and an assist, is also a senior.

Behind Boyle and Doneger, Princeton's next leading returning scorer is midfielder Mac Bryson, who had five goals and three assists a year ago. Other contributors who return are longstick Tim Sullivan, No. 2 face-off man Ryan Schoenig and midfielder Jim O'Brien, who was injured for much of last season.

V - Other returnees

Princeton has 32 returning players, 23 of whom have played secondary roles to date in their careers. With so many available positions, especially in the goal, midfield and defense, many of these returning players will have their chance to see the field.

Here are the 23:

attack: Matthew Prager, Dan Thompson

midfield: J.G. Guidera, Dixon Hayes, Grant Hewit, Jared Keating, Erik Kudla, Bill Quirk, John Robinson, Mark Schwartz, Andrew Sung, Hakim Thompson, Michael Wenzel, Dave Willard

defense: Josh Johnson, Jordan Stern, Tony Vita, Ryan Watson, Brad Wynne

goal: Eric Chase, Michael Gilbane, Matt Larkin, Dave Law

VI - The freshmen

Princeton has more freshmen than it does players from any other class, a group 14 strong who will be expected to contribute immediately.

Among the freshmen who figure to either start or see considerable playing time are Peter Trombino, who went to the same high school as Sean Hartofilis (St. Anthony's on Long Island) and is wearing Hartofilis' old number of 20, and Scott Sowanick, both of whom could play either attack or midfield. Tripp Shriner and Whitney Hayes, one of the top high school scorers in Mercer County history, will also push on attack.

Will Presti, Zachary Jungers and John Bennett will all be key members of the rebuilt defense.

In addition, there is no shortage of rookie midfielders,a total of seven, in fact: John Adamo, Michael Biles, Dan Brown, Mike DeSantis, Tommy Firth, Mike Gaudio and Derek Sudan.

VII - The schedule

Princeton's schedule changes dramatically in one way for the 2004 season, and it probably comes in the right year. After opening its season with Johns Hopkins for 14 straight years and with Johns Hopkins and Virginia in the first two games for 11 straight years, Princeton has a slight change this time around. The Tigers will open Feb. 28 at home against Quinnipiac before taking to the road the next two weeks against the Blue Jays and Cavaliers, who happened to meet in the NCAA championship game last year (won by UVa) and are ranked 1-2 to start this year.

After that, the schedule lines up pretty similarly, with other non-league games against Hofstra, Syracuse and Rutgers at home, as well as the six Ivy League games.

Three of Princeton's non-league games are against teams from last year's Final Four, while Hofstra and Rutgers were also NCAA tournament teams a year ago. Including Dartmouth from the league, Princeton's schedule in 2004 includes six NCAA tournament teams from a year ago, and nine of the 12 teams on the schedule were ranked in Inside Lacrosse's preseason Top 25, including the top three and six of the top 14.

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