Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Virginia
Law, Defense Lead Princeton Past Virginia 8-7
March 13, 2004 | Men's Lacrosse
March 13, 2004
Box Score
Dave Law and Ryan Schoenig made sure the 2004 Princeton men's lacrosse team had something that Jesse Hubbard, Chris Massey, Jon Hess, Ryan Mollett and the rest of the great Princeton players of recent memory did not.
A happy bus ride home from Charlottesville.
Law made 15 saves and Schoenig won 9 of 12 face-offs and helped a tremendous defensive effort to lead No. 7 Princeton to an 8-7 win over defending NCAA champion Virginia in front of 3,510 at Klockner Stadium Saturday afternoon.
It was Princeton's first win in Charlottesville since 1994.
"Coach told us that a lot of great players at Princeton never won here," said Schoenig. "I thought we played very well. We shut down a lot of the one-on-one matchups. I thought a lot of guys played great on defense." Princeton (2-1) was playing for the first time since a 14-5 loss to No. 1 Johns Hopkins a week ago.
"After last week, we knew we didn't want to have that feeling again," said Schoenig. "We wanted to get a big one here today, and now we want to have this feeling again."
Princeton had either a one-goal or two-goal lead for the final 42:27 of the game, as UVa (1-4, ranked 17th) was never able to get the tying goal and Princeton was never able to build to a comfortable three-goal margin.
Virginia had seven chances in the final five minutes to get the tying goal, but Princeton's defense tightened each time. Ricky Schultz made two big plays on Joe Yevoli in the final minute, and Virginia's last chance came after a timeout with 14.2 seconds to play.
Matt Ward, who had three goals, took a low shot after the restart, and Law made his final save. The ball then squirted in front, where UVa's Matt Poskay picked it up with his hands and threw it into the net, where it was waived off with 4.2 seconds on the clock. Oliver Barry then threw the ball down the field as time expired.
"It was a team effort," said Law, who came into the game wth a .450 save percentage and 11.00 gaols-against. "The defense played much more together than it did a week ago. We had a different spirit this week. We were ready. I was seeing the ball really well. I felt confident at the end. I felt I had played a solid game."
Ryan Boyle and Drew Casino scored first quarter goals, and it was 3-2 Princeton after one when Jason Doneger scored with 5.9 seconds left. Mike Abbott tied it early in the second, but Casino scored his second of the day and sixth of the season (eclipsing last year's season total) 33 seconds later to put Princeton on top for good at 4-3.
Whitney Hayes scored on a feed from Peter Trombino midway through the second quarter as the teams would trade goals for the final eight goals of the game. Hayes' goal came when Princeton had five freshmen on the field on offense.
It was 6-4 at halftime and 8-6 after three. Ward's third goal, an extra-man score with 10:18 left, was the only goal of the fourth quarter.
"We came back from a really tough defeat last week," said Princeton coach Bill Tierney, whose teams from 1996-98 went 43-2 with the only two losses in Charlottesville. "We played with a lot of poise. The threw everything at us. Last week, we made the mistake of not playing enough guys. This week, we said that we had a lof of talented kids on the team and we were going to throw them out there."
Mac Bryson had two goals for Princeton, while Trombino had a goal and assist. Trombino's goal gave him at least one in each of the first three games of his career, making him the first Princeton player to do so since Lorne Smith in 1996. Scott Sowanick, another freshman who had scored in the first two games, had an assist against UVa.
Princeton was outshot 44-32 but had a 47-27 edge in ground balls.
The Tigers host Hofstra next Saturday (1) in a game that can be seen on Fox Sports NY.
Princeton (2-1) 3-3-2-0 -- 8
Virginia (1-4) 2-2-2-1 -- 7
Scoring
Princeton Mac Bryson (2 goals-0 assists), Drew Casino (2-0), Peter Trombino (1-1), Jason Doneger (1-0), Ryan Boyle (1-0), Whitney Hayes (1-0), Scott Sowanick (0-1)
Virginia Matt Ward (3-0), Kyle Dixon (1-1), Newton Gentry (1-1), John Christmas (1-0), Mike Abbott (1-0), Joe Yevoli (0-1).
Saves
Princeton Dave Law 15 (60 minutes, 7 goals-against)
Virginia Tillman Johnson 11 (60 minutes, 8 goals-against)