Princeton University Athletics
First-Saturday-in-March Madness
March 01, 2005 | Men's Lacrosse
March 1, 2005
Forget the snow. It's the first weekend of March, which means Princeton-Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse. The Tigers and the Blue Jays open their seasons Saturday afternoon (3, CSTV, www.goprincetontigers.com).
Both teams reached the Final Four a year ago, and both teams fell in the semifinals. This year, Inside Lacrosse has Hopkins ranked No. 1 and Princeton ranked No. 3 in the preseason.
Princeton vs. Johns Hopkins
The site Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
The date Saturday, March 5, 2005 • 3:00 p.m.
Radio/TV www.goprincetontigers.com/CSTV
The records Princeton: 0-0, Johns Hopkins: 0-0
The coaches Princeton: Bill Tierney (19th season overall, 226-68); Johns Hopkins: Dave Pietramala (seventh season overall, 57-25)
The series Johns Hopkins leads 51-23
Last meeting Johns Hopkins defeated Princeton 14-5 • March 6, 2004
Probable starters Attack Jason Doneger, Peter Trombino, Scott Sowanick
First Midfield Jim O'Brien, Whitney Hayes, Bob Schneider
Second Midfield Michael Biles, Michael Gaudio, Pete Striebel
Defense Tim Sullivan, Oliver Barry, Dan Cocoziello
Longstick Midfielder John Bennett, Zachary Jungers
Goal Dave Law
For starters - Princeton opens its 2005 season with Johns Hopkins after playing Hopkins in its second game of 2004. Prior to that, Princeton had opened every season since 1990 against the Blue Jays.
History lesson - Princeton is 11-6 in its last 17 games against Johns Hopkins; Princeton was 0-24 in its previous 24 games against Hopkins prior to that.
More history - Princeton and Johns Hopkins have played every year since 1945 and every year but one since 1937.
Last history - Johns Hopkins leads the all-time series with Princeton 51-23. Hopkins is 51-20 against Princeton in regular-season games, and Princeton is 3-0 against Hopkins in NCAA tournament games.
Close shaves - Of the last 17 Princeton-Hopkins games, seven have been decided by one goal and 12 have been decided by three goals or less.
A league of their own - Princeton has won outright or tied for the Ivy League championship each of the last 10 years. Should Princeton earn at least a share of the 2005 Ivy title, it would become the first league team in any sport to win 11 straight championships.
Welcome back - Princeton returns two starters on attack, two on the first midfield (though one has moved to attack), two starting defenseman, the starting goalie, two of its top face-off men, its top three longstick midfielders and three of its top shortstick defensive midfielders.
Long arm of the Law - Dave Law started all 15 games a year ago, becoming the first Princeton sophomore to start every game in goal since Patrick Cairns in 1995.
Back for Sopho-more - Peter Trombino, Scott Sowanick and Whitney Hayes became the sixth, seventh and eighth freshmen in Princeton with double figures in goals and assists when all three did so a year ago.
More sopho-more - Peter Trombino, Scott Sowanick and Whitney Hayes combined for 84 points a year ago (48 goals, 36 assists); Jesse Hubbard, Jon Hess and Chris Massey combined for 84 points as freshmen in 1995.
On the attack - Scott Sowanick, who started all 15 games on the first midfield a year ago, will move to attack to start the 2005 season.
Fresh faces - Princeton will be starting two freshmen against Johns Hopkins: midfielder Bob Schneider and defenseman Dan Cocoziello. They will join Peter Trombino and Scott Sowanick as current Princeton players to have started the first game of their freshman year.
Pomp and circumstance - Princeton graduated Ryan Boyle, a first-team All-America and the 2002 and 2004 Ivy League Player of the Year. Boyle graduated second all-time at Princeton in scoring and assists.
More Pomp - Princeton graduated three starters from a year ago: first-team All-Ivy selections Ryan Boyle and Rickey Schultz and second-team All-Ivy selection Drew Casino.
All in the family - Princeton senior captain Jason Doneger's brother Michael is a freshman at Hopkins. His older brother Adam was an All-America at Hopkins before graduating in 2002.
More family - Princeton head coach Bill Tierney's nephew Seth is the Johns Hopkins associate head coach.
Last family - Princeton assistant coach Matt Striebel is the older brother of freshman midfielder Pete Striebel.
Still more family - Princeton senior captain Matthew Prager is the younger brother of former Tiger B.J. Prager, the fifth-leading goal scorer in Princeton history.
Family, almost - Princeton head coach Bill Tierney recruited and coached Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala when Tierney was a JHU assistant.
Moving up the charts - Jason Doneger enters his senior year with 86 career goals, leaving him six away from a four-way tie for 12th all-time at Princeton.
Streaking - Peter Trombino has scored at least one goal in every game of his career, having scored at least once in all 15 games a year ago.
More streaking - Jason Doneger had a 30-game goal-scoring streak end in last year's 8-7 loss to Navy in the NCAA semifinals.
We're honored - Oliver Barry was named a preseason second-team All-America by Inside Lacrosse magazine; John Bennett and Jason Doneger were both named third-team. Dan Cocoziello was named the nation's top incoming freshman.
No bull? - Jim O'Brien and Grant Hewit both ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, this past spring.
Face it - Princeton's top face-off men will be returnees Ryan Schoenig (80 for 157, .510, in 2004) and Mike DeSantis (7 for 17, .412 in 2004) and freshmen Alex Berg.
A capital idea - Princeton shortstick defensive midfielder Jared Keating has started his own venture capital research group.
Quarter horses - Princeton will host one of the NCAA quarterfinals on Sunday, May 22. Princeton has advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals in 14 of the last 15 years; the only exception was 1999, the only other time Princeton was a predetermined quarterfinal site.
May madness - Princeton has won six NCAA championships in the last 13 seasons.