Princeton University Athletics
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It's An Early Spring As Princeton Hosts Canisius In Men's Lacrosse; Admission Will Be Free
February 19, 2009 | Men's Lacrosse
Welcome to the earliest opening day in Princeton men's lacrosse history, even if the Division I season is now amazingly in Week 3. As an early season gift, no admission will be charged for this game.
Princeton opens its season with Canisius for the third straight year, though Canisius has already played one game, falling 15-11 to Colgate a week ago.
This Princeton team is radically different than the one that the Golden Griffins have seaen the last two years. The cornerstones of Princeton lacrosse for the last four years were basically Peter Trombino and Scott Sowanick on offense and Dan Cocoziello and Alex Hewit on defense; Trombino and Sowanick graduated in 2007, while Hewit and Cocoziello graduated this past June.
An entire new generation of Princeton lacrosse is ready to emerge. Yes, Princeton does have seniors Tommy Davis, Mark Kovler, Rich Sgalardi and Greg Seaman offensively, Chris Peyser, Charlie Kolkin and Brendan Reilly on defense and Josh Lesko as a hybrid of both. Still, this is a changing-of-the-guard year for the Tigers, with several younger players ready to assume greater roles than a year ago and the addition of rookie class that features nine of the Top 100 freshmen in the country according to Inside Lacrosse.
Princeton will have new combinations all over the field, with returning players in different spots and players who have never started moving into prominent roles.
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Princeton's starting lineup in its final game of the 2008 season was this:
Attack ? Tommy Davis, Jack McBride, Alex Haynie
Midfield ? Bob Schneider, Josh Lesko, Peter Striebel
Defense ? Chris Peyser, Jeremy Hirsch, Dan Cocoziello
Goalie ? Alex Hewit
Of those 10, five graduated and another is playing a different position as 2009 starts.
Davis and McBride will play on attack along with McBride's cousin Chris. The first midfield will feature the return of three-time All-America Mark Kovler, who missed the last third of last season with a broken ankle; Kovler will be joined by Rich Sgalardi and Scott MacKenzie on the first midfield.
Defensively, Peyser and Hirsch are back, and Cocoziello's replacement is the highly regarded Chad Wiedmaier, who attended the same Delbarton School as Cocoziello.
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The last game that Princeton played that Dan Cocoziello did not start was the 2004 NCAA semifinal against Navy. Cocoziello started every game of his four-year career, joining Damien Davis, Peter Trombino and Scott Sowanick as the only players this decade to do so.
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Alex Hewit has played virtually every minute of every gamethe last three years in goal for Princeton, and he earned All-America honors each of those three years. His career goals-against average of 7.00 (actually 7.0002) is the third-best in Division I history and second-best in school history behind Trevor Tierney.
So who will take his place? That decision won't be made until just before gametime and is likely to linger for awhile after that.
The two contenders are Nikhil Ashra, a junior who has been Hewit's able backup the last two years, and Tyler Fiorito, a freshman who was on the U.S. Under-19 team that won the World Championship last August.
Ashra has played 41:52 minutes in his career, with a .765 save percentage and 5.73 goals-against.
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Princeton's Mark Kovler and Chris Peyser have been named to the Tewaaraton Trophy preseason watch list.
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Princeton went 7-4 in its first 11 games a year ago and defeated Cornell at Princeton Stadium to move to 4-0 in the Ivy League. From there, Princeton dropped its final two games at Dartmouth and at Brown to fall out of the Ivy title picture and NCAA tournament.
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Princeton defeated Canisius 13-6 last year. The game had been tied 6-6, but Princeton scored the final seven goals while shutting the Griffs out for the final 20:46.
Tommy Davis led Princeton with four goals and an assist. Adam Jones had three goals for Canisius.
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Princeton has nine freshmen ranked in the Top100 by Inside Lacrosse, including eight in the top 46. The list: Tyler Fiorito (2), Chad Wiedmaier (3), Mike Chanenchuk (19), Jonathan Meyers (23), John Cunningham (28), Mike Grossman (38), Mike Flanagan (43), Alex Capretta (46), Cliff Larkin (98).
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Princeton will play two games in NFL venues this season against the two teams who played in the NCAA final a year ago. The first comes up next weekend when the Tigers play Johns Hopkins in the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium (noon, ESPNU).
Princeton will play defending NCAA champion Syracuse at Giants Stadium as part of the three-game Big City Classic on April 4
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Josh Lesko was on the first offensive midfield a year ago; he will be on the first defensive shortstick midfield group this year, along with Brendan Reilly.
Chris Chandler played longstick midfield a year ago; he will play with a shortstick this time around. Chris McBride goes from midfield to attack; Greg Seaman and Scott MacKenzie go from attack to midfield.
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Princeton's schedule includes seven teams ranked in the top 15 of this week's Inside Lacrosse media poll. Princeton has games against Syracuse (2), Johns Hopkins (4), Cornell (6), UMBC (11), Albany (13), Hofstra (14) and Brown (15).
Princeton does not play Virginia this year after having played the Cavs each of the last 17 years.
Princeton is ranked 12th in both the USILA coaches' poll and Inside Lacrosse media poll.
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Princeton played three games in Europe last June, defeating the English national team 9-7 and 8-7 and the English U19 team 15-4. Tyler Moni scored more goals in the three games (three) than any other returning player.
Moni scored three goals after not scoring during the 2008 regular season. In addition to Moni, Princeton has three returning players who scored goals on the trip after going scoreless in 2008 ?Peter Gudmundsen, Long Ellis and Sam Hayes.
Ellis, a defenseman, actually assisted on the game-winning goal in the first win over England and scored the game-winning goal in the second.
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Adam Jones led Canisius with four goals last week in a 15-11 opening loss to Colgate. Jones has now scored at least three goals in 11 of 17 career games.
Nick LoCoco, who finished third nationally a year ago in assists, had a goal and three assists.
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Princeton's Jack McBride and Tyler Fiorito were teammates on the winning U.S. team at the World U19 championships last summer in Vancouver, B.C. Canisius' Adam Jones was the MVP of the event.
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Chris McBride had gone from No. 3 to No. 15, taking Alex Hewit's old number. Trip Cowin has returned after a year away as No. 4, so Peter Gudmundsen is now No. 45. Matt Doherty has gone from No. 32 to No. 33, vacated by Zack Goldberg.
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Princeton vs. Canisius
The site Class of 1952 Stadium ? Princeton, N.J.
The date Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009 ? 1 p.m.
Radio WPRB FM 103.3; www.goprincetontigers.com
The rankings Princeton: No. 12 (USILA)/No. 13 (Inside Lacrosse); Canisius: unranked
The records Princeton: 0-0; Canisius: 0-1
The coaches Princeton: Bill Tierney (25th season overall, 259-90); Canisius: Randy Mearns (11th season overall, 58-78)
The series Princeton leads 2-0
Last meeting Princeton defeated Canisius 13-6 ? Feb. 23, 2008