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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
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Princeton Comeback Falls Just Short; Four-Way Tie For Ivy Title
May 02, 2010 | Men's Lacrosse
For the Ivy League, it was a wild day that ended in unprecedented territory. For Princeton and Cornell, it was the same old story.
Once again, a Princeton-Cornell game saw the Big Red get off to a fast start and never trail. As a result, for the first time in league history, there is a four-way tie for the championship.
Cornell got off quickly again and held off a wild Princeton comeback in the fourth quarter to take a 10-9 win in front of 3,133 at Class of 1952 Stadium. Couple that with Brown's 10-9 overtime win over Dartmouth and Yale's 9-8 win over Harvard, and the Ivy League regular-season ends with four champions: Princeton, Cornell, Brown and Yale, all of whom finished at 4-2 in the league.
Princeton trailed 9-3 entering the fourth quarter and didn't score in the first four minutes. Despite that, the game ended with a shot from Mike Chanenchuk that skipped off the pipe and then a last second effort from Jeff Froccaro that bounced wide, either of which would have forced overtime.
The Ivy season didn't end with the final horn, as next weekend will feature the first Ivy League tournament. The tournament, which will be held Friday and Sunday in Ithaca, will determine only the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; regardless of the outcome of that tournament, the four-way tie for the championship will stand. The tiebreaker for seeding was head-to-head among the group of four, which leaves Cornell and Princeton at 2-1 each and Brown and Yale at 1-2 each. Cornell's win gives the Big Red the top-seed over Princeton; Yale's win over Brown makes the Bulldogs No. 3.
As a result, the semifinal games will feature Princeton against Yale and Cornell against Brown, with the final on Sunday.
Because of the early results, Princeton and Cornell went into the 5 p.m. start knowing that the winner of the game would be the tournament host. '
Princeton also knew of Cornell's history of getting off to fast starts. A year ago, the Big Red led 3-0 after 4:46 in the regular season and 2-0 after 3:36 in the quarterfinals, and the Big Red would never trail in either. In fact, you have to go back to 2004 to find a Princeton-Cornell game in which the Red didn't score early, and this includes Princeton's win in 2006.
With that backdrop, Cornell won the opening face-off this time around and made it 1-0 in 1:03. It was 3-0 in less than five minutes and 4-0 in less than 10.
Princeton made it a 5-3 game at intermission and had the first possession man-up in the third quarter, but Cornell score the only four goals of the quarter to make it 9-3. When Princeton did not score in the first four minutes of the fourth, that lead looked perfectly safe.And then the Tigers caught fire. Mike Chanenchuk started it with a goal with 10:48 to go, a goal that happened to be his 26th of the season, breaking the 11-year-old record for a Princeton freshman held by B.J. Prager, who was in attendance at the game.
Scott MacKenzie then scored back-to-back goals and Rob Engelke added another, and suddenly it was 9-7 with eight minutes left.
Roy Lang made it a three-goal game again at 10-7 with 6:24 to go, but still the Tigers wouldn't go away. Chanenchuk added his third of the day and 27th of the year, and then Alex Capretta ripped one low-to-high to make it 10-9 with 2:56 to play.
Princeton would force two turnovers in the final two minutes and get three shots, the best of which was Chanenchuk's with eight seconds to go. Jack McBride had the first look to get Princeton even, but Cornell's A.J. Fiore made the save. After the final turnover with 24 seconds left, MacKenzie cleared it to set the stage for the last two shots.
Princeton's Chad Wiedmaier held the nation's leading scorer, Cornell's Rob Pannell, to a single assist, four points below his average, but a balanced Big Red team had four players score two goals each. Chanenchuk's three and MacKenzie's two led Princeton.
Fiore made eight saves, while Tyler Fiorito made 15 for Princeton.