Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Princeton Opens Men's Lacrosse Season At Hofstra
February 23, 2011 | Men's Lacrosse
Already this year, the Tigers have been ranked in various polls as high as fourth and as low as 11th. There have been polls in the last few weeks that have had Princeton at fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th.
And the Tigers haven't even played yet.
That changes this Saturday, as Princeton travels to Long Island to take on Hofstra, another team ranked in the same basic range as Princeton here in late February.
For Princeton, it's the start of a 12-game regular-season that features seven teams ranked in the Top 20 of this week's two major polls (USILA coaches and Nike/Inside Lacrosse meida), including four teams in the Top 10.
The season starts with three NCAA tournament teams from a year ago, as the trip to Hofstra is followed by a game at Homewood Field against Johns Hopkins and then the home opener against North Carolina.
Down the road will be six games against the Ivy League, ending the last Saturday in April in Ithaca against arch-rival Cornell. Princeton will also host Syracuse, ending a two-year run of playing in the Meadowlands (old and new), renew its long-time rivalry with Rutgers and play another Big East team, Villanova, for the first time since before most of the current players were born.
* * *
Princeton returns six starters from a team that went 11-5 a year ago, finished in a tie for the Ivy League championship and then won the league's first tournament.
Princeton advanced to the NCAA tournament as the No. 6 seed and lost 8-5 in the first round to Notre Dame, which reached the championship game and lost in overtime to Duke.
Princeton's returning starters are:
Attack - Jack McBride, Chris McBride
Midfield - Jeff Froccaro
Defense - Chad Wiedmaier, Long Ellis
Goalie - Tyler Fiorito
The four starters lost are:
Attack - Rob Engelke (17-21-38)
Midfield - Mike Chanenchuk (28-8-36/broken collarbone in fall ball and withdrew from school for spring semester), Scott MacKenzie (10-11-21)
Defense - Jeremy Hirsch (started every game the last three years)
Princeton also returns some other important people from its lineup:
Longstick midfield - John Cunningham. Meyers, who played defense and longstick midfield, moves back to defense, and senior Derek Styer and sophomore Rob Castelo are back beind Cunningham
Shortstick defensive midfield - Peter Smyth, Tyler Moni (sort of; Moni played offensive midfield to start last year and defensive midfield to end it, and he is in the first offensive midfield this year), Connor Reilly
Face-Off - Froccaro, Smyth, Bobby Lucas, Zach Drexler
* * *
Princeton has four players who were preseason All-Americas by Inside Lacrosse.
Defenseman Chad Wiedmaier was a first-team selection, while goalie Tyler Fiorito and attackman Jack McBride were second-team picks. Longstick midfielder John Cunningham was a third-team selection.
McBride was also selected by Denver in the Major League Lacrosse draft.
* * *
Princeton scored and allowed its highest goal totals of the 2010 season in its 17-14 win over Hofstra on opening day a year ago.
Chris McBride tied his career high with four goals in the game, while Jeff Froccaro scored three times in his college debut.
The 2009 Princeton-Hofstra game was a 9-7 Hofstra win, which happened to be the halftime score of the 2010 game (in Princeton's favor).
The all-time series is even at 12-12, including 3-3 in the last six meetings.
Princeton played Hofstra in its season opener for four straight years from 1984-87 and then met in the regular-season finale each year from 1988-91.
The teams did not play in 1992 but did play in the final game of the 1993 regular season. The series did not resume until 2000, but the teams have played every year since.
The other four games in the series were played from 1972-75.
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Princeton lost its last two games at Shuart Stadium, though only one was against Hofstra. Princeton went 0-2 there in 2009, losing to Hofstra during the regular season and then in the NCAA quarterfinals against Cornell.
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Jack McBride enters his senior year with 89 goals and 25 assists for 114 career points. He currently stands 21st all-time at Princeton in points and 15th in goals scored.
McBride scored exactly 35 goals each of the last two seasons; repeating that would leave him in fourth place all-time in goals.
He is five goals away from a four-way tie for 12th place, along with David Tickner, Bill Chaires and Lorne Smith, and 11 goals away from becoming the ninth player in school history with at least 100.
Jesse Hubbard is Princeton's career leader with 163 goals.
McBride is 13 points away from moving into the top 20, at which point he would be 14 away from the top 15.
* * *
Tom Schreiber's first collegiate game will be, according to Mapquest, 4.4 miles from his house.
A graduate of St. Anthony's High and the No. 2 freshman in Division I according to Inside Lacrosse, Schreiber will be a member of Princeton's first midfield unit.
Schreiber, whose father Doug is a member of the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame after leading Maryland to the 1973 NCAA title and helping the U.S. to the 1974 World Championship, scored more than 200 points in high school.
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Princeton had one captain a year ago (Jeremy Hirsch). This time around, Princeton has four: Chris McBride, Jack McBride, Tyler Moni and John Cunningham.
Cunningham is the first Princeton junior to be a captain since Jason Doneger in 2005.
* * *
What Can You Say About ...
Luke Armour #16
• has played in last five games after playing in one of the first 11
• scored first career goal in Ivy final against Cornell, giving Princeton its first goal of the day
Alex Capretta #1
• can play attack or midfield
• scored four goals a year ago, including back-to-back games against Cornell in the regular-season finale and Yale in the Ivy tournament
Rob Castelo #4
• played longstick midfield behind John Cunningham a year ago
• had one caused turnover and one ground ball
John Cunningham #3
• preseason third-team All-America selection by Inside Lacrosse
• 2010 honorable mention All-Ivy League selection
• team captain, making him the first junior captain since Jason Doneger in 2005
• scored five goals last season, most ever by a Tiger longstick in a season
• has six career goals, two of which have been assisted on by another longstick, making them the only two goals in the last 23 years at Princeton that were longstick-to-longstick
• started first six games a year ago on defense before moving back to natural position of longstick midfielder
• led team with 54 ground balls
• had 13 caused turnovers
• had a goal in each game against against Cornell
• had six ground balls and two caused turnovers against Hofstra in 2010
Long Ellis #41
• second-team All-Ivy League selection in 2010
• led team with 22 caused turnovers despite missing two games due to injury
• named to the Ivy League tournament all-tournament team
Tyler Fiorito #6
• 2011 preseason second-team All-America
• 2010 first-team All-Ivy League selection
• Most Valuable Player of the Ivy League tournament
• assist against Rutgers on a 70-yard pass to Jack McBride was one of two by a Princeton goalie in the last 30 years (Alex Hewit, 2007)
• honorable mention All-America each of his first two years and second-team All-Ivy League last year as a freshman
• started every game of his career
Jeff Froccaro #18
• 2010 second-team All-Ivy League selection
• named the No. 12 freshman in Division I by Inside Lacrosse
• had 15 goals and seven assists as a freshman
• also won 90 of 177 face-offs
• won face-off to start overtime against both Penn and Hopkins; Princeton won both without ever giving up possession
• scored three goals on three shots against Hofstra in first college game
• first goal against Hofstra gave Princeton lead for good in third quarter; last two goals both came in fourth quarter after Hofstra had twice cut Princeton's lead to one
Mike Grossman #8
• had a goal against Yale in Ivy semifinal
•has started on attack and midfield in his career
Bobby Lucas #17
• won 25 of 48 face-offs (.521) before missing second half of season due to a back injury
Chris McBride #15
• senior captain
• has started most of his career on attack, though he has played some midfield
• had 16 goals and eight assists (24 points) a year ago; had 18 goals and six assists (24 points) in 2009
• his father is Jack McBride's father's brother; his mother is Jack McBride's mother's first cousin
Jack McBride #14
• senior captain
• preseason second-team All-America
• selected by Denver with the 27th pick of the Major League Lacrosse draft
• a first-team All-Ivy League selection each of the last two years
• honorable mention All-America last year; second-team All-America in 2009
• first Princeton player with back-to-back seasons of at least 30 goals since Jason Doneger in 2003 and 2004
• 15th all-time at Princeton with 89 goals; needs five goals to move into a four-way tie for 12th
• has 114 career points, 21st best all-time at Princeton; needs 13 points to tie for 20th
• had two goals and three assists against Notre Dame in NCAA tournament
• scored game-winning goal in overtime in the Ivy League final agains Cornell
• had six goals and one assist in the Ivy tournament to earn all-tournament team honors
• has three career overtime points (goal against Cornell, assists last year against Penn, this year against Hopkins)
• his father is Chris McBride's father's brother; his mother is Chris McBride's mother's first cousin
Jonathan Meyers #28
• started on defense against Hofstra and longstick midfield the next six games
• played as second longstick middie with John Cunningham after Chad Wiedmaier's return until starting on defense against Rutgers
• had 11 caused turnovers
• recruited for football by schools such as Florida, Michigan and Oklahoma
Tyler Moni #27
• senior captain
• moved from second offensive midfield to defensive shortstick for the Penn game
• had two goals against Hofstra and against Hopkins as an offensive middie
• had 30 ground balls and four caused turnovers
• had a goal against Brown and Harvard as a defensive middie
• had an assist and five ground balls against Penn, including two ground balls after face-offs during Princeton's 4-0 run in the fourth quarter to tie it and then on the face-off to start OT
• had two goals in each of first two games, against Hofstra and Hopkins
Tom Schreiber #22
• playing on the first midfield unit
• No. 2 incoming freshman according to Inside Lacrosse
• scored more than 200 points in high school career
• father Doug, who played at Maryland and won an NCAA title there in 1973 and then the 1974 World Championship with the U.S., is a member of the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame
Tucker Shanley #7
• playing on the second midfield
• had a goal against Dartmouth and Manhattan
Peter Smyth #26
• one of top shortstick defensive middies
• was also 57 for 114 on face-offs and had two goals and four assists
• won 11 of 21 face-offs against Cornell in Ivy final; won 8 of final 13 after winning 3 of first 8
• father Fran played lacrosse at Princeton, graduating in 1982
Forest Sonnenfeldt #2
• played mostly on extra-man unit
• had four goals and an assist
Derek Styer #36
• veteran longstick middie
• had a goal against Manhattan a year ago
Chris White #29
• is playing on second midfield unit
• had two goals a year ago
Chad Wiedmaier #9
• preseason first-team All-America by Inside Lacrosse
• a second-team All-America and first-team All-Ivy League pick each of his first two seasons
• missed first six games of last season after having off-season knee surgery and was still first-team All-Ivy and second-team All-America
• had 12 caused turnovers in 10 games
Career Scoring
Player G-A-Pts
14 Jack McBride 89-25-114
15 Chris McBride 36-16-52
10 Jeff Froccaro 15-7-22
27 Tyler Moni 10-2-12
8 Mike Grossman 4-3-7
3 John Cunningham 6-1-7
26 Peter Smyth 2-4-6
2 Forest Sonnenfeldt 4-1-5
1 Alex Capretta 5-0-5
21 Connor Reilly 2-1-3
29 Chris White 2-0-2
7 Tucker Shanley 2-0-2
9 Chad Wiedmaier 1-1-2
19 Cliff Larkin 1-0-1
36 Derek Styer 1-0-1
47 Luke Armour 1-0-1
6 Tyler Fiorito 0-1-1
Princeton vs. Hofstra
The site Shuart Stadium • Hempstead, N.Y.
The date Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011 • 11:30 am
Radio/TV WPRB FM 103.3; goprincetontigers.com/none
The records Princeton: 0-0
Hofstra: 2-0
The rankings Princeton: No. 8 (USILA)/No. 7 (Nike/Inside Lacrosse)
Hofstra: No. 7 (USILA)/No. 8 (Nike/Inside Lacrosse)
The coaches Princeton: Chris Bates
second season at Princeton, 11-5/11th overall, 81-76
Hofstra: Seth Tierney
fifth season at Hofstra, 36-23
The series Tied, 12-12
Last meeting Princeton defeated Hofstra 17-14 • Feb. 27, 2010