Princeton University Athletics
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Coming Off An Ivy Title, Princeton Looks To Get Back To NCAA Tournament
February 10, 2016 | Men's Lacrosse
The 2015 Tigers won a share of the Ivy League championship and then came a single goal short in the Ivy tournament championship game, an outcome that ultimately left them outside the big goal, the NCAA tournament.
So what was the point of the preseason workouts? It's obvious. Princeton has come excruciatingly close to the NCAA tournament each of the last three seasons, and maybe the difference between achieving that goal and coming up short isn't totally between the lines. A single goal here and there has made all the difference the last three years, and Princeton in 2016 is leaving no stone unturned in making the best possible effort to play deep into May.
The season starts in February with a first-ever game against NJIT, the fourth Division I program in New Jersey. The first Ivy League game is March 19 at home against Penn, and that will begin a six-game run in a league so competitive that no outcome can be considered an upset.
FIVE STORYLINES FOR PRINCETON MEN'S LACROSSE 2016
REPLACING 93
Princeton starts out 2016 minus the 93 goals scored between Mike MacDonald (48) and Kip Orban (45). MacDonald set the program record for points in a season with 78 after adding 30 assists to his 48 goals, and no Princeton middie has ever scored more goals in a season than Orban did in 2015. So where to start?
Princeton returns four offensive starters, and between them they had 67 goals in 2015. This doesn't mean, however, that the offense won't be able to be on the level of the last three years, when Princeton has averaged at least 12 goals per game.
The starting attack figures to be Ryan Ambler, a Major League Lacrosse draftee and captain who is in his fourth year as a starter and who figures to end his career in the top 10 in points at Princeton, along with converted middie Gavin McBride and Riley Thompson. McBride had no points as a freshman and then put up 24 goals and 13 assists last year on the first midfield.
As for the midfield, Princeton will rely on the incredible ability of Zach Currier to take over a game in all phases and will partner him with some offensive mids, defensive mids and two-way mids.
No middie figures to challenge Orban's year-old record, but that's okay. Success for Princeton will be measured more in how many get to double figures from a group that will include Austin Sims, Bobby Weaver, Adam Hardej, Sean Connors, Bear Altemus, Sam Bonafede, Braedon Gait and freshmen Carter Flaig, Dawson McKenzie and Emmet Cordrey. Of that group, only Connors was in double figures last year, with exactly 10.
RETURNING DEFENSIVE STARTERS
Princeton has on its roster six players who have started on defense, three of whom have also played longstick midfield. In other words, there are all kinds of combinations for who might be on the field.
One player who won't be is Aran Roberts, the Dublin native who started 13 games last year. Roberts will miss the entire 2016 season due to an injury.
Princeton does return two All-America caliber defenders who missed the final 14 games a year ago after being hurt it the opener. Will Reynolds started as a freshman in 2014 on defense and was going to be the No. 1 LSM a year ago before he was hurt. Mark Strabo started every game on defense his first two years before getting hurt against Manhattan last year as well.
Those two are back. They join Bear Goldstein, a second-team All-Ivy League selection a year ago and captain this year, and Alistair Berven, who started nine games on D in 2015. Sam Gravitte took over as the top LSM last year after Reynolds was hurt (scoring twice).
So what does this mean for 2016?
Goldstein is cemented into a starting spot on D. So is Strabo. That leaves Berven and Gravitte who could play D or LSM, along with Reynolds.
Add to this shortstick defensive middie – and captain - Austin deButts and two-way middies like Zach Currier, Bobby Weaver and Austin Sims and Princeton has by far its most experienced defense since 2012, when the Tigers with players like Chad Wiedmaier, John Cunningham and Jonathan Meyers – and goalie Tyler Fiorito - led Division I in scoring D.
FOUR YEARS, FOUR D COORDINATORS
Steve Grossi joins the Princeton staff, running the number of consecutive years with a new defensive coordinator to four straight. It's the by-product of churning out young up-and-coming head coaches like Greg Raymond (Princeton to Hobart) and Dylan Sheridan (Princeton to Cleveland State), as well as the unfortunate injuries that ended John Walker's coaching career.
Grossi comes to Princeton from St. Joe's (after playing for Princeton head coach Chris Bates at Drexel), where he helped the Hawks put together the fifth-ranked defense in Division I a year ago. Even more impressively, Grossi's team led Division I in man-down defense, an area in which Princeton struggled in 2015.
FACE-OFFS/GOALIE
Success is often built around face-offs and goalies, and Princeton has options in both areas.
Sam Bonafede took 232 face-offs a year ago as a freshman. Zach Currier took 123 last year as a sophomore. Neither won more than 50%.
This year, though, both is a year stronger and more experienced. Bonafede, in addition to facing off, will be a part of the Princeton offense and Currier is, well, Currier. The fact that he didn't win more than 50% isn't an issue, since no other face-off man in the country is as adept at causing turnovers after face-off losses than Currier.
Princeton has several options on the wings on face-offs, including Currier when Bonafede takes the draw, as well as Adam Hardej as a shortstick and either Will Reynolds or Sam Gravitte as longsticks – or at times both, with Austin deButts in the box with a shortstick.
As far as goalies, Princeton has two who have been the starter – senior captain Matt O'Connor and sophomore Tyler Blasidell, who started the final six games as a freshman a year ago.
Princeton allowed nearly 11 goals per game a year ago and had a .506 save percentage. One more save per game would change those numbers to 9.8 goals per game and .550 save percentage; in the Ivy League, that's huge.
EIGHT HOME, FIVE AWAY
Princeton played 15 games a year ago, of which five were played at home. Of those five, four were played in temps below 40.
This year Princeton again has 13 regular season games, only this time eight are at home and five are on the road. Princeton opens with NJIT at home and then plays at Hofstra and Johns Hopkins, leaving seven of the final 10 games at home.
In addition to NJIT, Princeton has home games with Penn, Dartmouth and Cornell in the league and Maryland, Rutgers, Stony Brook and Lehigh out of it.
ONE LINERS
Bear Altemus – juior with a year of experience on the second midfield line
John Alvarez – freshman backup goalie
Ryan Ambler - senior captain who will be starting for his fourth year on attack and who is the leading returning scorer after a 51-point junior year
Alistair Berven – veteran who can play defense or longstick midfield after starting nine games on D a year ago
Tyler Blaisdell – leading candidate for the starting goalie position after starting the last six games as a freshman a year ago
Sam Bonafede – will face-off, as he did a year ago as a freshman when he took 232 of them, but will play much more offensive midfield that he did
Matt Brophy – will miss the season due to injury
Luke Brugger – can play longstick midfield
J.T. Caputo – played as a shortstick d middie as a freshman and will be a two-way middie this year
Sean Connors – started 10 games on attack last year but will probably be more of a middie this year
Emmet Cordrey – freshman high school All-America who should play right away on either attack or in the midfield
Zach Currier – preseason second-team All-America who can do pretty much anything necessary to impact a game, offensively, defensively, facing off and playing on the face-off wings
Austin deButts – captain and the top shortstick defensive middie who led the team in caused turnovers a year ago
Charlie Durbin – freshman who can face-off and play some offensive midfield
Alexander Fish – offensive middie who walked on a year ago
Carter Flaig – leading scorer all-time at St. Paul's who will play right away as a middie and possibly on attack
Braedon Gait – sophomore middie who scored three times in the fall scrimmage
Bear Goldstein – junior captain who is the only player on the team who has started every game of his career
Sam Gravitte – will play defense or longstick midfield and the face-off on the wings after playing a ton of minutes a year ago as the LSM
Adam Hardej – middie who has the hardest shot on the team and a huge physical presence on the wings on face-offs
Gavin McBride – scored 24 goals and had 13 assists last year, when he was the only player on the team with at least one point in every game, and will move from midfield to attack
Dawson McKenzie – freshman who can play midfield or attack and figures to gets some time at both
Greg Merrill – will miss the season due to injury
Mike Morean – freshman who will play shortstick D middie
Jack O'Brien – face-off man who won the gray T-shirt with the Spartan Shield after the preseason conditioning program
Drew O'Connell – offensive middie who has worked through injuries
Matt O'Connor – senior captain who has started 16 games in goal in his career
Will Reynolds – started as a freshman on D and then missed almost all of last year due to injury before returning healthy this year, when he will probably play LSM
Aran Roberts – started 13 games on D a year ago but will miss 2016 due to injury
Oliver Schmickel – freshman backup goalie
Austin Sims – sophomore who made the U.S. U-19 team and who will play as a two-way middie this season
Mark Strabo – returns to the starting defense this year after starting every game on D his first two years and then missing almost all of last year after getting injured in the opener
Charlie Tarry – freshman longstick
Riley Thompson – Canadian who figures to start on attack
Strib Walker – freshman who will play shortstick D middie
Bobby Weaver - two-way middie who was one of the top shortstick D middies a year ago
Dylan White – senior defenseman who is in his first year with the lacrosse team after playing four years of football
Daniel Winschuh – could see time as a longstick midfielder