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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Princeton Heads To New Haven To Face No. 3 Yale
March 24, 2016 | Men's Lacrosse
PRINCETON AT YALE
Reese Stadium • New Haven, Conn.Saturday, March 26, 2016 • noon
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Princeton and Yale meet for the 101st time in a series that dates to Oct. 14, 1882. That game was a 2-0 Yale win.
As such, that game was radically different than most of the recent games in the Princeton-Yale rivalry. The 2016 game will be the 10th game that Princeton head coach Chris Bates has had against Yale, and seven of those have been one-goal goals. All six regular season games have been one-goal games in the Bates era.
Last year the one-goal mania was taken up a level, as Princeton and Yale split a pair of 11-10 games, with the Tigers on top in the regular season and the Bulldogs holding off Princeton in exruciating fashion to win the Ivy League tournament championship game.
In the two games combined from a year ago, Princeton and Yale tied 21-21. Princeton had 14 assists; Yale had 13. Princeton took 63 shots; Yale took 60. Yale had 58 ground balls; Princeton had 56. Yale made 15 saves; Princeton made 14. Princeton committed 10 penalties to nine for Yale; both teams had four extra-man goals. Both teams caused 11 turnovers.
The 11-10 game on Sherrerd Field means that the scores of the regular-season games in which Chris Bates has coached against Yale have been: 11-10 (2015), 16-15 (2014), 10-9 (2013), 10-9 (2012, in five overtimes, no less), 8-7 (2011, just one overtime this time) and 7-6 (2010). Princeton is 4-2 in those six games, including a win in the five-OT game on a goal from Alex Capretta.
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Princeton will play at No. 3 Yale this weekend and then at No. 4 Brown next weekend. After that, Princeton is home to play No. 13 Stony Brook April 9 and Lehigh (receiving votes) April 12.
Beyond that are games against No. 15 Harvard and receiving votes Cornell, as well as unranked Dartmouth.
Of Princeton's first six games, four were against ranked teams (Hofstra, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Rutgers), with a fifth against a team receiving votes (Penn).
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Kip Orban and Mike MacDonald, not surprisingly, led Princeton in scoring against Yale a year ago. Orban had eight goals and an assist in two games, with four goals in each game.
The leading returning scorers for Princeton against Yale were, also not surprisingly, Gavin McBride, who had three goals and an assist, and Ryan Ambler, with a goal and three assists. Sam Gravitte had a goal and 10 ground balls in the two games.
Zach Currier had a goal, two assists, 11 ground balls and three caused turnovers. Austin deButts had four caused turnovers, and in fact, along with one each from Bobby Weaver and Adam Hardej, nine of Princeton's 11 caused turnovers came from shortsticks.
The graduated Conrad Oberbeck had a team-bests of five goals, seven assists and 12 points in the two games for Yale. Ben Reeves was next with four goals and six points.
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Ryan Ambler continues to move up into the elite levels of Princeton's all-time scoring leaders.
Ambler has 145 career points, which leaves him in 16th place in program history and two points away from 14th. Don Hahn (146) and Bo Willis (147), two players from the early 1950s, are next; after that would be Peter Trombino (152) and Gerald Ronon (153).
Ambler is a scorer and feeder, with 68 goals and 77 assists. With two more goals, he'd become the seventh player in program history with at least 70 of each. He is also ninth all-time in assists at Princeton, seven away from tying Willis for eighth.
Ambler leads Princeton in goals (11) and assists (12).
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Gavin McBride has at least one point in 21 straight games, the longest current streak on the team and tied for the 24th longest in Division I. His streak is also the third-longest in the Ivy League, behind Devin Dwyer of Harvard (41) and Dylan Molloy of Brown (26).
Riley Thompson is the only Princeton player with at least one goal in each game so far this season. Thompson, who had two goals and four assists last year, has eight goals and seven assists through six games this year.
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Yale won 30 of 48 face-offs in the two games against Princeton a year ago, a percentage of .625.
In the last 15 meetings between the schools, Yale has won 220 of 330 face-offs.
So far this season, Yale has won fewer than 50% of its face-offs as a team.
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Tyler Blaisdell has started 12 games in goal for Princeton in his career, the last six a year ago and all six this year.
Blaisdell has a .621 save percentage in his five wins and a .380 save percentage in his seven losses.
Blaisdell is the only Princeton goalie in the last 10 years to reach 20 saves in a game, which he did with 20 saves against Johns Hopkins earlier this season.
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Mark Strabo started every game of the 2013 and 2014 seasons. He then was hurt in the opener last year and missed the rest of the season.
He also missed the first two games this year due to a different injury, but he returned to the starting lineup against Johns Hopkins.
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Austin Sims had career highs with three goals and five points against Penn last weekend. Sims now has eight goals this season after not having any as a freshman a year ago. The most goals a Princeton sophomore has ever scored after not scoring as a freshman is 24, which Gavin McBride did a year ago.
Sims is a member of the U.S. U19 team for the World Championships in British Columbia this coming summer.
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Yale leads Division I in scoring defense at 6.33 goals per game. Princeton averages 10.5 goals per game and ranks 11th in Division I in team shooting percentage at .337.
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Zach Currier ranks sixth in Division I ground balls per game and seventh in Division I in caused turnovers per game.
He's also third on the team in scoring with 13 points (6G, 7A).
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In addition to Princeton at Yale, the Ivy League also has Cornell at Penn and Dartmouth at Harvard this weekend.
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ONE LINERS
Bear Altemus – junior with a year of experience on the second midfield line who missed the first two games but returned to play against Johns Hopkins
John Alvarez – freshman backup goalie who played final 4:51 against NJIT with no saves or goals-against
Ryan Ambler - senior captain, fourth-year starter on attack, MLL draftee and Tewaaraton watchlist selection; leads team in goals (11) and assists (12) and needs two goals to become the seventh player in program history with at least 70 goals and 70 assists
Alistair Berven – veteran who can play defense or longstick midfield after starting nine games on D a year ago and starting on D the first two games this year
Tyler Blaisdell – had 20 saves against Johns Hopkins, making him the first Princeton goalie in 10 years to reach 20 in a game, and made 14 saves while allowing seven goals in the win over Rutgers
Sam Bonafede – won 16 of 25 face-offs against Penn last week
Matt Brophy – will miss the season due to injury
Luke Brugger – senior who can play longstick midfield
J.T. Caputo – two-way middie who had a goal and assist against NJIT for his first two career points
Sean Connors – has started the last two games on attack, scoring once in each, after not having a goal in four games as a middie
Emmet Cordrey – freshman high school All-America who had two goals in his first collegiate game
Zach Currier – leads team and is sixth in Division I in ground balls per game; also leads team in caused turnovers and is tied for second in assists and for third in points
Austin deButts – captain and top shortstick defensive middie; had four caused turnovers in two games against Yale last year
Charlie Durbin – freshman who has faced-off and played as an offensive middie and who scored two goals in the season opener against NJIT; had first career assist against Rutgers
Alexander Fish – offensive middie who walked on a year ago
Carter Flaig – leading scorer all-time at St. Paul's has four points in six college games
Braedon Gait – sophomore middie who had his first career goal against NJIT
Bear Goldstein – junior captain who is the only player on the team who has started every game of his career
Sam Gravitte – second on the team with seven caused turnovers; had a goal and 10 ground balls in two games against Yale last year
Adam Hardej – middie who has three goals
Gavin McBride – has at least one point in 21 straight games, the longest current streak on the team; also had three goals and an assist against Yale a year ago
Dawson McKenzie – freshman who has four goals and two assists
Greg Merrill – will miss the season due to injury
Mike Morean – freshman shortstick D middie had five ground balls against Rutgers
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 and had four saves without allowing a goal in 10:17 against NJIT
Will Reynolds – returned as LSM after missing the final 14 games a year ago due to injury and starting as a freshman on D; has three caused turnovers and eight ground balls
Aran Roberts – started 13 games on D a year ago but will miss 2016 due to injury
Oliver Schmickel – freshman backup goalie who played 4:58 against NJIT
Austin Sims – sophomore who made the U.S. U-19 team; had career highs of three goals and five points against Penn and has eight goals this year after not having any last year as a freshman
Mark Strabo – made his return to the starting defense against Hopkins 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 – is the only player with at least one goal in every game and has 15 points in six games (8G, 7A) after having six points all of last year
Strib Walker – freshman who plays shortstick D middie and had two ground balls against NJIT
Bobby Weaver - two-way middie who was one of the top shortstick D middies a year ago; has multi-goal games against Hofstra and Rutgers
Dylan White – senior defenseman who is in his first year with the lacrosse team after playing four years of football
Daniel Winschuh – sees time as a longstick midfielder and on man-down D
GAME BY GAME
NJIT (W, 21-4)
GOALS - Currier 4, Thompson 3, Ambler 2, McKenzie 2, Durbin 2, Cordrey 2, Sims 1, Bonafede 1, Flaig 1, Caputo 1, Gait 1, Hardej 1
ASSISTS - Ambler 3, Currier 3, Thompson 2, McBride 1, Morean 1, Gravitte 1, deButts 1, McKenzie 1, Flaig 1, Caputo 1
GOALIES - Blaisdell (39:54 min, 3 goals-against, 3 saves),
O'Connor (10:17, 0 goals-against, 4 saves), Schmickel (4:58, 1 goal-against, 0 saves, Alvarez 4:51, 0 goals-against, 0 saves)
HOFSTRA (L, 11-10 OT)
GOALS - McBride 3, Weaver 2, Ambler 2, McKenzie 1, Thompson 1, Sims 1
ASSISTS - Ambler 4, Flaig 2, McBride 1, McKenzie 1, Thompson 1
GOALIES - Blaisdell (60 min, 11 goals-against, 6 saves)
JOHNS HOPKINS (L, 17-7)
GOALS - Sims 2, McBride 1, Thompson 1, Hardej 1, McKenzie 1, Weaver 1
ASSISTS - Ambler 2, Connors 1
GOALIES - Blaisdell (60 min, 17 goals-against, 20 saves)
MARYLAND (L, 17-5)
GOALS - Ambler 2, Sims 1, Thompson 1, Hardej 1
ASSISTS - Ambler 1, McBride 1, Currier 1
GOALIES - Blaisdell (60 min, 17 goals-against, 8 saves)
RUTGERS (W, 10-7)
GOALS - Ambler 3, Currier 2 Weaver 2, Thompson 1, McBride 1,
Connors 1
ASSISTS - Thompson 2, Durbin 1, Ambler 1, Currier 1
GOALIES - Blaisdell (60 min, 7 goals-against, 14 saves)
PENN (L, 20-10)
GOALS - Sims 3, Ambler 2, McBride 2, Thompson 1, Weaver 1,
Connors 1
ASSISTS - Sims 2, Thompson 2, Currier 2, Ambler 1, Thompson 1, Weaver 1
GOALIES - Blaisdell (60 min, 20 goals-against, 4 saves)
Career Points
247 Kevin Lowe (73G, 174A) 1991-94
232 Ryan Boyle (70G, 162A) 2001-04
215 Jon Hess, (82G, 133A) 1995-98
211 Jesse Hubbard (163G, 48A) 1995-98
208 Mike MacDonald (132G, 76A) 2012-16
200 Tom Schreiber (106G, 94A)......... 2011-14
192 Chris Massey (146G, 46A) 1995-98
182 Dave Heubeck (83G, 99A) 1977-80
174 Wick Sollers (114G, 60A) 1975-77
164 Justin Tortolani (120G, 44A) 1989-82
163 Dave Tickner (94G, 69A) 1975-77
153 Gerald Ronon (97G, 56A) 1980-83
152 Peter Trombino (98G, 54A) 2004-07
147 Bo Willis (63G, 84A) 1951-53
146 Don Hahn (50G, 96A) 1949-51
145 Ryan Ambler (68G, 77A) 2013-present
Career Assists
174 Kevin Lowe 1991-94
162 Ryan Boyle 2001-04
133 Jon Hess 1995-98
99 Dave Heubeck 1977-80
96 Don Hahn 1982-85
94 Tom Schreiber 2011-15
89 Charles Stillwell 1982-85
84 Bo Willis 1951-53
77 Ryan Ambler 2013-present