Princeton, Ranked 19th, Hosts Quinnipiac Tuesday Night

PRINCETON vs. QUINNIPIAC
Tuesday, March 7, 2017 • 7 p.m. • Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium

Ivy League Digital Network
Listen Live
Live Stats
Quinnipiac Website

Princeton Probable Starters
Career Highs
Career Scoring/Pronunciations

The toughest game to win in sports isn't the championship game, isn't the one you need to get in the playoffs, isn't the one against your biggest rival.
It's the one after a big win, especially one in which about the best word that can be used to describe how you played is "perfectly." And especially against a good opponent who is used to winning and is looking for its own big win to turn its fortunes around.
Four days after one of the most complete performances a Princeton men's lacrosse team has had in a long time, the Tigers will host Quinnipiac on the same Sherrerd Field on which they dispatched Johns Hopkins 18-7 Friday afternoon.
Quinnipiac, 1-2 on the young season after getting its first win by beating NJIT 11-8 Saturday, is the defending MAAC champion. The Bobcats knocked off Hartford in an NCAA tournament preliminary round game last year and then played Maryland close before being eliminated.

*     *     *

The game against Quinnipiac will be Princeton's fifth straight at home to start the regular season. Princeton will then play five of its remaining eight games on the road, beginning next Tuesday at Rutgers.

*     *     *

Princeton comes into the game off of an 18-7 win over then-No. 3 Johns Hopkins Friday afternoon. It was the largest margin of victory for Princeton over Hopkins in the 87 meetings between the teams.
Princeton led 3-0, saw Hopkins cut it to 3-2 and then went on a 10-0 run during the second and third quarters to take full control of the game.
Zach Currier was named the Ivy League Player of the Week, for the second straight time after a game against Johns Hopkins. Michael Sowers was the Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the second straight week.
Not to be outdone, Austin Sims was the EpochLax/US Lacrosse National Division I Player of the Week.

*     *     *

Princeton and Johns Hopkins have met 87 times. The game next Tuesday at Rutgers will be the 95th between the two New Jersey rivals.
The game against Quinnipiac is the third in the series. The only previous meetings were in 2003 (Princeton 14, Quinnipiac 3) and 2004 (Princeton 19, Quinnipiac 10).

*     *     *

Princeton is allowing 7.8 goals per game this season. Princeton allowed 11.5 goals per game last season.

*     *     *

Austin Sims had a career-high six goals against Johns Hopkins.
Sims missed the game against Hofstra, which is Princeton's only loss this season.

*     *     *

Princeton averaged 30.6 shots per game in 2016. Through four games of 2017 Princeton is averaging 39.8 shots per game.

*     *     *

Princeton took 51 shots against Johns Hopkins in the game Friday.
The last time Princeton took at least 50 shots in a game was in 2015, when the Tigers took 51 in a 10-8 loss to Brown in 2015.

*     *     *

Gavin McBride had three goals and an assist in the win over Johns Hopkins.
McBride now has at least three goals in eight of his last nine games, after having a streak of seven straight three-plus goal games snapped against Hofstra. That was one game shy of the school record.
McBride has at least one point in 32 straight games and at least one goal in 13 straight games.

*     *     *

Zach Currier won 15 of 19 face-offs (15 of his last 17 after he lost the first two) and had 10 ground balls, with three assists, against Johns Hopkins.
Currier went over the 200 ground ball mark for his career in the game. He also has had at least 10 ground balls in two of the four games this year and three career games of at least 10 ground balls.
Other than Currier, no Princeton player has reached double figures in ground balls since John Cunningham had 10 against North Carolina in 2010.

*     *     *

Princeton and Quinnipiac have one common oppoent to date - NJIT. Princeton defeated NJIT 22-8 in its opener, and Quinnipiac defeated NJIT 11-8 last Saturday.
Quinnipiac has already played Brown (25-9 loss), whom Princeton will play later this season. Princeton has played Marist, whom Quinnipiac will play during its MAAC season.

*     *     *

Quinnipiac is led in scoring by Brian Feldman, who has 12 of the team's 33 goals through three games.

*     *     *

Michael Sowers leads Princeton with 11 assists and 20 points. He is the fastest Princeton freshman to 20 points, in just four games. In fact, if he does not score a point in either of his next two games, he will still have more points after six games than any other Princeton freshman ever.
If Sowers gets one more goal, he will become the ninth Princeton freshman to reach double figures in both goals and assists. After just four games, he's already eighth all-time among Princeton freshmen in assists.
At his current pace, Sowers would finish the regular season with 31 goals and 38 assists for 69 points.
The Princeton freshman records are 28 goals (Mike Chanenchuk), 43 assists (Kevin Lowe) and 55 points (also Kevin Lowe).

*     *     *
Mike Morean scored two goals against Johns Hopkins from his shortstick D middie position.

*     *     *

Adam Hardej scored two goals in each of Princeton's last two games.
For Hardej, it's the first time in his career that he's had back to back two-goal games.

*     *     *

Charlie Durbin did not score in Princeton's first two games. He now has three goals in the last two, including two against Johns Hopkins.

*     *     *

Tyler Blaisdell made 16 saves while allowing seven goals in the win over Johns Hopkins.
Blaisdell has now had a save percentage above .600 in all four games this season and is one of two goalies in Division I, along with Marquette's Cole Blazer, who has at least a .600 save percentage in every gamet this season. He also has a .667 save percentage for the year.
The last time a Princeton goalie had at least four straight games of at least .600 save percentage was in 2012, when Tyler Fiorito did it five straight times.
Blaisdell has 50 saves and 25 goals-against through four games.
A year ago, Blaisdell had given up 55 goals by the time he made 50 saves.

*     *     *

Princeton scored 10 goals against Marist, and either Michael Sowers, Zach Currier or Gavin McBride scored or had an assist (and sometimes both) on all 10.
Against Hofstra, Princeton scored eight goals, and one of those three either had the or an assist (or both) on five of those.
Against Johns Hopkins, Princeton scored 18 goals. One of the three had either a goal or assist (or both) on nine of them.

*     *     *

Bear Goldstein has started all 45 games of his career.

*     *     *

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Tyler Blaisdell

Zach Currier

Charlie Durbin

Bear Goldstein

Adam Hardej

Gavin McBride

Mike Morean

Austin Sims

Michael Sowers