No. 19/20 Princeton Takes On No. 12/12 Virginia In Home Opener

Chris Brown and the Tigers host Virginia Saturday (noon)

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

No. 19/20 Princeton Takes On No. 12/12 Virginia In Home Opener

February 21, 2019 | Men's Lacrosse

PRINCETON (1-0) vs. VIRGINIA (1-2)

Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019 • noon
Series history Virginia leads 15-10
Last year Virginia defeated Princeton 18-15 • Feb. 24, 2018

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If you know nothing about the history of the rivalry between Princeton and Virginia in men's lacrosse, then here's basically what you've missed:

* the teams have played in two NCAA championship games, with wins by Princeton both times
* they played some great regular season games before the series ended for 10 years, minus a 2012 NCAA tournament game
* they resumed the rivalry a year ago in Charlottesville in a game that featured 33 goals
* the potential for serious offense again exists in the latest meeting

There. You're all caught up.

The teams meet for the 26^th time this Saturday, when Virginia makes its first appearance in Princeton since 2006 and first appearance at Class of 1952 Stadium since 2003.

The Tigers won their opener a week ago 23-7 over Monmouth. Virginia enters 1-2 on the young season, with losses to top-ranked Loyola and Top 10 High Point sandwiched around a win over Lehigh.

Princeton vs. Virginia
Five Storylines

Series history
Princeton and Virginia haven't played nearly as much as Princeton and its next opponent, Johns Hopkins, or the team it plays the Saturday after that, Rutgers (though there is a trip to Navy mixed in between). Still, the series is filled with some huge moments, including two NCAA championship games (Princeton wins in overtime in 1994 and 1996) and a semifinal (a Princeton upset in 2000).

The teams played every year from 1992 through 2008 before the series stopped. Virginia does have the distinction of being the only team Princeton has played in Palmer Stadium, Class of 1952 Stadium and Princeton Stadium.

The teams played only once between 2008 and last year, and that was a 6-5 Virginia win in Charlottesville in the 2012 NCAA tournament opening round. As for last year, Virginia won that game 18-15 after it had been 10-10 at halftime. Michael Sowers had a goal and four assists for Princeton, which got three goals each from Phillip Robertson and Emmet Cordrey, while Ian Laviano scored five goals and Michael Kraus scored four goals to lead UVa.

Face-offs
Justin Schwenk won 25 of 34 face-offs in last year's game against Princeton. For the year last year, Schwenk won just short of 60 percent of the 405 face-offs he took (242 wins, .598).

So far this year, Virginia is right around 50 percent as a team, having won 40 and lost 41 in three games. Virginia freshman Petey LaSalla has taken 45 of those 81 face-offs and has won 57.8 percent of those.

Princeton won 19 of 32 face-offs against Monmouth – the team from which Schwenk transferred – in last week's opener. Jack-Henry Vara won 8 of 11 and Philip Thompson won 8 of 15, and they were helped considerably by freshman Jake Stevens, who had nine ground balls in the game, of which seven came off the face-off wings.

Saves
Virginia is 1-2, and the performance of the opposing goalies has told a lot of the story in those three games. In the two losses, UVa's opponents have had a .614 save percentage and have averaged 17.5 saves per game. In the victory, the opposing goalie had a .421 save percentage and made eight saves.

The Monmouth game was the first game in Matt Madalon's head coaching career in which Tyler Blaisdell was not the starting goalie for Princeton. Instead, junior Jon Levine made his first career start and allowed five goals while making eight saves as he played into the fourth quarter. Princeton's other two goalies, Erik Peters and Ben Churchill, both played in relief and had two saves with one goal-against each.

Ground balls
Virginia led Division I in ground balls last year, which is hardly news, since Virignia has done so five of the last 10 years. This year, through the early season, UVa ranks eight in the country, with 40 ground balls per game, which is actually two more per game than it had last year.

Princeton actually ranked 11^th in the country last year with 31.15 ground balls per game. This year, and yes, it's only one game, Princeton ranks second, having racked up 46 ground balls against Monmouth.

Princeton had seven players with at least three ground balls against Monmouth, led by Jake Stevens with nine. Defenseman George Baughan and longstick midfielder Andrew Song had four ground balls in that game.

Song had a huge game against Virginia last year, with a goal, three ground balls and two caused turnovers as he earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors.

Clearing
Princeton was 65^th in Division I in clearing percentage a year ago at .819. Against Monmouth, Princeton was 17 for 19, or .895.

Virginia is currently fifth in Division I in caused turnovers per game, and the Cavs are led by LSM Jared Connors, whose 10 caused turnovers are the most in Division I.

Other notes

* Chris Brown is the only current Princeton player with at least one goal in every game of his career. A year ago, Brown became the second Princeton player with at least one goal in every game of his freshman year (along with Peter Trombino in 2004), and Brown opened his sophomore year with career highs of five goals and seven points.

* Senior Emmet Cordrey made his first career start in the win over Monmouth and was named Ivy Player of the Week after his six-goal, two-assist performance. Cordrey's previous career high in goals was three, last year against Virginia.

* Princeton defenseman George Baughan, a second-team All-Ivy selection a year ago and a preseason All-America this year, did not play in last year's game against Virginia due to injury.

* Michael Sowers has 172 career points, 10^th-best all-time at Princeton and two points away from Wick Sollers for ninth. Sowers is also fourth all-time at assists at Princeton with 102, trailing Kevin Lowe (174), Ryan Boyle (162) and Jon Hess (133). Sowers, who has at least two points in every game of his career and who has averaged 5.93 points per game for his career, began his junior season with two goals and five assists against Monmouth, while also leading Princeton with three caused turnovers.

* Princeton got five goals and two assists from its freshmen against Monmouth. Alexander Vardaro and Beau Pederson had two goals each, while Jack Crockett had one. Jake Stevens and Luc Anderson both had assists.

* Charlie Durbin had two goals and an assist against Monmouth after missing all of 2018 with an injury.