Princeton Hosts No. 9 Denver In Bill Tierney's Return

PRINCETON VS. DENVER

Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 • 6 pm • ESPNU
Series history first meeting

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Career Highs

It's been a little less than 10 years – May 10, 2009 to be exact - since Bill Tierney coached a game on Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium. That game was a 10-7 win over UMass in the opening round of the NCAA tournament, and Princeton's leading scorer that day, Mark Kovler, is now a doctor.

Now Tierney is back, on the field that he as much as anyone was responsible for building in the first place, this time as the visitor.

"I'd be lying if I said this was just another lacrosse game," Tierney said about his return to Princeton. "That wouldn't be true."

Tierney is in his 10^th season as the head coach of the Denver Pioneers, and for the first time, he and his "new" team will be taking on his old one. The return of the former coach is a subplot – a huge one, but a subplot nonetheless – as the main story is that this is a matchup of two teams who are looking to strengthen their resumes with a win.

Princeton has five losses, four to ranked teams and the fifth to a team that has been ranked much of the year and is receiving votes now. Denver comes into the game ranked ninth in both national polls.

The Tigers are also playing the second of three games in eight days, with another big Ivy League game at home Saturday against Brown.

Princeton vs. Denver
Five Storylines

Welcome back
Bill Tierney was the head coach at Princeton from 1988 through 2009. He led Princeton to 238 wins, 14 Ivy League championships, 10 NCAA Final Fours, eight NCAA championship games and of course six NCAA championships.

Tierney has taken Denver to nine NCAA tournaments, and he won a seventh NCAA title, with the Pioneers in 2015. Princeton had never been to the NCAA tournament before Tierney's arrival, and Denver had been twice, without a win.

Tierney won his final 18 games on Sherrerd Field as Princeton's coach.

As if the game didn't any more buildup from the return of the legendary coach, Tierney won his 399^th career game Saturday when Denver defeated Towson 7-6. Tierney won 34 games as the head coach at RIT, 238 at Princeton and now 127 at Denver.

There's a game to be played too
The obvious story of this game revolves around Bill Tierney's return. On the other hand, Aran Roberts, the oldest Princeton player on the current roster, was just 13 when Tierney left Princeton. Most of Princeton's current players were between nine and 12.

In other words, the Princeton roster has turned over several times since Tierney left. And this game has significant meaning for both teams beyond the return of the former coach.

As for the game, Denver comes into the game having allowed the fewest goals (54) and goals per game (7.7). As an aside, the NCAA record book goes back to 1996 in recognizing annual scoring defense leaders, and Tierney's Princeton teams led Division I five times in his final 13 years with the Tigers.

Princeton averages 13.3 goals per game, tied for 12^th in Division I. Princeton has finished into the top three in scoring offense each of the last two seasons.

Sowers update
Michael Sowers enters the game sixth all-time in scoring at Princeton with 205 career points (82G, 123A). With two more points he would tie Mike MacDonald for fifth place, and then ahead of him would be four Tierney-era players: Kevin Lowe (247), Ryan Boyle (232, and an ESPNU commentator on the Princeton-Denver game), Jon Hess (215) and Jesse Hubbard (211).

Sowers has a career average of 5.86 points per game, which not only leads all current Division I players but also is the sixth-best in NCAA Division I history and the best by any player since 1981.

Sowers has at least two points in every game of his career; only two Princeton players have ever had at least one point in every game of their careers for four years: Lowe and Boyle.

Series history
There is no series history between Princeton and Denver, who have never before met, though they did scrimmage in the fall of 2017 on Tierney Field in Maryland.

Princeton is going from playing the team it has played the most – Yale, whom Princeton played for the 105^th time Saturday – to Denver, a team it has never played.

Lineup shuffling
Princeton made some changes to its defense for the game against Yale. Andrew Song moved from longstick midfielder to close defense, where he and David Sturtz both made their first career starts there. Arman Medghalchi went from starting every game since the third game of his freshman year to playing LSM, and he responded with two caused turnvoers and two ground balls.

Song had three ground balls in the game and is second on the team with 22 for the year, trailing only Jake Stevens, who has 32.

George Baughan is now the only player who has started every game on defense this year. Baughan, who led the Ivy League in caused turnovers per game a year ago as a freshman, has a team-best 12 caused turnovers as a sophomore.

Other notes

* There are seven players in Division I who have at least one point in every game of their careers with a minimum of 20 games played, and two of them play for Princeton. Michael Sowers is one. The other is Chris Brown, who now has at least one point in all 20 games of his career. In fact, Brown has at least one goal in every game of his career, and his 20-game streak is the longest by any Princeton player to start his career since freshman became eligible in the 1970s.

* Emmet Cordrey had 10 goals and three assists for his first three seasons combined. He now has 14 goals and 11 assists in seven games as senior, having started at both attack and midfield.

* Chris Brown and Charlie Durbin are tied for the team lead in goals with 15. Durbin missed all of 2018 with a knee injury.

* Alexander Vardaro has seven goals and two assists and has at least one point in every game. The only other Princeton freshmen who have ever had at least one point in each of their first seven games are:
1991 - Kevin Lowe
1996 - Lorne Smith
2001 - Ryan Boyle
2004 - Peter Trombino
2017 – Michael Sowers
2018 – Chris Brown

* Princeton and Denver were a combined 13 for 46 on face-offs Saturday, as they went against the No. 1 (TD Ierlan of Yale) and No. 2 (Alex Woodall of Towson) face-off men in the country. Princeton, in its last two games, has gone against transfers Ierlan and Kyle Gallagher of Penn (the No. 17 FOGO in Division I) and won 18 of 53.

* Erik Peters has started the last two games in goal for Princeton for his first two collegiate starts. Peters is a graduate of Colorado's Rock Canyon High School, the same school that produced Denver senior Colton Jackson.

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