Princeton Heads To Dartmouth As Ivy Stretch Drive Begins

PRINCETON (5-6, 0-3 Ivy League) at DARTMOUTH (2-8, 0-3 Ivy League)

Scully-Fahey Field • Hanover, N.H.
Saturday, April 13, 2019 • 2 pm
Series history Princeton leads 57-9
Last meeting Princeton defeated Dartmouth 24-13 • April 14, 2018

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It's possible that the loser of the Princeton-Dartmouth men's lacrosse game isn't mathematically eliminated from contention for a spot in the Ivy League tournament. It's also very likely that this is something of an elimination game for the two.

Princeton head coach Matt Madalon says his team is now playing "playoff lacrosse," which is a necessity for the Tigers after an 0-3 league start. To get to the Ivy tournament, Princeton needs to do what it did a year ago, which is to turn an 0-3 start into a 3-3 record and then hope to win the tiebreakers (something that didn't happen a year ago).

The game at Dartmouth will be followed by a home game against Harvard and then a game at Cornell to end the regular season.

Princeton vs. Dartmouth
Five Storylines

The league race
Princeton and Dartmouth are both 0-3. There's no guarantee that 3-3 gets you in the Ivy tournament, which is what Princeton found out the hard way a year ago, but then the tiebreakers could end up differently this year.

Princeton was in this situation a year ago and then defeated Dartmouth, Harvard and Cornell to get back to 3-3.

The good news for Princeton is that the three teams it has lost to – Penn, Yale and Brown – are the top three teams in the league race. Should Princeton win out and Penn, Yale and Brown stay in the top three, then Princeton would be guaranteed an Ivy tournament spot.

Series history
Princeton leads the all-time series 57-9. Looking a little closer, the series is 24-8 in Hanover and 33-1 in Princeton.

The Tigers have won the last five meetings between the two, including a 24-13 win last year in Princeton in the highest scoring game in the 1,195 games in program history. The 24 goals against Dartmouth a year ago are the second-most Princeton has ever scored in a game, behind the 28 its scored against FDU-Madison in 1985.

Sowers update
Michael Sowers had 10 points against Dartmouth a year ago with three goals and seven assists, which until Tuesday was his career high. In that game a year ago, Sowers either scored or assisted on Princeton's first eight goals.

Sowers had an 11-point game against Siena Tuesday, with six goals and five assists. The six goals were a career high, and the 11 points were the second-most ever scored b a Princeton player in game, one away from 77-year-old school record. The 11 points were also tied for the most by a player in Division I this year.

Sowers now has 230 career points, which leaves him two points shy of Ryan Boyle for second all-time at Princeton and 17 points away from Kevin Lowe's 25-year-old career record. Lowe played 60 career games. Boyle played 57 career games. Sowers has played 39.

As for career numbers, Sowers is averaging 5.9 points per game, which would be the sixth-best total in Division I history and the best since 1981. His 230 career points are the second-most among any active Division I player, trailing only Loyola senior Patrick Spencer. Sowers is first among active players in assists per game and points per game in a career; Spencer is second in both.

Sowers currently leads the Ivy League in assists per game and goals per game this season.

In addition, Sowers has 92 career goals, leaving him eight short of becoming the first Princeton player with at least 100 career goals and 100 career assists. Should he get eight more goals this year, he'd join Jesse Hubbard and Chris Massey as the only two Princeton players ever to reach 100 career goals as a junior.

National rankings
Princeton leads the Ivy League and is third nationally in fewest turnovers per game at 13.82.

Princeton is also ranked in the top 10 nationally in points per game (fifth), assists per game (sixth), clearing percentage (seventh), scoring offense (eighth) and caused turnovers per game (ninth).

For starters
Princeton has three players who have started every game this season – Chris Brown, Emmet Cordrey and Michael Sowers. Brown and Sowers have both started every game of their careers.

Princeton has had six different players start at least two games on defense. Princeton has used four different starting defense combinations in the last four games. No defenseman has started all 11 games.

Other notes

* Longstick midfielder Andrew Song has goals in each of the last two games after having two for his career prior to that. He also has 92 career ground balls and 26 career caused turnovers.

* Emmet Cordrey is second on the team with 41 points (25G, 16A), and his 25 goals are a team-high. Cordrey is also seventh in Division I with a .510 shooting percentage.

* Beau Pederson had two goals against Siena, including one that was assisted by Michael Sowers. Pederson became the 19^th player to have at least one goal assisted on by Sowers in his career. Phillip Robertson has had more goals assisted on by Sowers than any other player, with 25. Gavin McBride is still second, with 20.

* Chris Brown is the only player in Division I who has played at least 20 games and has at least one goal in every game of his career.

* Princeton has shot 33 for 73 (.452) in the last two games after shooting 117 for 429 (.273) for the season prior to that.

* Freshman middie Alexander Vardaro has 11 goals on the season, and fellow freshman middie Beau Pederson has nine. The last time Princeton had two freshmen middies reach double figures in goals was in 2006, when both Mark Kovler and Josh Lesko did so.

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