No. 8 Princeton Hosts Johns Hopkins In The 90th Meeting In The Series

Saturday, February 29

Princeton, N.J.

1:00 PM

Princeton University

Johns Hopkins

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Chris Brown and the Tigers host Johns Hopkins Saturday at 1.

Photo by: Brian McWalters

No. 8 Princeton Hosts Johns Hopkins In The 90th Meeting In The Series

February 28, 2020 | Men's Lacrosse

Princeton (3-0) vs. Johns Hopkins (1-2)
Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
Feb. 29, 2020 • 1 p.m. • ESPN+

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The Princeton men's lacrosse team has had just about a week now to contemplate its win over defending NCAA champion Virginia and its vault from unranked to the Top 10 of every poll.

The first challenge for a Princeton team that has been knocking on the door of the top 10 for the last few years was to defeat a team like UVa. The next challenge is handling that success, a task made even more difficult considering who the next opponent is.

One week after moving into the Top 10, Princeton will look to stay there when it hosts longtime rival Johns Hopkins Saturday on Sherrerd Field. Hopkins, another one of the giants in the sport, comes in ranked 18^th and toughened by a schedule that has already seen the Blue Jays play two other teams in this week's top 11.

It's the 90^th meeting in a series that dates to 1890.

Princeton vs. Johns Hopkins
Five Storylines

Series history
Johns Hopkins holds a 59-30 lead in the series. Princeton and Johns Hopkins first played in 1890, with a 3-2 Princeton win in the only game the teams played until they met again in 1930. The teams would play in 1931 and 1932, not play from 1933-36 and have since played every year since except for 1944.

Hopkins won every game from 1967 through the first round of the 1990 NCAA tournament. Princeton is 3-0 against the Blue Jays in NCAA games.

In recent history, Hopkins has an 11-10 lead in the series this century and 5-4 lead in the last nine meetings. The Blue Jays have won the last two games in the series, including a 14-12 win last year also on Sherrerd Field that saw Hopkins rally from 9-7 down with 2:41 to go in the third quarter with a 7-1 run over the next 15 minutes.

Face-offs
Johns Hopkins won 19 of 28 face-offs in the game last year at Princeton, and both of its face-off men from that game – Kyle Prouty and Matt Narewski – are back this year. Between them they are winning better than 60 percent of their face-offs and have the Blue Jays ranked 16^th in Division I face-off winning percentage.

Princeton is ranked 36^th, at .505, having won 49 of 97 for three games. If you take away the 0 for 9 third quarter against Virginia, though, Princeton would be at .556.

A year ago Princeton won 45 percent of its face-offs, and Jack-Henry Vara has gone from .476 a year ago to .523 through three games this year. Princeton has also added freshman Tyler Sandoval, who missed the fall due to injury and is now 12 for 25 early in his career.

Rankings
Princeton is ranked eighth this week by the media and 10^th by the coaches. The Tigers are also fifth in the Nike/US Lacrosse poll and were ranked fifth by Quint Kessenich on Inside Lacrosse.

Princeton was unranked and not even receiving votes in the preseason media or coaches' polls and was receiving votes in both polls prior to last week's win over Virginia.

There are four Ivy League teams ranked in the top 10 of this week's media poll (No. 1 Yale, No. 8 Princeton, No. 9 Penn, No. 10 Cornell). There are also four ACC teams and two Big Ten teams.

Closing out
Princeton was 0-5 last year against teams that ranked in the top 13 of the final USILA coaches' poll a year ago. Princeton had the lead in the second half against all five and the lead in the fourth quarter against two of them before falling.

A week ago in Charlottesville, Princeton never trailed in the second half. Virginia twice cut it to one goal, at 9-8 in the third quarter and 13-12 in the fourth, but Princeton responded both times by scoring the next three goals.

National leaders
Princeton ranks in the top 10 in Division I in eight statistical categories, including third in Division I in scoring offense (18.67), shooting percentage (.381) and points per game (29.33).

Princeton is causing 10.67 turnovers per game, fifth-best in Division I. Johns Hopkins ranks 18^th in Division I in fewest turnovers per game at 15.0.

Individually, Michael Sowers leads Division I in points per game (11.0) and assists per game (7.33), while Phillip Robertson is ninth in Division I in goals per game (4.00) and 12^th in shooting percentage (.571). Robertson led Division I in shooting percentage at .635 two years ago (33 goals, 52 shots); a year ago he dropped to .346 (18 goals on 52 shots).

Other notes

* Phillip Robertson has scored 66 goals in his career, and 32 of those (one short of half) have been assisted by Michael Sowers. On the other hand, Robertson has never assisted on a goal by Sowers.

* Michael Sowers has 172 career assists, and 53 of them have come on goals by either Phillip Robertson (32) or Chris Brown (21). The next-highest total of assists Sowers has had to a current player is seven, to Alexander Vardaro.

* Chris Brown became the 38^th player in program history to reach 100 career points as his four goals and one assist against Virginia left him with 66G and 34A for his career. Brown is also the second Princeton player ever with a streak of at least 30 straight games with a goal scored, trailing only Chris Massey, who has the record of 46 straight games.

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

* Chris Brown leads Princeton with 14 ground balls, including six a week ago against UVa.

* Michael Sowers has 172 career assists, two away from tying Kevin Lowe's Princeton career record of 174. Sowers is already Princeton's career leader in points with 288, having passed Lowe's 247 as a junior.

* Michael Sowers is averaging 6.4 points per game in his career, which is the second-best total in Division I history. He trails only Siena's Tony Asterino, who averaged 6.47 from 1878-81. Sowers would need 10 points against Hopkins to overtake Asterino's average.

* Michael Sowers has 288 career points in 45 career games, and he ranks 18^th in Division I history in points scored. The average number of games played by the 17 players ahead of him is 66.7.

* Michael Sowers needs 12 points to become the 16^th player to reach 300 career points. Only four Ivy League players have ever reached 300:
Rob Pannell, Cornell (354 points, 72 games played)
Dylan Molloy, Brown (318 points, 63 games played)
Darren Lowe, Brown (316 points, 61 games played)
Ben Reeves, Yale (316 points, 67 games played)

Sowers is currently sixth all-time in points scored in the Ivy League, as Cornell's Mike French had 296 in 47 games.

* Michael Sowers has seven goals and eight assists in three career games against Johns Hopkins. Chris Brown has three goals and an assist in his career against Hopkins, while Phillip Robertson has two career goals against the Blue Jays.

* Princeton ranks seventh in Division I with 40 ground balls per game. Princeton averaged 32.9 ground balls per game a year ago.

* Connor McCarthy has already eclipsed his goal-scoring total of last season, as he has five in three games this year after having four in nine games a year ago. McCarthy, who was slowed by injuries most of last year, had 14 goals and five assists as a sophomore two years ago, when he started every game.

* Ben Finlay is the first Princeton defenseman to start the first three games of his freshman year since both Bear Goldstein and Will Reynolds did so in 2014.

* Alex Slusher has five goals in the first three games of his freshman year, including the final two last weekend at Virginia.