No. 3 Princeton Hosts Rutgers In 98th Meeting For Meistrell Cup

Saturday, March 7

Princeton, N.J.

1:00 PM

Princeton University

Rutgers

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Zack Struckman and the Tigers host Rutgers Saturday at 1.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

No. 3 Princeton Hosts Rutgers In 98th Meeting For Meistrell Cup

March 05, 2020 | Men's Lacrosse

Princeton (4-0) vs. Rutgers (2-3)
Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
March 7, 2020 • 1 p.m. • ESPN+

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If you've learned nothing from the start of the 2020 men's lacrosse season, it's that things can change quickly.

Going back just four short weeks ago, Rutgers was unbeaten and nationally ranked and Princeton hadn't played yet and wasn't even receiving votes in the national polls. Now the Tigers are 4-0 and ranked in everyone's top 10 – and as high as third – and Rutgers comes in unranked and not receiving votes.

Again, things can change just as quickly the other way. Rutgers knows a win over Princeton will jump start its season as the tough Big Ten schedule is down the road, and Princeton is looking for every win it can get as the first Ivy League face-off looms just a week down the road.

Throw in the fact that it's the 98^th meeting between Central Jersey neighbors, and you have yourself a big game on Sherrerd Field this week.

Princeton vs. Rutgers
Five Storylines

The Meistrell Cup
The first men's lacrosse game in Princeton history was played in 1881. Rutgers would play its first game six years later. Both schools decided to discontinue the sport several years after, as Rutgers dropped its team in 1889 and Princeton gave up on lacrosse a little after that, in 1893.

Harland (Tots) Meistrell, meanwhile, went from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn to Rutgers in 1920, where he played varsity football as a freshman and also restarted the lacrosse team. A year later, in 1921, he restarted the team at Princeton.

Today, he represents both schools in the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and the winner of the Princeton-Rutgers game each year wins the Meistrell Cup.

The teams have met every year since 1921, except for the World War II seasons of 1944 and 1945.

Princeton leads the all-time series 63-31-3, and the home team has won each of the last four.

We're No. 3, Or No. 6
Princeton has gone from unranked and not receiving votes to near the top of every major poll in the last two weeks.

Princeton moved into the national rankings anywhere from fifth to 10^th, depending on the poll you like best. This week, the Tigers are third in the media poll and sixth in the coaches' poll. There are four Ivy League teams in the top nine of both polls: Princeton, Cornell, Yale and Penn.

Undefeated
Princeton is one of six Division I teams who are still unbeaten. Of those six, three are from the Ivy League (Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth), while the other three are Syracuse, North Carolina and Georgetown.

Turnovers
Princeton and Rutgers both rank in the top 10 in Division I in fewest turnovers.

Princeton is tied for ninth (with Brown, also tied for first in the Ivy League), with 14.5 turnovers per game. Rutgers is actually fourth, and first in the Big Ten, with 13.6 turnovers per game.

On the other hand, Princeton is also ninth in the country in caused turnovers per game, with 10.25 per game. Rutgers is tied with Sacred Heart for 42^nd, with 7.6 per game.

With its ability to cause turnovers, Princeton is also eighth in Division I in opponents' clearing percentage, allowing opponents to clear at a .765 percentage.

Midfield scoring
Princeton's first midfield consists of Connor McCarthy (10 goals), Alexander Vardaro (eight goals) and Alex Slusher (six goals). The three have combined for 24 goals in four games, or 6.0 goals per game from the first midfield line.

Those three combined for 10 of Princeton's 18 goals last week against Johns Hopkins, including a career-high five from McCarthy and a career-high four from Vardaro.

McCarthy has 10 goals in four games this year after having four all of last year, when injuries slowed him, and that leaves him on pace for 33 for the regular season. Vardaro is on pace for 26 goals this year after having 12 a year ago as a freshman.

Only three Princeton midfielders this century have reached at least 33 goals in a season – Josh Sims (36 in 2000), Mark Kovler (34 in 2009), Kip Orban (45 in 2015).

Other notes

* Michael Sowers has 297 career points, which leaves him 16^th all-time in NCAA history and fifth all-time in Ivy League history. He also has 179 career assists, eighth-best in Division I history, four away from tying Matt Danowski of Duke for seventh and six away from Chris Cameron of Lehigh for sixth.

* Tony Asterino of Siena holds the NCAA record for points per game in a career at 6.47 with 304 points in 47 games. Michael Sowers is currently second with 6.46 points per game (297 in 46 games).

* Michael Sowers leads Division I in points per game (10.5) and assists per game (7.25 per game). The current second-place average for both are 7.00 points per game (Sean Lulley, Penn) and 4.60 assists (Grant Ament, Penn State).

* Michael Sowers tied the Princeton career record for points in the second-to-last game of the 2019 season, matching Kevin Lowe's 247 points that had stood for 25 years. Now, having played five more games since, Sowers has 50 more points than Lowe did.

* George Baughan leads the Ivy League in caused turnovers (and is 16^th in Division I) with 2.0 per game. Baughan lead the league in caused turnovers as a freshman two years ago and was third in the league a year ago.

* Chris Brown has at least one goal in all 31 games of his career, making him the only junior or senior in Division I who has had at least one goal in every game of his career. Brown's streak is the second-longest in program history, trailing only Chris Massey, who had a goal in 46 straight games.

* Princeton leads the Ivy League and is second in Division I in scoring offense with 18.50 goals per game (and at least 16 in all four games). The program record for most goals per game in a season is 15.7 in 1996.

* Princeton is second in Division I in team shooting percentage ta .387.

* Princeton senior defenseman Arman Medghalchi will be making his 40^th career start in the game against Rutgers.

* Princeton goalie Erik Peters has made 31 saves in the last two game (16 against UVa, 15 against Hopkins) after making 16 saves the first two weeks combined. Peters had a .574 save percentage in the last two weeks after having a .457 save percentage in the first two (against Monmouth and Colgate).

* Erik Peters came off the bench in the second quarter of the game last year at Rutgers, won by the Scarlet Knights 9-8, to make five saves and allow two goals as Princeton came up just short after trailing 9-3 at the break. Peters, who shut Rutgers out in the second half, has started every game since.