Princeton Hosts Monmouth In Season Opener

PRINCETON VS. MONMOUTH
Sherrerd Field • Princeton, NJ
Feb. 19, 2022 • 1 p.m.

ESPN+
Live Stats
Probable Princeton starters
Career highs
Career scoring/pronunciations

The Princeton men's lacrosse team isn't quite an expansion team for 2022, not with 12 seniors, four returning starters and a host of players who have made significant contributions through their careers. It's just that these Tigers will have two classes of players who have yet to play in a game and several others who have played in only five.

The new-look Tigers will be just that, a team whose strengths are much different than they've been the last few years. Princeton should be a deeper, more balanced team, one that is, as its head coach Matt Madalon prioritizes, strong up the middle of the field.

The 2022 season opens against New Jersey rival Monmouth.

Princeton vs. Monmouth
Five Storylines

The new look
Princeton has only one player on the team with more than 30 career points (Chris Brown, 107) and only one other (middie Alexander Vardaro with 30) has more than 16. Alex Slusher in many ways encapsulates what this team is about. On the one hand, he is a member of the United States U-21 team that will compete at the World Championships in August in Ireland and is one of the team's veterans; on the other hand he has played in five games and has seven goals and one assist. His upside is tremendous; his experience level is not.

Princeton's starting attack consists of Brown, whose streak of 32 straight games with at least one goal is the second-longest in program history, behind only Chris Massey's 46 straight. Brown, for his part, has at least one goal in every game of his career. The other two starters on attack are Slusher and Tommy Barnds, who were both middies in 2020.

Midfield depth
Who will be Princeton's starters in the midfield? It's hard to say, and it hardly matters. Princeton will run an army of middies on both sides of the field, and several who will play on both sides. Princeton has five middies with at least 10 career goals, led by the 23 that Vardaro has scored, as again, there is a ton of potential with limited game experience.

In all, Princeton could use as many as 15 different midfielders in the course of a game.

Series history
Princeton and Monmouth meet for the fourth time, all in season openers for the Tigers. Princeton has won all three previous meetings, in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Monmouth is the defending MAAC champion. The Hawks played in the NCAA tournament last year, falling to North Carolina in the first round.

Noah Lode, the team's goalie, had a .543 save percentage and 8.52 goals-against average a year ago. Princeton has scored in double figures in 14 straight games, with at least 13 goals in 11 of those.

Strength of schedule
After opening the season with games against unranked Monmouth and Binghamton (home Tuesday at 5), Princeton's next five games will be against teams who are all ranked in the top 10 of this week's USILA poll: at No. 1 Maryland, at No. 3 Georgetown, home with No. 8 Rutgers, home with No. 10 Penn, at No. 7 Yale.

Back again
Princeton has a 12-man senior class that includes 10 players who withdrew last year to be able to come back and play together. Within that group are the five captains: Brown, 2020 first-team All-American defenseman George Baughan, four-year starting longstick midfielder Andrew Song, starting goalie Erik Peters and midfielder Jamie Atkinson.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Players Mentioned

Jamie Atkinson

Tommy Barnds

George Baughan

Chris Brown

Erik Peters

Alex Slusher

Andrew Song

Alexander Vardaro

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Princeton University Athletics