Princeton Heads To College Park To Face No. 1 Maryland

Saturday, February 26

College Park, Md.

1:00 PM

Princeton University

Maryland

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Princeton Heads To College Park To Face No. 1 Maryland

February 24, 2022 | Men's Lacrosse

PRINCETON VS. MARYLAND
Saturday, Feb. 25, 2022 • 1 pm
Capital One Field At Maryland Stadium • College Park , Md.

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Well, if you're wondering how good the Princeton men's lacrosse team is, you're about to find out. The Tigers, off a 2-0 start to the season after wins over Monmouth and Binghamton, now head into a stretch of games where you can do a find and change that takes "unranked" and makes it "Top 10."

It begins this Saturday with a trip to Maryland, who just happens to be the No. 1 ranked team in the country. After that, Princeton will be back in the area a week from Saturday when it travels to No. 3 Georgetown.

If that's not enough, then you have a home game against Rutgers, who is No. 6. Then it's home to open the Ivy League season with No. 10 Penn and then at No. 5 Yale.

Princeton vs. Maryland
Five storylines

Series history
Maryland leads the all-time series 31-12-1. No current players on either team have ever played against each other, as the last two meetings were in 2015 and 2016, both Maryland wins. Before that, Princeton and Maryland last met in the 2006 NCAA quarterfinals, also a win by the Terps.

Princeton defeated Maryland in both the 1997 and 1998 NCAA championship games, with the 1997 game played at what is now Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium (and then was called Byrd Stadium). Princeton also won the 1994 and 1996 NCAA titles at Maryland Stadium, both times against Virginia.

Princeton in fact has more wins on Maryland's campus against teams other than Maryland (six) than it does against Maryland (four). Princeton has defeated Brown, Virginia three times, Syracuse and Duke in NCAA Final Four games at Maryland Stadium.

Welcome back
Princeton is off to a 2-0 start. Because the Tigers did not play in 2021 and went 5-0 in 2020, they have not lost a game since the final game of the 2019 season.

Princeton's 5-0 start in 2020 included two wins over Big Ten teams (Johns Hopkins and Rutgers) and one ACC team (Virginia). Princeton's current seven game winning streak has seen the Tigers score at least 16 goals each time.

Maryland has not allowed 16 goals in a regular season game since a 16-11 loss to Johns Hopkins in 2019 (the Terps did allow 17 to Virginia in the NCAA final a year ago).

The new look
Princeton is relying on a lot of new faces in key positions, many of whom will be playing their first game against a ranked opponent. Even some of Princeton's seemingly veteran players do not have a ton of game experience. Attackman Alex Slusher and defenseman Ben Finlay, for instance, are juniors who have started every game of their careers, and yet they will both be making their eighth career starts in the Maryland game.

Maryland's Logan Wisnauskas has 256 career points entering the game. Princeton's top eight players combined have 252 career points. Wisnauskas also has more goals and more points than every current Princeton player combined minus Chris Brown.

That is not to say that Princeton does not have talent. It's just that the talent is young and in many cases moved around. Among those moves:

* starting attackmen Alex Slusher and Tommy Barnds were middies in 2020, their only other season
* Pace Billings was an LSM all fall before starting his first two college games on close D
* starting middie Christian Ronda was a reserve attackman in 2020 who played in one game and did not take a shot; he has six goals through two games
* starting middie Sam English was a shortstick D middie in 2020 in his only previous season

Princeton has 17 players with at least one point through two games. Of those 17, there are 10 who have eclipsed their previous career total and one other who has matched his previous career total.

Princeton has seven players who were ranked among the Top 100 freshman by Inside Lacrosse, tying the Tigers with North Carolina for the most of any team in the country.

Not since 2012
Princeton has a chance to do something in this game and in this season that it hasn't done since 2012.

First, Princeton has allowed six and nine goals in its first two games. The last time Princeton held its opponent under 10 for three straight games in the same season was in 2012, when the Tigers had a five-game run of such games. Princeton did hold its last opponent of 2012 and first two of 2013 under 10, but there has not been a similar stretch since.

Also, Princeton has not won more than 50 percent of its face-offs for a full season since 2012. Through two games Princeton has won 54.5 percent of its face-offs.

Causing turnovers
Princeton has caused 15 turnovers in each of its first two games to tie the program single-game record. The two games this year were the seventh and eighth time Princeton has had 15 caused turnovers in one game.

What can you say about …

Jamie Atkinson • Sr., M, No. 25
* one of five senior captains (also George Baughan, Chris Brown, Erik Peters, Andrew Song)
* has missed first two games due to injury

Tommy Barnds • So., A, No. 21
* has two goals and two assists through two games
* made his first two career starts after having moved from middie to attack
* has one turnover in two games, with seven ground balls

Michael Bath • Fr., LSM, No. 88
* has played LSM and on the face-off wings
* had first career goal in the Binghamton game
* also has two caused turnovers and five ground balls

George Baughan • Sr., D, No. 17
* 2020 Inside Lacrosse first-team All-American
* unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection and honorable mention All-American in 2019
* has three caused turnovers through two games

Pace Billings • So., D, No. 3
* has started both games on close defense after being an LSM through the fall
* has a caused turnover in each game

Chris Brown • Sr., A, No. 6
* has at least one goal in all 34 games in his career, the longest active such streak in Division I and the second-longest in Princeton history, trailing only Chris Massey's 46 from 1995-98
* has had back-to-back seven-point games to start the season, with 3G, 4A against Monmouth and 4G, 3A against Binghamton
* leads the team with 14 points and is second with seven goals
* has 121 career points, or 87 more than the next-highest total on the team
* is 27^th all-time in points at Princeton, one away from tying Jeff Froccaro and 10 away from moving up to 21^st
* is also 27^th all-time in goals at Princeton, nine away from 21^st

Sean Cameron • Fr., M, No. 11
* second-line midfielder who had his first career goal in win over Binghamton

Luke Crimmins • Sr., SSDM, No. 31
* converted to SSDM in two weeks before season started
* had two goals on two shots against Binghamton

Sam English * Jr., M, No. 15
* has two goals and five assists after moving from SSDM to a first-line midfielder
* second on the team in assists
* had five points (2G, 3A) against Binghamton

Ben Finlay • Jr., D, No. 10
* has started every game of his career
* has three caused turnovers through two games

Joseph Juengerkes • So., SSDM, No. 13
* has seen considerable time as an SSDM
* has a caused turnover and ground ball

Coulter Mackesy • Fr., M, No. 91
* second-line middie
* has two goals and two assists

Colin Mulshine • Fr., D, No. 43
* has played considerably in both games on D
* has four ground balls

Beau Pederson • Jr., SSDM, No. 23
* Princeton's top shortstick D middie
* had a goal against Binghamton
* has a caused turnover and five ground balls
* converted O middie who had 10 goals as a freshman

Erik Peters • Sr., G, No. 9
* has an 8.32 goals-against average and .636 save percentage through two games this season; career numbers prior to this season were 11.28 and .524.
* Princeton's starting goalie since midway through the 2019 season

Cathal Roberts • Jr., D, No. 26
* can play close D or LSM
* has two caused turnovers and two ground balls

Christian Ronda • Jr, M, No. 12
* has six goals and two assists in two games as a starting attackman
* played in one career game prior to this season without taking a shot
* had five goals against Monmouth in his first start
* has six goals on 11 shots

Tyler Sandoval • So., FO, No. 35
* has won 30 of 47 face-offs through two games (.636)
* leads Ivy League in FO percentage
* also leads team with 12 ground balls
* had an assist against Binghamton

Alex Slusher • Jr., A, No. 5
* has eight goals in two games after having seven in five games in 2020
* has moved to attack from being a starting midfielder in 2020
* also has two assists for 10 points
* member of the U.S. U-21 team for the upcoming World Championships in Ireland

Andrew Song • Sr., LSM, No. 32
* fourth-year starting LSM
* also plays on face-off wings
* has team-best four caused turnovers and also has six ground balls
* played for China in the 2018 World Championships

Jacob Stoebner • Jr., D, No. 28
* veteran defender who has been either a starter or key reserve
* has one caused turnover

Jake Stevens • Jr., M, No. 14
* do-it-all midfielder who plays offense, defense and face-off wings
* has seven goals in two games (three against Monmouth, four against Binghamton)
* has team-best .583 shooting percentage among players with more than two goals
* second on the team with seven ground balls

Alexander Vardaro • Jr., M, No. 19
* only starting midfielder from 2020 who is starting in midfield this year
* has three goals and an assist
* team's second-leading career scorer (26-8-34)

Marquez White • So., SSDM, No. 24
* running as a first-line SSDM