Princeton Falls to Cornell, Awaits NCAA Selections

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There's an intensity to high stakes lacrosse games at this time of year, and it starts with the opening whistle. It's something that the Princeton men's lacrosse team saw first hand Saturday afternoon – and now it appears that the Tigers will have two weeks to learn from it.

Princeton almost came all the way back from an eight-goal deficit against Cornell, twice cutting it to one goal, before falling 18-15 to the Big Red in front of 2,011 at Sherrerd Field Saturday. The win gave the Big Red a share of the Ivy League championship and a spot in the Ivy League tournament next weekend, something that Princeton will not be in after being eliminated with Brown's win over Dartmouth about an hour later.

The bright side for Princeton is that the real prize is the NCAA tournament, which comes up in two weekends. Princeton, who came into the game second in RPI and who has five wins over teams in the top 12, including four in the top 10, has an outstanding chance at an at-large bid and first-round home game, even without being in the Ivy tournament.

Cornell swarmed Princeton in the first half, building a lead of 8-4 by the time the first quarter ended and then pushing it to 12-5 at halftime. The key number for Princeton in the first 30 minutes wasn't the five goals or seven goal-deficit; it was 11, as in the number of shots the Tigers, who came in averaging nearly 48 per game, took in the first half.

A goal on the first possession of the second half made it an eight-goal game at 13-5, but then the Tigers got hot. In a little more than three minutes, it went from 13-5 go 13-9, and it would get to 14-13 late in the third, before a Big Red goal with 21 seconds left in the quarter made it 14-13. Princeton got the first of the fourth quarter but could never get the equalizer.

Princeton still had a chance to get into the tournament, but Brown pulled away from Dartmouth early on and won going away.

Princeton was led by Sam English and Coulter Mackesy, both of whom had five goals and an assist. Alexander Vardaro had two goals and two assists, and Jake Stevens, Chris Brown and Alex Slusher had one goal each.

The NCAA tournament draw will be held on Sunday night, May 8.

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