Princeton Hosts Boston University In NCAA Tournament Opening Round

PRINCETON (9-4) vs. BOSTON UNIVERSITY (12-4)
NCAA TOURNAMENT OPENING ROUND
Saturday, May 14, 2022 • noon
Sherrerd Field • Princeton, N.J.
ESPNU

In-game Twitter updates (@tigerlacrosse)
WatchESPN
Live Stats
Tickets

Probable Princeton starters
Career highs
Career scoring/pronunciations
Princeton Laxcast With Matt Madalon, Chris Sailer, Jack-Henry Vara

All-time Princeton NCAA results
All-time Princeton NCAA individual records

A team with one of the greatest May legacies in the history of men's lacrosse and a team who has never been there before meet in the opening round of the 2022 NCAA tournament. If you look at the current rosters of the teams, it's impossible to tell which is which.

When Princeton (winner of six NCAA championships) hosts Boston University (first NCAA appearance) in the first of the eight games this weekend, no player on either team will have ever have played in an NCAA tournament game before. The closest would be BU face-off specialist Conor Calderone, who was on the Maryland team that reached the NCAA final last year, though he didn't take any face-offs in the tournament.

Princeton is making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2012. The Tigers did not play last weekend, as the team was not in the Ivy League tournament after tying Penn and Harvard for fourth place but missing out on the tiebreakers. Boston University won the Patriot League tournament last weekend, defeating Lehigh 13-12 in overtime and Army 14-10.

Princeton is the fifth seed in the tournament, while BU is unseeded. The winner of this game plays the winner of fourth-seeded Yale and St. Joseph's in next week's quarterfinal round at Hofstra.

Princeton vs. Boston University
Five Storylines

Game 2
Princeton and Boston University have played only once before, and that game was little over a month ago, as the Tigers defeated the Terriers 12-7 on Sherrerd Field on April 9. Princeton led 5-3 at halftime before BU scored twice in the first in the first six minutes of the third quarter to tie it at 5-5, only to see the Tigers go on a 7-1 run to take control.

The game was relatively even statistically, with the teams even in shots (43-43) and turnovers (23-23), with face-offs almost even (12-11 BU). Princeton had a 45-38 edge in ground balls, and the Tigers forced BU into seven failed clears to three for Princeton.

Chris Brown finished the game with this stat line: 0 goals (one of only two times in his career he has not had a goal in a game) and eight turnovers but also a career-high seven assists.

How we got here
Princeton did not win an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament through the Ivy League tournament. In fact, Princeton didn't appear in the Ivy tournament at all. Why? Because Penn broke the tie for the fourth spot with Princeton and Harvard by going all the way down the tiebreaker list to where the deciding factor was Penn's win over second-seed Cornell, who defeated the two others. In the crazy year of Ivy League men's lacrosse, Penn won that tiebreaker and then won the tournament.

Princeton is in because of its four wins over the other seven seeded teams, the most of any team in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers are the only team to defeat Georgetown this year, and they are also one of two teams, along with No. 1 Maryland, to defeat Rutgers. Princeton also has wins over Penn and Brown, who are also home in the first round.

Princeton is one of a record six Ivy teams in the field.

Defense
Princeton held BU to a season-low seven goals in the first meeting. The Terriers have three players on attack who all have more points than Princeton's leading scorer (granted, BU has played three more games than Princeton), as Vince D'Alto (45-30-75), Timmy Ley (43-31-74) and Louis Perfetto (30-35-65) all have more than Chris Brown (29-34-63). In the first meeting between the two, Princeton held BU's attack to three goals and one assist between them.

Since that game, BU has averaged 12.8 goals over five games and has scored at least 13 in four of the five. In its three games since the BU game, Princeton has allowed 47 goals, of which 28 of those goals came in a 68:56 stretch from the second quarter against Harvard through early in the third quarter against Cornell. Princeton then held Cornell to five goals in the final 29:24 of that game and twice cut an eight-goal deficit to one.

National rankings
Princeton and Boston University are two of the elite teams in Division I in turning over the other team and getting the ball out in transition. In fact, they rank first (BU, 12.00) and second (10.38) in the country in caused turnovers and third (Princeton, 38.1) and fourth (BU, 36.8) in ground balls.

The first meeting featured 46 turnovers (23 for each team) and 83 ground balls (45-38 Princeton).

Princeton ranks fourth in the country in scoring offense, with 15.62 goals per game. The Tigers also rank in the top 10 nationally in points per game (seventh), shooting percentage (seventh) and man-up offense (eighth).

NCAA history
Princeton did not play in any NCAA tournament from its inception in 1971 until making its first appearance in 1990. From that point, Princeton appeared in every NCAA tournament through 2004, winning the championship in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2001, reaching the final in 2000 and 2002 and reaching the Final Four in 1993 and 2004.

Since then, Princeton has been in the tournament in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012, reaching the quarterfinal in 2006 and 2009.

Princeton is 30-14 all-time in NCAA tournament games. More than half of those games, 24 of them, have been one-goal games, and the Tigers are 19-5 in those games. Four of Princeton's six NCAA titles were won in overtime.

Other notes
* Princeton has scored 203 goals this season, making this the sixth highest-scoring team in program history. Ahead of the 2022 team are:
1. 1996 (235 goals)
2. 1997 (223 goals)
3. 2017 (220 goals)
4. 1998 (217 goals)
5. 1994 (207 goals)
The current team ranks second in program history at 15.62 goals per game, trailing only the 1996 team (15.67).

* Princeton has six players with at least 20 goals in a season for the first time ever. The six players are: Alex Slusher (41), Chris Brown (29), Sam English (24), Coulter Mackesy (24), Jake Stevens (21) and Alexander Vardaro (21).

* Princeton had eight players earn All-Ivy League honors: Chris Brown and George Baughan were first-team selections; Sam English, Jake Stevens, Beau Pederson and Andrew Song were second-team selections; Alex Slusher and Alexander Vardaro were honorable mention selections.

* Chris Brown comes into the game needing one goal to reach two major milestones. First, it would be the 100^th goal of his career. Second, it would make him the fourth player in program history to have at least 30 goals and 30 assists in the same season (David Tickner in 1976, Mike MacDonald in 2016, Michael Sowers in 2017 and 2019).

* Princeton set a program record with 18 caused turnovers in the win over Dartmouth. It was the fourth time this year Princeton has had at least 15 in a game; the program single-game record prior to this year was 15.

* Princeton has won 193 face-offs and lost 203 face-offs, a percentage of .487. Princeton has not been above 50 percent for a full season since 2012, and the .487 percentage is the second best for the Tigers for a full season since then.

* Princeton averages 47.0 shots per game. The last time had at least that many per game for a full season was 1982, when the Tigers averaged 47.3.

* Princeton goalie Erik Peters was named as one of 25 nominees for the Tewaaraton Award. The senior is one of three goalies on the list, along with Owen McElroy of Georgetown and C.J. Kirst of Rutgers.

* Princeton had five different players named to the USILA Team of the Week this season: George Baughan, Chris Brown, Beau Pederson, Erik Peters, Andrew Song.

* Princeton is 14-4 in its last 18 games and 18-5 in its last 23 games.

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)
* had a career-high three goals against Marist
* missed the first four games due to injury before returning to play against Rutgers

Tommy Barnds • So., A, No. 21
* has five goals and two assists
* had a goal during Princeton's 6-0 run to take control against Brown in the third quarter
* had a goal against Penn
* had a goal against Maryland
* made his first three career starts after having moved from middie to attack and has now moved back to middie

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

George Baughan • Sr., D, No. 17
* 2022 first-team All-Ivy League selection
* 2022 Academic All-Ivy League and Senior Class Award finalist
* 2020 Inside Lacrosse first-team All-American
* unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection and honorable mention All-American in 2019
* 2022 Inside Lacrosse mid-season honorable mention All-American
* Tewaaraton Award watchlist
* has at least one caused turnover in every game he's played this season and in 15 straight * named to USILA Team of the Week after having four caused turnovers and 11 ground balls in wins over Marist and Boston University; also shut out BU's Louis Perfetto, who had a point in all 27 games of his career prior to that
* has 16 caused turnovers, tying for the team lead
* leads the Ivy League with 1.5 caused turnovers per game
games dating to the 2020 season
* had a goal and two caused turnovers against Harvard
* had an assist, a caused turnover and four ground balls against Yale
* missed the Georgetown and Rutgers games due to injury
* returned to play against Penn and had two caused turnovers

Pace Billings • So., D/LSM, No. 3
* started on close defense for first seven games after being an LSM through the fall; moved back to LSM against Brown
* has 13 caused turnovers
* has nine caused turnovers in the last five games after having four in the first eight
* had first career assist against Georgetown
* held Georgetown's Conor Morin without a goal or assist
* missed the Rutgers game due to injury
* returned from injury with a CT against Penn
* had two caused turnovers against Harvard, Dartmouth and Marist

Chris Brown • Sr., A, No. 6
* 2022 Inside Lacrosse mid-season honorable mention All-American
* has at least one point in all 45 games in his career
* is one of four Princeton players to play at least 45 career games and have at least one point in every career game (Kevin Lowe, Ryan Boyle, Michael Sowers are the others)
* had a 35-game streak with at least one goal to start his career, which was the longest streak to start a career and second longest overall in program history (next longest streak to start a career was 14 games)
* has 29 goals (second on the team) and 34 assists and 63 points (both leading the team)
* is the sixth Princeton player to have at least 25 goals and 30 assists in a season (Michael Sowers, Mike MacDonald, Jon Hess, David Tickner and Tom Schreiber are the others); only three (Sowers twice, MacDonald and Tickner) ever reached at least 30 goals and 30 assists in a season
* has 99 career goals
* has at least five points in eight of 13 games this season
* had six goals and three assists, including the game-winning goal, in a 21-20 overtime win over Penn; six goals and nine points were career highs
* named USA Lacrosse Magazine Division I Player of the Week and to the USILA Team of the Week after the Penn game
* had seven assists against Boston University
* is one of two players in program history (Michael Sowers is the other) with one career game with at least six goals and another career game with at least seven assists
* had two goals and three assists against Brown
* had back-to-back seven-point games to start the season, with 3G, 4A against Monmouth and 4G, 3A against Binghamton
* had two goals and three assists against Harvard
* had 2G, 3A against Dartmouth; both goals came in the fourth quarter when Princeton turned a 10-9 deficit into a 12-10 win
* had 3G, 1A against Rutgers
* had 2G, 1A against Maryland
* had two goals and four assists against Marist

Career points
8. Chris Massey (192)
9. Dave Heubeck (182)
10. Wick Sollers (174)
11. Chris Brown (170)

Career goals

11. Gavin McBride (104)
12. Josh Sims (103)
13. Kip Orban (101)
14. Chris Brown (99)

Career assists
12. Mile MacDonald (76)
13. Matt Striebel (74)
14. Chris Brown (71)

Sean Cameron • Fr., M, No. 11
* second-line midfielder
* had a goal against Penn
* had first career two-goal game against Marist
* had his first career goal in win over Binghamton

Luke Crimmins • Sr., SSDM, No. 31
* converted to SSDM just two weeks before season started
* has five caused turnovers and 24 ground balls
* had his best career game with a goal, two caused turnovers and five ground balls against Georgetown
* had a goal against Boston University
* had three ground balls against Rutgers and Brown
* had two goals on two shots against Binghamton

Sam English • Jr., M, No. 15
* 2022 second-team All-Ivy League selection
* 2022 Inside Lacrosse mid-season honorable mention All-American
* has 24 goals and 17 assists after moving from SSDM to a first-line midfielder
* with three more assists, he would become the fourth Princeton middie in the last 30 years to reach at least 20 of each in a season (Zach Currier, Tom Schreiber three times and Rich Sgalardi are the other three)
* third on the team in points and second in assists
* scored Princeton's first goal of a game six different times
* had career highs of five goals and six points against Cornell
* had three goals and an assist against Georgetown
* had four goals against Maryland
* had three goals and two assists against Dartmouth
* had two goals and two assists against Penn
* had a goal and three assists against Harvard
* had two goals and an assist against Marist
* had five points (2G, 3A) against Binghamton

Ben Finlay • Jr., D, No. 10
* 2022 Inside Lacrosse mid-season honorable mention All-American
* has started every game of his career
* has 14 caused turnovers, third on the team
* had a caused turnover and four ground balls against Maryland
* had four caused turnovers against Georgetown
* had two caused turnovers against Yale

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

Coulter Mackesy • Fr., M, No. 91
* began the year as a middie and made first career start on attack against Georgetown
* has 24 goals and 14 assists; he and Michael Sowers are the only two Princeton freshmen ever to reach at least 24G/14A
* is fourth in points by a Princeton freshman
* had two goals and two assists in the first four games; has 22 goals and 12 assists in the last nine
* is Princeton's leading scorer in the last four games with 14 goals and 17 points
* had a career-high five goals and six points against Cornell
* had four goals and two assists in second career start, against Rutgers, to earn Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors
* had four goals against Harvard
* had three goals and an assist against Boston University
* had three assists against Marist

Freshman point scorers
1. Michael Sowers (82)
2. Kevin Lowe (55)
3. Ryan Boyle (53)
4. Coulter Mackesy (38)

Colin Mulshine • Fr., D, No. 43
* has started eight games
* has six caused turnovers and 14 ground balls
* helped hold the Hoya attack to two goals on 13 shots
* had two caused turnovers against Rutgers and Brown

Beau Pederson • Jr., SSDM, No. 23
* 2022 second-team All-Ivy League
* Princeton's top shortstick D middie
* has eight caused turnovers and 21 ground balls
* had three caused turnovers and four ground balls in the win over Dartmouth to earn USILA Team of the Week honors
* had a goal against Boston University
* had a goal against Binghamton
* had an assist against Maryland and Penn
* had a caused turnover and three ground balls against Georgetown
* had an assist, caused turnover and two ground balls against Yale
* converted O middie who had 10 goals as a freshman

Erik Peters • Sr., G, No. 9
* 2022 Inside Lacrosse mid-season honorable mention All-American
* has a 11.91 goals-against average and .541 save percentage
* one of 25 nominees for the Tewaaraton Award
* has at least 14 saves in five of 13 games
* made 57 saves in his three-game stretch against Maryland, Georgetown, Rutgers
* had a career-high 21 saves against Rutgers to earn Ivy Player of the Week award for second straight week; also named to the USILA Team of the Week after the Rutgers game
* had 17 saves while allowing eight goals against Georgetown to earn Ivy Player of the Week honors; made 10 saves in the second half and six in the fourth quarter
* made 19 saves against Maryland
* made 15 saves in 12-10 win over Dartmouth
* had 14 saves and seven goals-against in win over Boston University
* Princeton's starting goalie since midway through the 2019 season

Cathal Roberts • Jr., D, No. 26
* can play close D or LSM
* caused turnover at midfield led to key second-quarter goal against Georgetown
* has four caused turnovers and five ground balls

Christian Ronda • Jr, M, No. 12
* has 17 goals and two assists as a starting middie
* played in one career game prior to this season without taking a shot
* had two goals against Penn
* had two goals against Rutgers
* had four goals against Marist
* had five goals against Monmouth in his first start

Tyler Sandoval • So., FO, No. 35
* has won 170 of 321 face-offs (.530)
* leads team with 77 ground balls
* won 19 of 31 face-offs against Rutgers
* was 18 for 28 with 11 ground balls against Yale
* was 17 for 32 with 10 ground balls against Cornell
* won three straight fourth-quarter face-offs against Dartmouth; all three led to Princeton goals as the Tigers went from down 10-9 to up 12-10
* scored a goal against Brown five seconds after a Bears' goal; it's the fastest a Princeton player has ever scored a goal following an opponent's goal
* was 17 for 36 against Penn but won the face-off to start the overtime
* had an assist against Binghamton
* missed the Maryland game in the Covid protocol

Alex Slusher • Jr., A, No. 5
* 2022 honorable mention All-Ivy League selection
* leads team with 41 goals and is second with 49 points
* is the third Princeton player ever to reach 40 career goals in 15 or fewer games (Bill Chaires did so in 14 in 1973 and Michael Sowers did it in 15 in 2017)
* has at least two goals in 10 games and at least three goals in six
* had a career-high six goals against Brown to earn Ivy League Player of the Week honors
* had five of Princeton's 10 goals against Georgetown
* had four goals and two assists against Rutgers
* had four goals against Harvard
* had three goals against Penn and Dartmouth
* also had five goals against Monmouth
* has moved to attack from being a starting midfielder in 2020
* member of the U.S. U-21 team for the upcoming World Championships in Ireland

Goals in a season
9. Mike MacDonald (43 in 2013)
10. Bill Chaires (42 in 1973)
11. Jesse Hubbard (41 in 1997), Sean Hartofilis (41 in 2003), Jason Doneger (41 in 2003), Michael Sowers (41 in 2017)/ Slusher (41 in 2022)

Andrew Song • Sr., LSM, No. 32
* 2022 second-team All-Ivy League selection
* 2022 Inside Lacrosse mid-season third-team All-American
* fourth-year starting LSM
* also plays on face-off wings
* named to USILA Team of the Week after a four-caused turnover, three-ground ball performance against Georgetown
* has 16 caused turnovers, tied for the team lead, and 27 ground balls, most by a Princeton longstick
* had three caused turnovers and three ground balls against Dartmouth
* had two caused turnovers and five ground balls against Penn, including a ground ball on the overtime face-off
* 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
* started against Rutgers and had a caused turnover and three ground balls
* had three ground balls against Georgetown
* has two caused turnovers and six ground balls

Jake Stevens • Jr., M, No. 14
* 2022 second-team All-Ivy League
* 2022 Inside Lacrosse mid-season second-team All-American
* do-it-all midfielder who plays offense, defense and face-off wings
* has 21 goals and one assist
* second on team with 59 ground balls
* leads all Ivy League non-face-off specialists in ground balls
* one of two Princeton players since 1996 with at least 20 goals and 50 ground balls in a season (Zach Currier in 2017 was the other)
* had two goals against Yale, the third-straight game with two goals
* had two goals, one assist and seven ground balls against Penn
* had two goals and three ground balls against Rutgers
* had two goals and with five ground balls against both Boston University and Brown
* had a goal and five ground balls against Georgetown
* had three goals against Monmouth and four goals against Binghamton
* had seven ground balls against Marist

Alexander Vardaro • Jr., M, No. 19
* 2022 honorable mention All-Ivy League selection
* 2022 Inside Lacrosse mid-season honorable mention All-American
* only starting midfielder from 2020 who is starting in midfield this year
* has 21 goals and 15 assists
* tied career high with four goals against Yale and also had two assists for career-high six points
* had three goals and two assists against Brown
* had three goals and two assists against Penn
* had two goals and two assists against Cornell
* had two goals against Maryland
* had a goal and two assists against Harvard
* had two assists against Georgetown
* team's second-leading career scorer (43-20-63)

Jack-Henry Vara • Sr., FO, No. 47
* returned from the Covid protocol to take all 29 face-offs against Maryland

Marquez White • So., SSDM, No. 24
* running as an SSDM
* had first career goal against Harvard
* had caused turnover against Georgetown

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results