Princeton Hosts Brown In 61st Meeting In The Series

Saturday, April 1

Princeton, N.J.

1:00 PM

Princeton University

Brown

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Photo by: Erica Denhoff

Princeton Hosts Brown In 61st Meeting In The Series

March 31, 2023 | Men's Lacrosse

PRINCETON (3-4, 1-1 Ivy League) vs. Brown (4-4, 0-1 Ivy League)
Saturday, April 1 • 1 p.m.
Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
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If the Brown men's lacrosse team is looking for inspiration for its second Ivy League game, it'll find it in its opponent Saturday afternoon on Sherrerd Field. The Bears will come into the game hoping to replicate what Princeton did a week ago in its second Ivy game.

At the same time Princeton will be looking to build on what it did in that game last week. Whichever team is successful will take a big step towards the Ivy League tournament.

Princeton vs. Brown
Five Storylines

Early Ivy
Princeton and Brown both lost their Ivy League openers in overtime, the Tigers to Penn and the Bears to Harvard. Princeton then rebounded to defeat Yale 23-10 a week ago, evening its league record at 1-1 and snapping a four-game losing streak.

Brown did not have an Ivy game last weekend, instead falling to UMass 10-9 before defeating No. 6 Villanova 13-11 Monday in Philadelphia.

There are currently two teams who are unbeaten in the Ivy League — Cornell at 2-0 and Dartmouth at 1-0 — and those two play each other in Ithaca this weekend. The rest of the league schedule has Brown at Princeton and Yale at Penn, while Harvard is at Colgate.

Closing in on 100
Alexander Vardaro enters the game with 97 career points, leaving him three points away from becoming the 39^th player in program history away from the 100 mark. For his career, Vardaro has 63 goals and 34 assists.

With 12 assists, Vardaro is tied for the team lead this season (with Sam English). Vardaro's previous season high for assists is 15, which he had a year ago in 16 games.

The last time Vardaro didn't start a game was back in 2019, against Brown. Since then, he has started 33 straight games, 31 of which have been as a midfielder and two of which were on attack.

For the third time
Coulter Mackesy had eight goals (and two assists) and Christian Ronda had four goals in the 23-10 win over Yale last weekend. It was only the third time in program history that Princeton has had one player score eight or more goals and another score four or more in the same game.

The other two times were against Rutgers in 1953, when Al Weaver had eight goals and Al Hoblitzell had four, and against FDU-Madison in 1976, when Wick Sollers had eight and Dave Tickner had six.

Mackesy, who earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors while also being named the USA Lacrosse Division I Player of the Week, was added to the Tewaaraton Award Watchlist. He is now fourth in Division I in goals per game and 10^th in Division I in points per game.

Ronda now has three career games of at least four goals.

Series history
This will be the 61^st meeting between Princeton and Brown, and the Tigers lead the all-time series 33-27, including a win in the 1994 NCAA semifinals on the way to the second of its six NCAA tournaments.

Princeton's 17-9 win in Providence a year ago was only the Tigers' second win in its last eight meetings against Brown. Princeton led the game 7-5 at halftime before scoring the first six goals of the third quarter.

In goal
Michael Gianforcaro has started the last two games for Princeton and made 31 saves while allowing 19 goals, with a .646 save percentage and an 8.61 goals-against in his two starts. Overall, Gianforcaro has a .579 save percentage, which ranks fifth in Division I and second in the Ivy League (behind Cornell's Chayse Ierlan).

Gianforcaro and Griffen Rakower split the position in the first five games of the season. Between them, Princeton ranks eighth in Division I and second in the Ivy League (behind Yale) in saves per game (14.71). Brown's Connor Theriault ranks sixth in Division I in saves per game at 14.12 and 17^th in Division I in save percentage at .538.

Princeton's team .571 save percentage is the best in the Ivy League.

Other notes
Princeton had five midseason Inside Lacrosse All-Americans: third-team selections Alexander Vardaro and Beau Pederson and honorable mention selections Coulter Mackesy, Sam English and Jake Steves ... Ben Finlay was named to the USILA Team of the Week after holding Yale's Matt Brandau without a goal for the first time in his career (46 games) … Princeton has averaged 19.7 goals per game in its three wins and 9.0 goals per game in its four losses. Princeton is 3-0 when scoring 14 or more and 0-4 when scoring 13 or fewer … Princeton's two leaders in caused turnovers are longstick midfielders Cathal Roberts and Michael Bath, who have seven each. Only once since caused turnovers became an official stat in 2010 has Princeton had an LSM lead the team in caused turnovers for a full season (Derek Raabe in 2013). Princeton has had two shortsticks lead the team in caused turnovers. Zach Currier did it twice, and Austin deButts did it once … Due to injuries, Princeton has had six different players start on attack so far this season (Coulter Mackesy, Alex Slusher, Braedon Saris, Alexander Vardaro, Lukas Stanat, Jack Ringhofer) … Princeton is eighth in Division I in fewest turnovers per game …

What can you say about? …

No. 0 Griffen Rakower (Sr., G)
* made his first five career starts and played the first half in all four games
* made 11 saves while allowing three goals in first half against Maryland
* also made 11 saves while allowing seven goals against Georgetown
* has a .586 save percentage
* had six saves while allowing three goals against Monmouth
* had eight saves while allowing five goals against Manhattan

No. 2 Chad Palumbo (Fr., M)
* had two goals in his first game, against Monmouth
* became the seventh player to play for Matt Madalon who had two goals in the first game of his freshman year, along with: Michael Sowers, Phillip Robertson and Chris Brown and current players Alexander Vardaro, Alex Slusher and Coulter Mackesy

No. 3 Pace Billings (Jr, D)
* Tewaaraton Award watchlist
* started the first three games on close defense
* has missed the last four games due to injury
* has three caused turnovers and eight ground balls
* played mostly LSM last year, when he was named to the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament team

No. 5 Alex Slusher (Sr., A)
* had a streak of at least one goal in 21 straight games snapped against Maryland; streak is eighth longest in program history
* has 58 career goals, second on the team, two behind Alexander Vardaro
* one of two Princeton players to start every game of his career (Ben Finlay)
* one of Princeton's captains

No. 6 Cathal Roberts (Sr., LSM)
* full-time LSM while also playing on face-off wings
* tied for team lead with seven caused turnovers
* also has 11 ground balls
* had three caused turnovers and three ground balls against Penn

No. 7 Luca Lazzaretto (Sr., LSM)
* has been a consistent LSM throughout his career

No. 10 Ben Finlay (Sr., D)
* has started every game of his career on defense
* has two caused turnovers and 12 ground balls
* named to USILA Team of the Week after holding Yale's Matt Brandau without a goal, ending Brandau's 45-game goal scoring streak
* one of Princeton's captains

No. 11 Sean Cameron (So., M)
* second-line midfielder
* had two goals and an assist against Yale
* had a goal against Georgetown
* had a goal against Manhattan
* older brother Brian plays for Rutgers

No. 12 Christian Ronda (Sr., M)
* has 10 goals and five assists this season
* had four goals against Yale, for his third career game with at least four goals
* had three goals and an assist against Rutgers after having two goals and four assists the first four games combined
* scored the tying game goal with three minutes left against Penn
* had 23 goals a year ago, including six in the NCAA tournament

No. 13 Joe Juengerkes (Jr., SSDM)
* has three caused turnovers and two ground balls

No. 14 Jake Stevens (Sr., M)
* preseason second-team All-American
* plays midfield and face-off wings
* leads team in ground balls with 18
* also has four caused turnovers
* has nine goals, four caused turnovers and 16 ground balls
* had three goals, five ground balls and three caused turnovers against Georgetown; no other Princeton player has ever achieved at least all three of those in a game
* had two goals against Penn
* 2022 honorable mention All-American

No. 15 Sam English (Sr., M)
* Tewaaaraton Award watchlist
* tied for team lead with 10 assists
* had two goals and an assist against Penn
* tied the Rutgers game late in the fourth quarter to force overtime
* had 30 goals and 18 assists a year ago
* 2022 honorable mention All-American

No. 17 Michael Bath (So., LSM)
* plays LSM and on the face-off wings
* has seven caused turnovers, tied for team lead, and 11 ground balls
* had three caused turnovers and five ground balls against Yale

No. 18 Luc Anderson (Sr., SSDM)
* one of the Tiger captains
* has two caused turnovers
* has been slowed by injuries most of his career

No. 19 Alexander Vardaro (Sr., A/M)
* second on the team with 14 goals and with 26 points
* tied for team lead with 12 assists
* needs three points to become the 39^th player in program history to reach 100 career points
* had a goal and four assists against Yale
* had two goals and two assists against Rutgers in second start on attack
* had two goals and two assists against Penn as well
* had five goals against Monmouth and four against Manhattan
* first Princeton player in 29 years to have at least nine goals in the first two games of a season (Scott Reinhardt in 1993)
* Princeton's leading career scorer with 62 goals and 92 points

No. 21 Tommy Barnds (Jr., M)
* had a goal and two assists against Yale
* started as a midfielder against Georgetown and had a goal
* had a goal against Monmouth

No. 23 Beau Pederson (Sr., SSDM)
* preseason first-team All-American
* one of Princeton's captains
* had two goals against Yale, with a caused turnover and three ground balls
* had two caused turnovers against Maryland
* had two caused turnovers and three ground balls against Penn
* third-team All-American a year ago

No. 24 Marquez White (Jr., SSDM)
* first line defensive midfielder
* has four caused turnovers and six ground balls
* had one caused turnover in the first four games and now has one in each of the last three

No. 27 Michael Gianforcaro (Jr., G)
* has .579 save percentage, which ranks fifth in Division I
* made first career start against Penn and made a career-high 17 saves
* made 14 saves in second start, against Yale
* has a .646 save percentage and an 8.61 goals-against in his two starts
* started the second half of the first five games
* made 10 saves while allowing five goals against Rutgers
* has made at least five saves in all five games
* had six saves against Georgetown
* made three of his five saves against Manhattan in the first four minutes of the third quarter, when Princeton went from down a goal to start an 8-2 run that led to a 14-9 win

No. 28 Jacob Stoebner (Sr., D)
* veteran defenseman who is part of the regular rotation
* held Yale's Leo Johnson to no goals and one assist while having three caused turnovers and three ground balls
* also started against Rutgers and Penn
* had a caused turnover against Penn

No. 32 Andrew McMeekin (Fr., FO)
* has won 10 of 19 face-offs on the season
* won 3 of 5 against Yale
* won 5 of 9 face-offs against Monmouth

No. 35 Tyler Sandoval (Jr., FO)
* has won 48 of 107 face-offs
* has 16 ground balls
* had an assist against Manhattan five seconds after another Princeton goal (it was the shortest elapsed time between goals in Princeton history)

No. 36 Braedon Saris (So., A)
* starter on attack after playing in two games a year ago, with one assist
* had three goals and three assists against Monmouth
* had a goal and two assists against Manhattan
* had an assist against Maryland
* missed the last four games due to injury

No. 39 Weston Carpenter (Sr., M)
* has five goals this year, with one against Yale, Rutgers, Maryland, Manhattan and Monmouth
* had an assist against Penn
* did not have a goal in his career prior to this season

No. 43 Colin Mulshine (So., D)
* starter on defense
* has four caused turnovers and eight ground balls
* had two caused turnovers against Georgetown
* started 11 games as a freshman, including the final nine

No. 50 Liam Fairback (So., SSDM)
* converted offensive midfielder who is in the regular defensive midfield rotation
* had first career caused turnover in the game against Rutgers

No. 91 Coulter Mackesy (So., A)
* leads team with 27 goals and 35 points
* has at least three goals in six of seven games
* ranks four in Division I in goals per game and 10^th in points per game
* first Princeton player with at least three goals in five or more games since Gavin McBride did it twice (2016, 2017)
* was the first Princeton player since Gerry Ronon in 1982 to have at least 15 goals in the first four games
* has more games with at least three goals (nine) than fewer than three (five) in his last 14 games
* had career highs of eight goals and 10 points in win over Yale, earning Ivy Player of the Week and USA Lacrosse National Player of the Week honors
* had five goals and six points against Georgetown
* had three goals and three assists against Rutgers
* had three of Princeton's five goals against Maryland
* had four goals and two assists against Monmouth
* had three goals against Manhattan
* had 28 goals and 15 assists a year ago; his 43 points were the fourth-most ever by a Princeton freshman, behind only Michael Sowers, Kevin Lowe and Ryan Boyle

No. 99 Koby Ginder (So., FO)
* is 35 for 66 on face-offs for the season
* won 15 of 29 with a goal and six ground balls against Yale
* has won 9 of 17 against Maryland, Georgetown, Rutgers and Penn
* won 8 of 12 face-offs against Manhattan with five ground balls