Princeton Hosts Harvard On Senior Day

Saturday, April 22

Princeton, N.J.

1:00 PM

Princeton University

Harvard

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Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

April 21, 2023 | Men's Lacrosse

PRINCETON (5-5, 3-1 Ivy League) vs. HARVARD (5-5, 2-2 Ivy League)
Saturday, April 22 • 1 p.m.
Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
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With its spot in the Ivy League tournament secured, the Princeton men's lacrosse team looks ahead to the final two weeks of the regular season. Should Princeton win both of its games, this week at home against Harvard and next week at Cornell, then it would be the outright Ivy League champion.

On the other hand, there is what happened against these two opponents a year ago.

Princeton vs. Harvard
Five Storylines

The Ivy League tournament
There are two weeks left in the regular season, which means that there are six league games left to play. Princeton and Cornell are tied for first place at 3-1, followed by 3-2 Penn, 2-2 Harvard, 2-3 Yale, 1-3 Dartmouth and 1-3 Brown.

This week's games are Harvard at Princeton, Cornell at Brown and Dartmouth at Penn. Next week has Princeton at Cornell, Yale at Harvard and Brown at Dartmouth.

Princeton has already clinched its spot in the Ivy League tournament, which will be held at Columbia May 5-7. No other team has clinched its spot, and none of the other six schools have been mathematically eliminated.

That could change this weekend, as Cornell and Penn are both in with wins (which would also eliminate Brown and Dartmouth). Harvard cannot clinch a spot or be eliminated this weekend. Yale, who plays Albany, cannot be eliminated.

The Ivy League championship
The Ivy League tournament determines the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Ivy League champion is determined by the regular season.

Princeton is at Cornell next weekend, and the winner of that game is assured of no worse than a share of the Ivy title. Should either Princeton or Cornell win this weekend while the other loses, then the team that wins would clinch a share of the league title.

Should Harvard win out, Princeton lose to Harvard but beat Cornell, Penn beat Dartmouth and Cornell beat Brown, then Princeton, Harvard, Cornell and Penn would finish in a four-way tie for the title.

There are also three different possibilities for a three-way tie.

A year ago
A year ago Princeton was 9-2 overall and 3-1 in the Ivy League, as well as up 9-4 in the second quarter at Harvard, when everything changed quickly. The Tigers lost that game 19-16 and then fell behind 13-5 against Cornell in the regular season finale before cutting it to one and ultimately losing 18-15.

That was 37 goals allowed in the last two Ivy games, of which 28 of them came in a 66-minute span, or little more than one complete game. From there, Princeton regrouped, winning two NCAA tournament games to reach Championship Weekend.

Defense
Princeton is second in the Ivy League in goals-against per game at 11.0, trailing only Cornell (10.1). Princeton ranks fifth in Division I in saves per game at 14.50. Princeton has allowed 9.5 goals per game in its four Ivy League games, best in the Ivy League.

Michael Gianforcaro is second in Division I in save percentage at .574, behind only Matt Knote of UMass.

Harvard leads the Ivy League in caused turnovers at 10.3 per game. Princeton, on the other hand, ranks fourth in Division I and first in the Ivy League and fourth in Division I in fewest turnovers per game (13.5).

The Crimson also lead the league in opponent clear percentage at .785.

Century club
Coulter Mackesy has 98 career points, leaving him two away from becoming the second player this season and 40^th in program history to reach 100 career points. Alexander Vardaro did so earlier this season.

Mackesy has played in 26 career games. The fastest any Princeton player ever reached 100 points was by Michael Sowers, who did so in 19 games. There are six players who have reached 100 points in fewer than 30 games to date:

Michael Sowers – 19
Dave Tickner – 23
Kevin Lowe – 25
Wick Sollers –26
Dave Heubeck - 26
Ryan Boyle – 28

Should Mackesy reach 100 points this season, he would become the fifth Princeton sophomore to do so. The others are Sowers, Lowe, Boyle and Jesse Hubbard.

Other notes
* Coulter Mackesy was named to the list of the final 25 nominees for the Tewaaraton Award. Mackesy ranks third in Division I in points per game and fifth in goals per game. He also has at least three goals in nine games this season

* This will be the 87^th meeting in a series that dates to 1882 and that Princeton leads 61-24-1. Princeton and Harvard played every year from 1882 through 1889, and neither team scored more than three goals in any of those games. The teams didn't meet again until 1922, when Princeton beat Harvard 9-3, and they played each of the next four years. From there, they met in 1933-37 and then not again until opening day of 1953. Since then, they've met every year except for the Covid years of 2020 and 2021.

* Matt Madalon is 3-2 against Harvard as a head coach. Harvard's Gerry Byrne is 1-0 against the Tigers.

* Cathal Roberts is third in the Ivy League — first among LSMs — and 27^th in Division I in caused turnovers per game with 1.60. Roberts has 16 caused turnovers in 10 games, with three in the first five games and 13 in the last five. He also has seven in three road games and nine in seven home games. Harvard's Gregg Campisi and Chase Yager are tied for fifth in the Ivy League with 1.20 per game.

* Princeton ranks fifth in Division I and first in the Ivy League in man-up offense at 50 percent. Princeton has 18 extra man goals in 36 opportunities.

* Andrew McMeekin was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week last week after winning 11 of 23 face-offs with seven ground balls against Dartmouth, who was the No. 1 FO team in the league prior to that.

* Princeton is 5-0 when scoring 14 or more goals and 0-5 when scoring 13 or fewer.

* Lukas Stanat and Jack Ringhofer have combined for 14 goals and five assists in the four games they've started together.

* Braedon Saris ranks fourth on the team in assists and fifth in points despite playing only half the games.

* Michael Gianforcaro has started Princeton's last five games and has made at least 13 saves in each while averaging 14.6 per game.

* Princeton will honor its 16 seniors before the game: Luc Anderson, Harrison Caponiti, Weston Carpenter, Jack Crockett, Sam English, Ben Finlay, Luca Lazzaretto, Luke Moriarty, Beau Pederson, Griffen Rakower, Cathal Roberts, Christian Ronda, Alex Slusher, Jake Stevens, Jacob Stoebner, Alexander Vardaro.