No. 11 Princeton Hosts Manhattan In Tuesday Evening Men's Lacrosse

Tuesday, February 20

Princeton, N.J.

6:00 PM

Princeton University

Manhattan

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Joe Juengerkes and the Tigers host Manhattan Tuesday at 6.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

No. 11 Princeton Hosts Manhattan In Tuesday Evening Men's Lacrosse

February 19, 2024 | Men's Lacrosse

NO. 11 PRINCETON (1-0) vs. MANHATTAN (0-1)

Tuesday, Feb. 20 • 6 p.m.
Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
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The Princeton men's lacrosse team was supposed to be playing its home opener Tuesday night against Manhattan. When the weather changed all that this past weekend, Princeton found itself with one more home game than it originally intended.

Back at home, Princeton hosts Manhattan before taking to the road for its next four, all of which are against ranked opponents. Because of the schedule change that saw the Monmouth game pushed back a day, Princeton is now playing the second of what will be three games in seven days.

Princeton vs. Manhattan
Five Storylines

Series history
Princeton and Manhattan meet for the ninth time, and the Tigers have won all eight previous meetings. Matt Madalon is 1-0 against Manhattan, after last year's 14-9 Tiger win.

Manhattan actually had the lead at halftime 5-4 in last year's game before Princeton outscored the Jaspers 8-2 in the third quarter to take control.

Fresh starts
Princeton's highly regarded freshman attackmen Colin Burns and Nate Kabiri combined for 12 points in their first college game, as Burns had four goals and three assists and Kabiri had three goals and two assists in the 15-5 win over Monmouth Sunday afternoon.

The seven points from Burns tied the program record for points by a Princeton player in the first game of his freshman year (Michael Sowers had seven against NJIT in 2017). Princeton has never had two freshmen with at least three goals in their first game before.

Strength of schedule
After Manhattan, Princeton's next five games are against teams ranked in the top 17 of this week's USILA coaches' poll. Of those five games, the first four are on the road.

Princeton will be at No. 4 Maryland Saturday at 2. After that, it'll be a two-game swing to the Raleigh-Durham area, for a game March 1 at No. 15 North Carolina and March 3 at No. 2 Duke. Princeton then returns to New Jersey to play at No. 17 Rutgers on March 10 and then opens its Ivy season at home against No. 6 Cornell March 17.

Princeton is ranked 11^th this week.

The first time since …
Pace Billings had a goal (the first of the season for the Tigers), three caused turnovers and three ground balls against Monmouth. Who was the last Princeton defenseman to put up those numbers in a game?

It was George Baughan, who did so against Cornell (1G, 4CT, 4GB) in the final game of the 2018 regular season.

Gio in goal
Michael Gianforcaro has started 11 games in goal in his career. He's made at least 13 saves in nine of those games and at least 10 in all but one.

He began his senior year with 13 saves and five goals against in the win over Monmouth.

Other notes
Princeton was supposed to have five home games and eight road games this season, but when the snow forced its opener against Monmouth to move from West Long Branch to Princeton, suddenly the schedule had six home and seven away … Manhattan played in the first college lacrosse game ever, back on Nov. 22, 1877, when the Jaspers took on NYU … Chad Palumbo had three goals against Monmouth. He now has five career goals, all of which have come against the Hawks … Coulter Mackesy and Michael Gianforcaro are both on the Tewaaraton Award watchlist … It's very, very early obviously, but Princeton leads Division I in scoring defense at 5.00 per game. Michael Gianforcaro leads Division I in save percentage (.722) ... Princeton shut out Monmouth for the final 34:04 of the game Sunday.