Weekend In North Carolina: Tigers To Face No. 18 UNC, No. 1 Duke

Friday, March 1

Chapel Hill, N.C.

8:00 PM

Princeton University

North Carolina

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Photo by: Nick Ierardi

Weekend In North Carolina: Tigers To Face No. 18 UNC, No. 1 Duke

February 29, 2024 | Men's Lacrosse

PRINCETON (2-1, No. 15 Inside Lacrosse, No. 14 USILA, No. 14 USA Lacrosse Magazine)
at NORTH CAROLINA (2-1, No. 18 Inside Lacrosse, No. 19 USILA, No. 20 USA Lacrosse Magazine)

Friday, March 1 • 8 p.m.
Dorrance Field • Chapel Hill, N.C.
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Trivia time: Who is the last Princeton player to score a goal against North Carolina, and who is the last Princeton player to score a goal against Duke?

Hint: It's not a current player. The current players weren't even in high school the last time Princeton played North Carolina. Most of them weren't born the last time Princeton played Duke.

The answers: It was Tom Schreiber in 2014 against North Carolina, and it was B.J. Prager, assisted by Ryan Boyle in overtime, in 2002 against Duke.

Who will be the next player to do so? That will be answered this weekend, when Princeton renews its series with both schools, first at North Carolina Friday and then at Duke Sunday. Penn, Princeton's Ivy League colleague, will be at the opposite sites on the same days.

Princeton at North Carolina
Five storylines

Series history
The history of the Princeton-North Carolina series has been dotted with one-goal games. In fact, the teams have played 16 times, and eight of those 16 games have been decided by one goal. Of the remaining eight games, three were decided by two goals, including a 16-14 Princeton win in the 1992 NCAA semifinals, two days before the Tigers won the first of their six NCAA championships, and a 13-11 UNC win at Princeton in 2014 in the last meeting between the teams.

The Princeton-North Carolina series is actually in three separate parts, with two meetings in the 1980s, nine meetings between 1992 and 1999 and then five more between 2010-14, all of which UNC won.

Added together, North Carolina has a 9-7 lead all-time against Princeton.

Lineup card
Princeton's 2024 lineup through three games features exactly four players in the same role as in the final game of 2023 (against Penn State in the NCAA tournament): midfielder Sean Cameron, goalie Michael Gianforcaro, starting attackman Coulter Mackesy, starting defenseman Colin Mulshine.

Princeton does have other experienced players, though many are in different roles than last year.

Pace Billings was a starter last year on close defense, and he is the No. 1 longstick midfielder this year. Tommy Barnds has played attack and as a second-line middie; he's now been on the first midfield unit. Marquez White has always been the No. 2 SSDM; he's the No. 1 man at the position this year. Lukas Stanat has moved from attack to midfield. Former LSM's Cooper Kistler and Michael Bath are now starting defensemen. Chad Palumbo was an attackman who played in five games last year; he is now a first-line midfielder.

The 20-save club
Michael Gianforcaro has two career games with 20 or more saves (20 against Harvard in 2023, 20 against Maryland this past Saturday). From 2008 through the present, Gianforcaro has as many games with at least 20 saves as every other Princeton goalie combined (Erik Peters with 21 vs. Rutgers in 2022, Tyler Blaisdell with 20 against Johns Hopkins in 2016).

Fast starts
Nate Kabiri is the fastest Princeton freshman ever to 10 goals, having done so in three games. He is also the first Princeton freshman with at least three goals in each of his first three games.

Kabiri most recently had four goals in Princeton's game at Maryland last weekend. He leads Princeton in goals (10) and points (13).

Entering the weekend, Kabiri is tied with Virginia's McCabe Millon for most goals per game by a Division I freshman at 3.3.

Colin Burns, Kabiri's high school teammate, is second on the team with 12 points (7G, 5A).

Face it
Princeton has a .425 face-off winning percentage. North Carolina's Brady Wambach leads Division I at .773, while Duke's Jake Naso is seventh, at .673.

Other notes

* Princeton is starting two freshmen on attack (Colin Burns, Nate Kabiri). The last time Princeton started two freshmen on attack was 1995 (Jon Hess, Chris Massey — Jesse Hubbard played midfield that year).

* Princeton has had 11 different players score at least one goals so far this season. Of that group, three (Colin Burns, Nate Kabiri, Quinn Krammer) had never scored a goal in his career before, two others (Pace Billings, Chad Palumbo) had scored two career goals prior to this season and two others (John Dunphey, Braedon Saris) had scored fewer than 10 career goals prior to this season.

* Coulter Mackesy has 132 career points (88G, 44A). The next seven highest scoring Princeton players have a combined 132 career points. Mackesy's 88 goals are 47 percent of the total career goals scored by every current Princeton player.

* Princeton has the No. 1 freshman class in the country according to Inside Lacrosse.

* Princeton leads the all-time series with Duke 8-1, including 2-0 in the NCAA tournament (1997 semifinals, 1998 quarterfinals). The Tigers and Blue Devils first played in 1947, when Hall-of-Fame football coach Dick Colman was also the men's lacrosse coach. Duke's win was in the 1952 season. Duke is currently the No. 1 ranked team in three three major polls.