No. 13 Princeton Hosts No. 15 Cornell In Ivy Opener

Sunday, March 17

Princeton, N.J.

2:00 PM

Princeton University

Cornell

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Photo by: Nick Ierardi

No. 13 Princeton Hosts No. 15 Cornell In Ivy Opener

March 15, 2024 | Men's Lacrosse

PRINCETON (4-2, 0-0 Ivy League; No. 13 Inside Lacrosse, No. 13 USILA, No. 13 USA Lacrosse Magazine)
vs.
CORNELL (3-2, 0-0 Ivy League; No. 15 Inside Lacrosse, No. 15 USILA, No. 15 USA Lacrosse Magazine))

Sunday, March 17 • 2 pm
Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium • Princeton, N.J.
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The temperatures in Princeton have been in the 70s all week. It must be time for Princeton-Cornell men's lacrosse.

What? It's still March? Well, it'll be the Tigers and Big Red on Sherrerd Field anyway Sunday at 2.

Princeton (No. 13 Inside Lacrosse, No. 13 USILA, No. 15 USA Lacrosse Magazine) at Cornell (No. 15 Inside Lacrosse, No. 15 USILA, No. 15 USA Lacrosse Magazine)
Five storylines

Balanced scoring
In its last two games, Princeton has gotten 10 goals from its attack and 10 goals from its offensive midfield (and one each from an SSDM and the face-off man). In its first four games, Princeton got 34 goals from its attack and 12 from its offensive midfielders.

Not too close
Princeton has played six games, and the average score of those five games is Winning Team 14.8, Losing Team 7.2. The winning team in all six Princeton games has reached at least 13 goals; the losing team is all six Princeton games has been held to nine or fewer.

No Princeton game this season has been closer than five goals, and the team ahead at halftime has never trailed in the second half of any of the five.

Coulter Updates
Coulter Mackesy has scored 98 goals in his career, leaving him two away from becoming the 15^th Princeton player to reach the 100-mark. Should he reach the mark, Mackesy, who reached the 50-assist mark last week at Rutgers, would become just the sixth player in Princeton history with at least 100 goals and 50 assists, joining: Michael Sowers, Mike MacDonald, Tom Schreiber, Chris Brown and Wick Sollers.

Also, Mackesy has played 37 career games. Only two Princeton players have ever reached 100 goals in fewer than 40 games: Sollers (35) and Jesse Hubbard (38).

Youth movement
Princeton's top six on offense consists of three freshmen (Colin Burns and Nate Kabiri on attack, Tucker Wade in the midfield), two sophomores (Chad Palumbo and John Dunphey in the midfield) and one junior (Coulter Mackesy on attack).

Princeton has had six freshmen who have had at least four games with at least three goals. Of those six, three are current Tigers: Colin Burns and Nate Kabiri, who have done so already this season in just six games, and Coulter Mackesy, who did so in 2022.

The others were Michael Sowers (2017), Mike Chanenchuk (2010) and Jesse Hubbard (1995).

The last time Princeton started two freshmen on attack was 1995, with Jon Hess and Chris Massey. Hubbard played midfield that season before moving onto the attack line the next three years.

Schedule change
Princeton and Cornell finished the regular season against each other every year since 2010, which was the year after Bill Tierney left Princeton for Denver. In fact, the entire Ivy League schedule was in the same order each season from 2010 until a year ago.

This year, the schedule is radically different. It's not exactly reversed from last year but close: Princeton has been playing Penn-Yale-Brown-Dartmouth-Harvard-Cornell in that order since 2010 but will now play Cornell-Harvard-Dartmouth-Brown-Penn-Yale.

The change came about by a vote of Ivy coaches.

Other notes

* Princeton has a 42-41-2 edge in a series that dates to 1922. There have been four one-goal games in the last six meetings between the two, including last year's Big Red win in overtime. Princeton and Cornell have been by far the dominant programs when it comes to Ivy League championships. Cornell has won 31, more than any other school. Princeton is in second, with 27. If the next-best team, Brown (with 11), won every Ivy title until it caught Princeton for second, it would do so in 2040. Cornell was last year's Ivy League champion; Princeton was last year's Ivy League tournament champion.

* Princeton's defense leads the Ivy League and ranks 11^th in Division I, allowing 9.67 goals per game. Cornell is second in the Ivy League and fifth in Division I in scoring offense, at 16.00 goals per game.

* Princeton had 14 goals against Rutgers, of which 10 were unassisted. Princeton had an assist on 63 percent of its goals for the season prior to the Rutgers game.

* Princeton had three players who scored their first career goal in the game against Rutgers: Tucker Wade (who had two), plus Andrew McMeekin and Michael Kelly.

* Princeton is playing at home for the first time since Feb. 20. The Tigers have played four straight on the road, losing at Maryland, winning at North Carolina, losing at Duke and winning at Rutgers.

* Michael Bath set the program record with six caused turnovers against Rutgers. He was honored as the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week, the USA Lacrosse Division I Player of the Week and as a member of the USILA Team of the Week.

* Colin Burns has 13 goals on 26 shots, giving him a .500 shooting percentage that leads the Ivy League and is ninth in Division I.

* Princeton is playing its seventh game of the season, only one of which was played on a Saturday (at Maryland).

* Princeton has scored 15, 15, 15 and 14 goals in its four wins and seven and eight goals in its two losses.

* Princeton's Nate Kabiri and Coulter Mackesy scored goals five seconds apart in the second quarter against North Carolina, equaling the school record for the shortest elapsed time between goals.

* Michael Gianforcaro has two career games with 20 or more saves (20 against Harvard in 2023, 20 against Maryland this season). 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). The last Princeton goalie with multiple career games of at least 20 saves, by the way, was Trevor Tierney, who had two such games as a junior in 2000. Gianforcaro is sixth in Division I in and first in the Ivy League in save percentage at .593, and he also leads the Ivy League in goals-against average at 9.95.

* Face-off man Andrew McMeekin had a 2 for 24 streak between the Maryland game and the first quarter of the UNC game. Aside from that, he is 58 for 102 (57 percent), with 33 ground balls and three caused turnovers, as well as a goal and two assists. He had a goal and assist in the win over Rutgers.

* Princeton has won six NCAA championships and played in 11 Final Fours, most recently reaching Championship Weekend in 2022. Princeton also played in last year's NCAA tournament, falling in the opening round 13-12 at Penn State.

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