Princeton Takes Down Yale 15-8, Earns No. 2 Seed In Ivy Tournament

Saturday, April 27

New Haven, Conn.

12:00 PM

Princeton University

9-4, 4-2Ivy

Yale

11-3, 4-2Ivy

Princeton

Yale Bulldogs

Coulter Mackesy scored five goals in the 15-8 win over Yale.

Photo by: Bret Feiner

Princeton Takes Down Yale 15-8, Earns No. 2 Seed In Ivy Tournament

April 27, 2024 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

Was the team that was celebrating its Ivy League tournament berth Saturday afternoon really the same team that limped back into Princeton just two weeks earlier? Yes and no. Yes, this was the Princeton men's lacrosse team. No, it wasn't the same group of Tigers who were rethinking everything about their season those two weeks ago. Coulter Mackesy scored five goals, Michael Gianforcaro made 16 saves and Andrew McMeekin won 20 of 26 face-offs to lead Princeton to a 15-8 win over Yale Saturday afternoon in New Haven. The Bulldogs came into the game with the nation's highest scoring offense at 16.54 goals per game and had not been held below 12 for the year prior. The win came with two rewards. First, the Tigers clinched a spot in the Ivy League tournament and in fact earned the No. 2 seed. Second, there will be a rematch against Yale this coming Friday, when the teams will play in the first semifinal game at Cornell at 6. The top-seeded Big Red will play fourth-seeded Penn in the second semifinal, and the winners will meet in the final Sunday, May 5, at noon for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. It was just two weeks ago that Princeton lost to Brown 13-12 in Providence, which left an Ivy tournament spot very much in doubt. Princeton was facing Penn and Yale in its final two league games, both of whom had already clinched their place in the tournament and both of whom would clinch at least a share of the Ivy title with a win over Princeton. One week ago, Princeton led wire-to-wire to take down Penn 15-10. This time, Princeton again never trailed, breaking open the game in the second quarter to go up 9-4 at halftime and never having it be closer than five goals in the second half. Mackesy's five goals gave him 117 for his career, one goal away from tying B.J. Prager for seventh all-time at Princeton. Gianforcaro had his second-straight huge game, and McMeekin's face-off dominance put Princeton over .500 for the season. Like a week ago, though, this was a total team effort. Princeton responcded to the Brown loss by playing its two most complete games of the season, across all areas of the field. No player better typified this than Liam Fairback, a shortstick defensive midfielder whose crushing check and takeaway in the second quarter was the biggest moment of the day.

:47 Q2 ¦ FAIRBACK SAYS NO??????????

HUGE EFFORT BY TIGER D TO REGAIN POSSESSION. pic.twitter.com/m4ExJz5GpI
— Princeton Men's Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) April 27, 2024

Princeton led 8-3 before a Yale goal, and the Bulldogs had a transition opportunity to make it a three-goal game at the break. Instead, Fairback took the ball away with a massive hit, and Chad Palumbo scored with three seconds to go in the quarter, as a possible three-goal lead at the break turned into a five-goal one instead. Princeton got nine of its goals from the midfield, as John Dunphey had three and Palumbo, Tucker Wade and Sean Cameron had two each. Longstick midfielder Pace Billings had his third goal of the season.