Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Penn
It'll Be Princeton And Penn In The Ivy League Tournament Final
May 04, 2024 | Men's Lacrosse
PRINCETON (10-4, 4-2 Ivy League; No. 2 Seed)
vs.
PENN (9-5, 4-2 Ivy League; No. 4 Seed)
Ivy League Tournament
Sunday, May 5 • 1 pm
Schoellkopf Field • Ithaca, N.Y.
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A – Automatic Bid
Princeton, the No. 2 seed, and Penn, the No. 4 seed, play in the Ivy League tournament final, with the winner to get the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Princeton or Penn has won every Ivy tournament title since 2019, including Princeton’s a year ago.
B – Back On April 20
Princeton defeated Penn 15-10 on Senior Day on Sherrerd Field on April 20. The Tigers took control of the game with a 5-0 run in the second quarter, turning an 3-3 game into 8-3. Both goalies played well, with 17 saves from Penn’s Emmett Carrol and 15 from Princeton’s Michael Gianforcaro. Princeton had a 56-46 edge in shots and 38-35 edge in ground balls, and Penn’s Griffin Scane was the only player in the game with more than two goals (he had three). Princeton had five players with two goals — Tommy Barnds, Lukas Stanat, Coulter Mackesy, Nate Kabiri and Andrew McMeekin, who was also 16 for 27 on face-offs with eight ground balls.
C – Coulter
Junior Coulter Mackesy, a Tewaaraton nominee for the second straight year, is tied with Jesse Hubbard for the most goals by a Princeton player by the end of his junior year at 117 each. Hubbard is Princeton’s career leader with 163 goals. Here is where Mackesy currently stands on Princeton’s career lists:
Career points
9. Dave Heubeck (1977-80) 182
10. Chris Brown (2018-22) 179
11 Coulter Mackesy (2022- present) 175
Career goals
1. Jesse Hubbard (1995-98) 163
2. Chris Massey (1995-98) 146
3. Michael MacDonald (2012-15) 132
4. Sean Hartofilis (2000-03) 126
5. Michael Sowers (2017-20) 121
6. Justin Tortolani 1989-92) 120
7. Coulter Mackesy (2022-present) 119
D – Defense
Princeton (10.0 goals per game) and Penn (10.43 per game) are the top two defensive teams in the Ivy League. Yale (15.53) and Cornell (15.07) are two of the top scoring teams in the country and 1-2 in the Ivy League, and those two combined to score 19 goals against Princeton and Penn Friday. Princeton held Yale to 18 goals combined in two games in the past week.
E – Especially Clean
Princeton has committed 25 penalties this season, the lowest penalty total for a season the Tigers have had since statistics have been kept. The next closest is 30 penalties, in 2004.
F – Freshman Scoring
Princeton’s freshman class has combined for 65 goals (29 by Nate Kabiri, 22 by Colin Burns, 14 by Tucker Wade); only North Carolina, with 73, has had more freshman goals this season in Division I. Princeton’s 65 goals by its freshman are the most by any freshman class in program history, with the 1995 freshman class second, with 58.
G – Gianforcaro
Michael Gianforcaro, who leads the Ivy League in goals-against average at 10.00, has made 47 saves while allowing 28 goals — and scoring a goal of his own — in the last two weeks, for a .627 save percentage and 9.33 goals-against. Gianforcaro 15 saves and scored the goal in the win over Penn (it was the first goal by a Princeton goalie since Alex Hewit against Brown in 2008).
H – Hotel
Princeton and Penn have been staying in the same hotel in Ithaca. In fact, Princeton and Penn have been the only guests in the hotel, with Princeton on the second floor and Penn on the first floor. The marquee of the hotel reads “Good Luck Ivy League.”
I – Ivy Tournament Records
Chad Palumbo’s five goals against Yale Friday night trail only Mike MacDonald (seven vs. Cornell in 2013) and Jake Stevens (2023 vs. Penn) for goals in an Ivy tournament game by a Princeton player. Nate Kabiri’s four assists Friday night tie Tom Schreiber (vs. Cornell, 2013) for the most by a Princeton player in an ILT game. Andrew McMeekin’s 20 face-off wins were one off the Princeton ILT record (21 by Zach Currier against Brown in 2017) and his 17 ground balls were the most ever a Princeton player in an ILT game. Michael Gianforcaro now has three of the top four highest save performances in ILT games, with 17 against Yale a year ago, 16 against Yale Friday night and 15 against Penn a year ago. Tyler Fiorito had 16 against Cornell in 2010.
J – Just Saying
Princeton has played 14 games but has had only five different final scoring totals. The Tigers have scored either 15 (six times), 14 (four times), 12 (twice) and seven and eight (once each).
K – Kabiri
Nate Kabiri is second on the team in goals (29) and assists (21, including 12 in the last four games). In fact, through 10 games, Kabiri had 27 goals and nine assists, and he now has two goals and 12 assists in the last four. Here is where he stands on Princeton’s freshman records charts:
Goals by a freshman
41 Michael Sowers (2017)
29 Nate Kabiri (2024)
28 Coulter Mackesy (2022)/Michael Chanenchuk (2010)
Points by a freshman
1. Michael Sowers, 2017, 82 (41G, 41A)
2. Kevin Lowe, 1991, 55 (12G, 43A)
3. Ryan Boyle, 2001, 53 (16G, 37A)
4. Nate Kabiri, 2024, 50 (29G, 21A)
5. Coulter Mackesy, 2022, 43 (28G, 15A)
L – League Honors
Princeton had eight players named to the All-Ivy League teams, including two first-team selections (Colin Mulshine, Marquez White). Princeton’s five second-team selections were Michael Bath, Michael Gianforcaro, Coulter Mackesy, Andrew McMeekin and Chad Palumbo, while Nate Kabiri was an honorable mention selection. In addition, Sean Cameron was Princeton’s Academic All-Ivy League pick. Yale led all teams with five first-team All-Ivy players.
M – Meeks
Andrew McMeekin has a .565 winning percentage on face-offs, the best for a Princeton player who has taken at least 50 percent of the team’s draws since Matt Bailer had a .571 percentage in 1999. McMeekin went 40 for 54 with 34 ground balls and a goal in two games against Yale, twice tying his career high in FO wins and setting and then tying his career high in GBs. The sophomore also has eight goals this season, the most by any Division I FOGO in 2024. In the last 35 years, here is the list of Princeton players who have taken more than half of the team’s face-offs and scored at least seven goals (special mention of Zach Currier, who scored 24 goals in 2017 while taking 46 percent of the team’s face-offs):
Jeff Froccaro (2010) 15 goals
Greg Waller (1992) 14 goals
Paul Murphy (1994) 13 goals
Matt Bailer (1999) 9 goals
Andrew McMeekin (2024) 8 goals
McMeekin also has 119 groundballs, which is the third-best single-season total in program history:
1. Greg Waller (1991) 131
2. Zach Currier (2017) 130
3. Andrew McMeekin (2024) 119
N – No. 11
Princeton’s RPI after Friday moved to No. 11, while Penn is now No. 9. Princeton has a win over the Quakers, as well as against No. 12 Yale (twice), No. 20 Harvard and No. 21 North Carolina, with losses to No. 2 Duke, No. 8 Maryland and No. 12 Cornell.
O – Offense
Princeton goal scoring by class:
Freshmen 65
Sophomores 50
Juniors 54
Seniors 16
P – Palumbo
Chad Palumbo had a career-high five goals in Princeton’s 14-10 semifinal win. He has gone from two goals and no assists as a freshman last year to 24 goals and 10 assists this year. No Princeton player has ever gone from two or fewer goals as a freshman to more goals as a sophomore than Palumbo has.
Q – Quarterly Report
Princeton and its opponents are tied 39-39 in first quarters this year. Princeton has outscored its opponents 146-101 in the second through fourth quarters combined.
R – Repeat
Princeton is looking to repeat as Ivy League tournament champion. A year ago, Princeton defeated Penn in the semifinals and Yale in the final. To do so this year, Princeton would have to defeat the same two teams in reverse order, having beaten Yale in the semifinals and now playing Penn in the final.
S – Series History
Princeton and Penn meet for the 93rd time, and Princeton holds a 70-22 edge in the series. Prior to Princeton’s 15-10 win over Penn on April 20, the final scores of the previous three games were 21-20 Princeton (in OT, 2022 regular season), 9-8 Penn (in OT, 2023 regular season) and 9-8 Princeton (2023 Ivy semfinal).
T – Top Notch
Colin Mulshine, a first-team All-Ivy League defenseman, covered the three first-team All-Ivy League attackmen this season (Cornell’s C.J. Kirst, Yale’s Matt Brandau, Harvard’s Sam King). In four games against those three, Mulshine held them to a total of six goals.
U – Ultra-Elite
Nate Kabiri is one goal away from becoming the eighth player in program history to have a season with at least 30 goals and 20 assists. The seven who have done so: Gerry Ronan, Coulter Mackesy (who did so last year and is two assists away from doing it again), Michael Sowers (who did it twice), David Tickner (who did it twice), Jon Hess, Tom Schreiber and Mike MacDonald.
V – VIII
Princeton has eight players who have started every game this season: Nate Kabiri, Colin Burnsw and Coulter Mackesy on attack; Chad Palumbo in the midfield; Colin Mulshine, Cooper Kistler and Michael Bath on defense and Michael Gianforcaro in goal. A year ago, Princeton had only four players who started every game (including Mackesy and Mulshine). Nate Kabiri and Colin Burns are the only two current Princeton players to have started every game of his career.
W – Wade
Tucker Wade has 14 goals and five assists (after having no goals in the first five games). Wade had two goals and two assists in the semifinals, tying his career high with four points.
X – The X
Princeton has won 197 face-offs and lost 179 for the year, a percentage of .524. The last time Princeton was over .500 for an entire season was 2012, and the last time Princeton finished a season with a better percentage than .524 was in 1999 (.526).
Y – Yearly
The top 21 players in Princeton’s regular rotation by class: five freshmen (A Nate Kabiri, A Colin Burns, M Tucker Wade, SSDM Jackson Green, SSDM Cooper Mueller), six sophomores (M John Dunphey, M Chad Palumbo, M Quinn Krammer, D Cooper Kistler, LSM Nick Crowley, FO Andrew McMeekin), six juniors (D Michael Bath, D Colin Mulshine, M Sean Cameron, SSDM Michael Kelly, SSDM Liam Fairback, A Coulter Mackesy) and four seniors (G Michael Gianforcaro, LSM Pace Billings, SSDM Marquez White, M Tommy Barnds).
Z – Zapped
Michael Bath leads the Ivy League with 1.57 caused turnovers per game. He also has 23 for the season, joining this list of Princeton players with at least 20 caused turnovers in a season (stat first kept in 2009):
33 – Chad Wiedmaier (2012)
24 – Chad Wiedmaier (2009)
23 – Michael Bath (2024)
23 – George Baughan (2019)
22 – Long Ellis (2010)
21 – Zach Currier (2017)
20 – George Baughan (2022)
