No. 5 Princeton Falls To No. 2 Maryland

Saturday, February 22

Princeton, N.J.

12:00 PM

Princeton University

1-1

Maryland

4-0

Maryland

Princeton

Tucker Wade

February 22, 2025 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

Maryland was Maryland. Maybe not as Maryland as it has been the last three years, though Maryland nonetheless.

What does that mean? It means that the second-ranked Terrapins dominated possession time, had long possession after long possession, made almost no mistakes defensively, all of which added up to a 13-9 win over No. 5 Princeton in front of 1,643 fans at Sherrerd Field Saturday afternoon. It also means that, unlike in recent years, Princeton led for more than 10 minutes and had a huge second half chance get away, or else this one might have ended differently.

Ultimately, Maryland improved to 6-0 against Princeton since the start of the 2022 season, though this would be the closest of those six games, on the scoreboard and from the eye test. Princeton was done in by two things: a 6-0 Terps run between the first quarter and third quarter and an 0 for 7 shooting possession in the third quarter after Princeton had cut it to two goals.

Once again Maryland won the opening face-off and scored on its first possession, but the Tigers bounced back, getting two goals from Coulter Mackesy and one each from Tucker Wade and Sean Cameron to build a 4-2 lead midway through the first. From there, it would be until two minutes into the third quarter before Princeton scored again, by which time it had been an 8-4 Maryland lead at the break.

Colin Burns, who scored the OT winner at Penn State last week, cashed in a goal on the crease after a great feed from Chad Palumbo, and then Nate Kabiri tucked one in to make it an 8-6 game with four minutes of the second half clock. Andrew McMeekin then won the face-off, and Princeton then agonizingly took seven shots on the possession with a chance to cut it one, only to come away empty. Maryland then cleared and scored and scored again to make it 10-6 after three, with a goal to start the fourth to make it 11-6.

Princeton did score three times in the fourth quarter, becoming the first team to score more than seven against the Terps this young season.

Mackesy finished with three goals and one assist, giving him 131 career goals, one back of tying Mikey MacDonald for third all-time in program history, and 195 points, five way from becoming the eighth 200-point scorer in Princeton history. Kabiri had two goals, giving him nine in three career games against Maryland, and Cameron had two as well.

Ryan Croddick made 13 saves for the Tigers.

Princeton is at Duke Friday and North Carolina two days later.