Princeton Men's Lacrosse 2025: Season Outlook
February 05, 2025 | Men's Lacrosse
The 2025 Princeton men’s lacrosse season is looking to end where its three immediate predecessors have: in the NCAA tournament. Princeton enters 2025 with the high expectations that go along with that success and with preseason rankings that are in the top five across the board.
The 2024 Tigers went 11-5, won their second-straight Ivy League tournament championship and lost at Maryland in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
Every season is different, of course. Princeton’s challenge for this season is to replace some important graduates and integrate the newcomers into a stocked lineup.
Then there’s the matter of the schedule, with an opening run of Penn State, Maryland, Duke, North Carolina and Rutgers before the Ivy League season begins. Princeton may be a very highly ranked preseason team, but it not the only league team that can make that claim. In fact, four Ivy teams are in every preseason top 10, with a fifth on the cusp of joining.
Here is a position-by-position look at the 2025 Princeton Tigers:
Attack
Starters returning - Colin Burns, Nate Kabiri, Coulter Mackesy
Other letterwinners returning – Jackson Kane, Jack Ringhofer, Braedon Saris, Brody Upton
Newcomers – Peter Buonanno, Cody Lam, Porter Malkiel, Aidan McDonald
The Princeton attack unit returns intact after another dominant season by its main man and breakout seasons from his two young co-stars, who successfully took their four-year partnership from high school to the next level as freshmen last year. Coulter Mackesy (40-24-64 last season), a Tewaaraton Award contender, followed his Princeton single-season record 55-goal sophomore year with 40 more last year, which leaves him with 123 for his career entering his senior season. The program career record of 163, set 27 years ago by Hall-of-Famer Jesse Hubbard, is well within reach. If Mackesy doesn’t get there, it could be because he doesn’t have to for the team to be successful. Nate Kabiri (32-25-57) and Colin Burns (26-9-35), also started every game last year as freshmen, after playing together at Georgetown Prep before that. How did they do? They combined for 58 goals and 34 assists for 92 points, the highest total by a pair of Princeton freshmen on attack ever. Individually, Kabiri’s 32 goals and 57 points were both second by a Princeton freshman, behind only Michael Sowers in both. Princeton also returns veterans Braedon Saris (1-7-8), Jack Ringhofer and Jackson Kane, all of whom have made impacts in supporting roles on attack or midfield or the man-up unit. Freshman Peter Buonanno could make an immediate impact on attack or in the midfield.
Offensive Midfield
Starters returning – Sean Cameron, Chad Palumbo, Tucker Wade
Other returning letterwinners – John Dunphey, Tyler Harris, Carson Krammer, Quinn Krammer, Mark Marino, Ian Mize, Jamison Moore
Newcomers – Connor Crosby, Isaac Cruz, Beau Hokanson, Jake Vana
Princeton returns 80 goals by offensive midfielders from 2024. The three starters from the final 11 games are back, as are two of the members of the second midfield unit. On top of that, there are other options of players who have not gotten significant playing time yet but have great potential. Chad Palumbo (26-11-37) scored 26 of those 80 goals last season after having two as a freshman the year before; it tied Josh Sims (eight in 1997 to 32 in 1998) for the biggest jump from a freshman to a sophomore middie Princeton has seen. Tucker Wade (17-5-22) had a huge freshman season, with seven multi-goal games in the final 11 games, including both Ivy tournament games. Sean Cameron (18-3-21) had another season of explosiveness and reliability and is as solid a veteran midfielder as you could hope to have. The same is true of John Dunphey (12-6-18), who is similar to Cameron is size, quickness and ability to create shots. Quinn Krammer (7-4-11) brings size (6-2, 195) and a strong shot to the unit; his brother Carson, who missed all of 2024 due to injury, is even bigger at 6-5, 240. Carson is healthy this year, as is Ian Mize, who is healthy after not being so for his first two seasons. Mark Marino didn’t play much last year as a freshman but has great speed and a quick release, and there are also four freshmen who will all press for time on the field.
Shortstick Defensive Midfield
Returning letterwinners – Billy Barnds, Liam Fairback, Owen Fischer, Jackson Green, Michael Kelly, Cooper Mueller, David Smythe, Jacob Todd
Newcomers – none
A series of injuries a year ago forced Princeton to go very deep at this position. The results in 2024 were impressive; the potential for this coming season has benefited greatly from last year’s experience. Graduation has taken Marquez White and two others — Paul Weathington Jr. and Joe Juengerkes — who were injured much of the year. Because of their absence, Princeton returns four SSDMs who otherwise might not have had the amount of playing time they did, and those four all played extremely well. Liam Fairback (6CT, 22GBs), whose trademarks are toughness and physicality, was a force all season as both a defender and in transition. Fellow senior Michael Kelly (1G, 6CT, 26GBs) is another veteran who is tremendous at turning defense into offense. Sophomores Cooper Mueller (8CT, 9GBs) and Jackson Green (1CT, 3GBs), both of whom are 6-3, were thrown into very early playing time, and both responded with extremely solid seasons. They could both make big jumps this season. Owen Fischer may also work his way into the rotation, as might Billy Barnds, who has been slowed by injuries to date, and Jacob Todd, a converted attackman/offensive midfielder.
Longstick Midfield
Starters returning – none
Other returning letterwinners – Nick Crowley, McKnight Pederson
Newcomers – Finn Fox
Pace Billings graduated after having been Princeton’s No. 1 LSM for the last two seasons. His place will now be taken by the No. 2 man, Nick Crowley (1A, 13CT, 22GB), who has shown in his first two seasons that he is ready to be one of the program’s best at the position. Crowley is athletic and tenacious, both of which are the perfect qualifications for the spot. McKnight Pederson will try to come back from an injury this fall that may keep him out. Freshman Finn Fox is ready to join the long line of standout Princeton LSMs.
Defense
Starters returning – Michael Bath, Cooper Kistler, Colin Mulshine
Other returning letterwinners – Zach Friedman, Hunter Spiess,
Jack Stahl
Newcomers – Matthew Kephart, Kevin Morrow
Princeton returns more than just its top six on offense from last year. It also returns all three starters on a defense that led the Ivy League in fewest goals per game allowed. The main man is first-team All-Ivy League selection Colin Mulshine (1G, 13CT, 23GBs), who guarded some of the nation’s top attackmen and had great success. The 6-3, 225-pound senior has started every game since early in his freshman year, and he has definitely put himself in position to hear his name called in the PLL Draft. Michael Bath (26CT, 39GBs) is a team co-captain after he led the Ivy League and was 21st nationally in caused turnovers per game. Cooper Kistler (1A, 14CT, 33GB) is hardly a No. 3 defender. He is big and physical, strong in one-on-one matchups and another pole who can move the ball up the field after getting stops. Zach Friedman (4GBs) was the No. 4 defender last year who played regularly. Also looking to get on the field will be sophomores Hunter Spiess (1CT, 2GBs), whose freshman year was limited to five games due to illness and injury, and Jack Stahl (1GB), who was very strong in fall practices.
Goalie
Starter returning – none
Other returning letterwinners – Ryan Croddick, Colin Vickrey
Newcomer – Carter Johnson
Princeton’s biggest graduation loss was in the cage, where Michael Gianforcaro was a brick wall for much of the last two seasons. Last year’s No. 2 goalie was junior Ryan Croddick (9.86 GAA, .500 save percentage), whose playing time a year ago consisted of 24 minutes in a backup role behind Gianforcaro. Croddick, who at 6-3 is four inches taller than Gianforcaro, was another player who had a great fall. Pushing Croddick for the starting position will be sophomore Colin Vickrey and freshman Carter Johnson, Princeton’s first player ever from Wyoming.
Face-off
Starter returning – Andrew McMeekin
Other returning letterwinners – Wilder Burgin, Koby Ginder, Jim Williams
For the first time since 2012, Princeton won better than 50 percent of its face-offs for a full season a year ago. The main reason was Andrew McMeekin (8G, 2A, 199x361, 132GBs), who was the Most Outstanding Player at the Ivy League tournament. In addition to his ability to win draws, McMeekin also has possibly the hardest shot on the team, something that is reflected in this stat: He took 15 shots last year, with eight goals and seven wide of the cage, meaning no shot he took was saved by a goalie. Oh, and his 132 ground balls set a school single-season record. New this year is the elimination of the 30-second penalty on a team’s third face-off violation of a half and then every subsequent violation for that half, replaced instead by a new rule that says that a player who commits a violation cannot take the next one. As such, teams will need face-off depth, something Princeton has, especially with senior Koby Ginder (5x19, 4GBs), a veteran of the 2022 NCAA Final Four team.