.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Fresh Off Win Over Duke, No. 8 Princeton Takes On No. 4 North Carolina
March 01, 2025 | Men's Lacrosse
PRINCETON (2-1; No. 8 Inside Lacrosse/USILA/USA Lacrosse Magazine)
vs.
NORTH CAROLINA (4-0; No. 4 Inside Lacrosse/USILA/USA Lacrosse Magazine)
Sunday, March 2 • 11 am
Dorrance Field • Chapel Hill, N.C.
ACCNX
Recap: Princeton Takes Down Duke In A Thriller
In-Game Twitter Updates (@tigerlacrosse)
ACCNX
Live Stats
Probable Princeton starters
Career highs
Career scoring/pronunciations
A – About
The 2025 Princeton men’s lacrosse team returns all three starters on attack, all three members of its first offensive midfield, three of its next four offensive midfielders, all three starters on close defense, its top face-off man, one of its two top longstick midfielders and four of its top six shortstick defensive midfielders. Princeton did graduate its starting goalie. Princeton went 11-5 a year ago, won its second straight Ivy League tournament and reached the NCAA tournament for the third straight season.
B – Bath
Michael Bath had two caused turnovers and seven ground balls in the win over Duke Friday. He now has 31 caused turnovers in his last 19 games.
C – Chad
Chad Palumbo had 26 goals and 11 assists a year ago. Through three games this year he has no goals, but he also has a team-best seven assists.
D – Depth
North Carolina had 12 different goal scorers in its 16-8 win over Penn Friday night. Princeton had 10 different goal scorers in its 15-14 win over Duke Friday night.
E – Every
Colin Mulshine has started every game on defense since early in his freshman season, a total of 45 consecutive starts.
F – Filling It Up
Princeton’s offensive midfielders didn’t have any goals in the opener against Penn State but have had 11 in the last two games. Princeton got seven goals from offensive middies against Duke.
G – Goalies
North Carolina goalie Michael Gianforcaro is a Princeton graduate who was the Most Outstanding Player at the 2023 Ivy League tournament and a 2024 Ivy all-tournament team selection. Princeton goalie Ryan Croddick was Gianforcaro’s backup the last two years.
H – Head Coach
Matt Madalon has as record of 64-38 (.627). In the last 55 years, only Bill Tierney (238-86, .735) has won more games and had a higher winning percentage as Princeton head men’s lacrosse coach than Madalon. In fact, you have to go back to Dick Colman (also a Hall of Fame football coach) from 1946-49 to find a coach who has a higher winning percentage than Madalon (minimum two years as head coach).
I – Ivy League
Princeton was picked to finish second in the Ivy League’s preseason media poll, behind Cornell and ahead of, in order, Yale, Penn, Harvard, Brown and Dartmouth.
J – J.G.
Shortstick defensive midfielder Jackson Green, known as J.G. to his lacrosse teammates, was the team’s player of the game after the win over Duke. Green had a huge goal in transition, was a beast in the clearing game and ran out the final nine seconds after a timeout. Green, who also had a goal against Penn State, is a wide receiver on the football team who walked onto the men’s lacrosse team.
K – Krammer
Carson Krammer missed all of last year due to injury. Through three games this year, he has three goals, including his first career multi-goal game in the win over Duke.
L – Leaders
Princeton has two captains for the 2025 season — Michael Bath and Coulter Mackesy.
M – Mackesy
Coulter Mackesy has 12 goals in three games, giving him 135 for his career, third best all-time at Princeton. Jesse Hubbard holds the school record with 163, followed by Chris Massey with 146; both of them graduated in 1998. Mackesy also became the eighth player in program history to reach 200 career points in the win over Duke and now has exactly 200 (135G, 65A), tying him with Tom Schreiber. He is eight points back of Mikey MacDonald for sixth place and 11 away from Hubbard for fifth.
N – Next Generation
Princeton has four players whose fathers competed at Princeton, three of whom played lacrosse. Freshman Kevin Morrow is the son of David Morrow, the 1993 Division I Player of the Year. Freshman Porter Malkiel is the son of Jon Malkiel, a member of the 1992 and 1994 NCAA championship teams. Senior Billy Barnds is the second of Tom Barnds, who captained Princeton’s first NCAA tournament team in 1990. Sophomore Cooper Mueller is the son of Kit Mueller, the 1990 and 1991 Ivy League men’s basketball Player of the Year.
O – Offense
Princeton scored 211 goals last year. Of those 211, a total of 189 (89.6 percent) were scored by players who return. Princeton’s top seven scorers from last year (Coulter Mackesy, Nate Kabiri, Chad Palumbo, Colin Burns, Tucker Wade, Sean Cameron, John Dunphey) accounted for 171 goals and all return for this season.
P – Powerhouses
Princeton has yet to play an opponent who did not come into the game unbeaten, and that streak will continue against North Carolina. Penn State was 2-0 prior to playing Princeton. Maryland was 3-0. Duke was 4-0. UNC is currently 4-0.
Q – Quinn
Quinn Krammer has made the switch from offensive midfield to shortstick defensive midfield this season. He had his first two caused turnovers of the season in the win over Duke.
R – Riding
North Carolina is 16th in Division I in opponent clearing percentage (.782). Princeton is 12th in Division I in clearing percentage (.905).
S – SportsCenter
Colin Burns behind-the-back goal against Duke Friday night was the No. 4 play on SportsCenter’s Top 10.
T – Tar Heels
Last year’s 15-9 Princeton win notwithstanding, the Princeton-North Carolina series has been dominated by close games. In fact, the teams have played 17 times, and eight of those 17 games have been decided by one goal. Of the remaining eight games, three were decided by two goals, including a 16-14 Princeton win in the 1992 NCAA semifinals, two days before the Tigers won the first of their six NCAA championships, and a 13-11 UNC win at Princeton in 2014. The Princeton-North Carolina series is actually in four separate parts, with two meetings in the 1980s, nine meetings between 1992 and 1999, five more between 2010-14 (all of which UNC won) and now last year and this year. Added together, North Carolina has a 9-8 lead all-time against Princeton.
U – Underclassmen
Princeton starts two sophomores on attack (Colin Burns, Nate Kabiri), one sophomore at midfield (Tucker Wade) and one sophomore on defense (Jack Stahl), with three sophomores at shortstick defensive midfield (Cooper Mueller, Jackson Green, Owen Fischer). Princeton also has a sophomore on the second midfield (Carson Krammer) and another defenseman who is getting regular playing time (Hunter Spiess). That’s a total of nine sophomores who make major contributions from a class that was the No. 1 rated incoming class by Inside Lacrosse a year ago.
V – Vana
Freshman Jake Vana had his first career point with an assist on a Coulter Mackesy goal against Maryland.
W – Welcome Back
Princeton returned nine starters from last year’s 11-5 team. All three starters are back on attack (Colin Burns, Nate Kabiri, Coulter Mackesy), first offensive midfield (Chad Palumbo, Sean Cameron, Tucker Wade) and defense (Michael Bath, Cooper Kistler, Colin Mulshine), while the only graduated starter is goalie Michael Gianforcaro (now a grad student at North Carolina). Of those nine returning starters, Princeton had eight start the first two games, with Kistler as a longstick midfielder and Jack Stahl on close defense.
X – Face-off X
Andrew McMeekin started the game against Duke winning 2 of 9 face-offs and then won his final six, including after Duke had cut it to a one goal with 19 seconds to play. McMeekin also had an assist on what proved to be the game-winner, from Coulter Mackesy with 4:08 to play, five seconds after a Duke goal.
Y – Year 6
Colin Burns and Nate Kabiri are in their sixth year playing together on attack. They’re now in Year 2 at Princeton after playing together for two years at Georgetown Prep and four years as club teammates.
Z – Zinged
Longstick midfielder Cooper Kistler had his first career goal in the win over Duke Friday night.
