No. 3 Princeton Dominates No. 15 Rutgers 20-9 To Retain Meistrell Cup

Saturday, March 7

Princeton, N.J.

12:00 PM

Princeton University

4-1

Rutgers

5-2

Rutgers

Princeton

Princeton's Colin Burns, Wilder Burgin, Chad Palumbo and Cooper Kistler hold the Meistrell Cup after Princeton's 20-9 win over Rutgers.

Photo by: Camryn Ley

No. 3 Princeton Dominates No. 15 Rutgers 20-9 To Retain Meistrell Cup

March 07, 2026 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

Andrew McMeekin won the opening face-off, raced down the middle, ripped a shot — and saw it hit the Rutgers goalie and then the pipe. If you were a Princeton men's lacrosse fan, you could have been forgiven if your next thought was: "Is this going to be one of THOSE days?"

Of course, you wouldn't have gotten past "to be" before you realized that this was going "to be" a different kind of day, not one that would be one frustration after another. Before you finished the sentence, Nate Kabiri jumped on the rebound, hammered it into the goal just eight seconds in, and No. 3 Princeton never looked back.

In the end, Princeton would score the most goals it ever has against Rutgers, dominating its way to a 20-9 win on Sherrerd Field. The Tigers led 2-0 less than two minutes in, 9-2 at the end of the first quarter and 14-3 at the break.

KABIRI GETS THE PARTY STARTED pic.twitter.com/3QZy94woTV
— Princeton Men's Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) March 7, 2026

The win, Princeton's fourth straight after an opening loss, retained the Harland Meistrell Cup, which goes to the winner of the game against Rutgers each year. The Scarlet Knights, ranked 15^th, fell to 5-2.

Would Princeton be flat after last weekend's sweep of Syracuse and North Carolina at the ACC/Ivy League Challenge? Hardly.

Each player in Princeton's first six on offense had at least three points, led by a 4G, 2A day from Colin Burns, four goals and an assist from Tucker Wade and one goal and four assists from Nate Kabiri. Freshman Parker Reynolds, making his first career start, had the high-point game of his young career with a goal and three assists.

Porter Malkiel had his first career two-goal game, and sophomore Aidan McDonald had the first of his career. Shortstick defensive middies Jackson Green and Cooper Mueller both had a goal.

OOOOWEEE JACKSON GREEN pic.twitter.com/yftCczi1h1
— Princeton Men's Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) March 7, 2026

On the defensive end, Jack Stahl followed up his big weekend against Syracuse's Joey Spallina (no goals) and UNC's Owen Duffy (one goal) by holding Rutgers All-American Colin Kurdyla to only one of his own, and that one came with the Tigers up 19-5 in the fourth quarter.

Princeton totally controlled every part of the field, but especially at the face-off X. McMeekin led the way with a spectacular 16 for 23 day with 10 groundballs and an assist on Mueller's goal, and freshman Russ Fitzgerald went 6 for 8 with five groundballs of his own.

Next up for Princeton will be the Ivy League opener at Yale this coming Saturday, March 14.