Men's Lacrosse
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- mmadalon@princeton.edu
- Phone:
- 609-258-4978
Matt Madalon, the architect of Princeton's return to national prominence, has been the head coach of the Tiger men's lacrosse program since the final five games of the 2016 season. After spending nearly four seasons as the offensive coordinator and then finishing that 2017 season as the interim head coach, he earned the full-time position prior to the 2017 season, and since then he has led the team to an NCAA Championship Weekend, back-to-back Ivy League tournament championships, three straight NCAA appearances and two top three final national rankings.
In his time as head coach, Madalon has coached the all-time leading scorer in program history, the top two single-season leaders in goals scored, a Tewaaraton Award finalist, eight professional draft choices, the MVP of the Premier League championship game, World Champions on the men's and U-21 level and three different players who have led Division I in an individual statistical category.
His current team won the Ivy League tournament championship, matching the accomplishment of the 2023 team as well, and returned to the NCAA tournament for the third straight season, Princeton's longest streak since 1990-2004.
Before that, his prior two teams both began the year unranked and rocketed into the top five of the national rankings and especially the RPI. After his 2020 team did not get a chance to finish its season after a 5-0 start due to the COVID pandemic, he was forced to do what no other Princeton men's lacrosse coach has ever had to do, which was to maintain the program's culture and unity through an entire academic year without a season. His 2022 team came out of that without skipping a beat and played its way into the NCAA tournament, entering with the most wins of any team in the country against the other seeded teams, and then defeating Boston University and Yale to bring the program back to Memorial Day weekend for the first time in 18 years.
The 2022 Princeton team has featured eight All-Ivy League selections and has been ranked in the national top 10 of nine statistical categories. His team also was the only team to defeat Georgetown in the regular season and along with Maryland were the only two teams to defeat Rutgers. Princeton put together a 9-4 regular season despite having the country's No.1 strength of schedule.
The 2019 Tigers were ranked in the national top 10 in four different statistical categories - assists per game, points per game, caused turnovers per game and fewest turnovers per game - and were just out of the top 10 after ranking 11th in scoring offense. Princeton went to overtime against eventual NCAA champion Virignia and defeated Denver during the season.
Madalon led Princeton to a five-game winning streak to end the 2018 regular season, with all five wins by at least five goals. Princeton finished in the top six nationally in scoring offense, points per game, assists per game and team shooting percentage.
In his first full season as head coach, Madalon led Princeton to a nearly 50% increase in wins (from five to nine) and goals scored (from 10 to just short of 15)Â from the previous season. In fact, the Tigers ranked second in Division I in scoring offense and scored the third-highest number of goals in a season in program history.
Madalon spent more than two months as the interim head coach in 2016, coaching the Tigers to a 3-2 record in the final five games of the season. During Madalon’s time as interim head coach, the team saw its goals-against per game average drop by nearly 4.5 goals, from 13.25 to 8.80, despite playing two of the top 16 and three of the top 25 scoring offenses in Division I. The team save percentage went from .411 in the first eight games to .556 in the five for which he was interim head coach, and the team face-off winning percentage went from .433 prior to when he took over to .532 for the final five games.
His first full season as head coach was his fourth with the program. He has previously served as offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator before becoming interim head coach.
Princeton has had six players in program history who have reached at least 70 points in a season; four of them have done so since Madalon joined the staff.
A former college and professional goalie, Madalon spent seven seasons on the staff at Stevens, his last three as associate head coach. Madalon helped the Ducks to the Division III top 10 and NCAA tournament each of those three seasons, ending a five-year drought with no NCAA appearances.
Madalon served as the offensive coordinator and goalie coach for Stevens, whose teams averaged 17.6 goals, 14.7 goals and 14.3 goals per game the last three seasons. He also was the recruiting coordinator, and his other administrative responsibilities included working with the admissions office, coordinating team travel, fundraising and academic oversight.
He was honored by the IMLCA as the 2012 Division III Assistant Coach of the Year, and he also earned a master’s degree in management from Stevens.
He was also a two-time Division III All-America at Roanoke College, where he earned a degree in history with a minor in education. He was the 2005 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Player of the Year and two-time first-team All-ODAC selection, and he led Roanoke to the 2006 Division III Final Four. His brother Chris played goalie at North Carolina.
Madalon played in Major League Lacrosse for the San Francisco Dragons and Long Island Lizards. He spent a year at Hampton-Sydney in his first college coaching role.
Madalon is married to the former Ashley Dubinskas, a 2007 Roanoke graduate with a master's from American who is a high school biology and immunology teacher. They are the parents of two daughters, Waverly and Whitney, and a son Wyatt.
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| Year |
Overall Record |
Conf. Record |
Conf. Finish |
Note |
| 2016 | 3-2 | 2-1 | 5th | Interim head coach for final 5 games |
| 2017 | 9-6 | 4-2 | 3rd | Ivy Tournament |
| 2018 | 8-5 | 3-3 | T-3rd | |
| 2019 | 7-7 | 2-4 | 5th | |
| 2020 | 5-0 | N/A | N/A | Ranked second nationally when season was ppd |
| 2021 | no season | |||
| 2022 | 11-5 | 3-3 | T-3rd | NCAA Final Four |
| 2023 | 8-7 | 4-2 | T-2nd | Ivy Tournament Champ; NCAA Tournament |
| 2024 | 11-4 | 4-2 | T-2nd | Ivy Tournament Champ; NCAA Tournament |
| Total | 62-36 | 22-17 |
