Men’s lacrosse falls in heartbreaker to Brown

This past weekend of March 31, the men’s lacrosse team (3–5 overall, 0–3 Ivy League) traveled to Providence to take on Brown in its third Ivy League match of the year looking for its first League win and its first win on the road. The game did not go Princeton’s way, as it suffered a devastating loss, 14–13 on a goal scored by Brown (4–4, 1–1) with 14.3 seconds left in the game. What made this loss even more devastating was that the Tigers led 13–12 after sophomore attacker Phillip Robertson’s third goal with 2:56 to go in the fourth period. The Bears would then tie the game with 1:10 to go before the winning goal 56 seconds later.

Coming into this, a high-scoring game could have been anticipated after last year’s two matchups, where a combined 64 goals were scored between the two teams. While this year’s goal total of 27 was not quite up to that standard, it would have been hard to replicate last year’s performances. That certainly did not prevent the two teams from trying, as they combined for 88 shots, almost 18 more than the average for Princeton’s seven games so far this season. The game was close the whole time, constantly going back-and-forth with no team ever leading by more than two goals and 10 ties.

Princeton was led by its underclassmen in this game, who scored 10 of the team’s 13 goals. The other three came from senior midfielder Austin Sims. Of those ten, multiple goals were scored by three players: Robertson had three, sophomore attacker Michael Sowers had two, and first-year midfielder Chris Brown had two as well. Sowers added six assists to this, accumulating eight points on the day. Sowers and Brown both continued their streaks in this game. Sowers has scored at least two points in every game of his career so far, and Brown has scored a goal every game so far this season.

The Bears clearly were keying on Sowers this year, since last year he burned them for 14 points on nine goals and five assists over the two games they played.

Up next, the Tigers will take on Stony Brook (3–6) at home on Sherrerd Field at the Class of 1952 Stadium. In this game, Princeton will look to straighten itself out before one last non-conference game against Siena College at Siena Turf Field on April 10 and then the final three Ivy League games of the season. These last three Ivy League games will see the Tigers host Dartmouth on April 14 and Cornell on April 28, and they will travel to Cambridge to take on Harvard on April 21. In order to make the Ivy League playoffs, the Tigers will have to win all three games to have a chance at making the top four. This is no easy task, as both Harvard and Cornell are both ranked in the top 20 of men’s Division I lacrosse. The season is far from over, and the road ahead will certainly push them to perform their best if they want the success they came into this season hoping for.