Men's lax hosts Rutgers

So far this season, the men's lacrosse team has had one convincing win over Johns Hopkins, one convincing loss to Virginia, and one middling win over Hofstra. The Tigers' 2-1 record is neither good nor bad, but inconclusive.

With so few variables solved for the Tigers thus far, Princeton runs into a fixed value this Saturday when it faces Rutgers at home.

"It's always constants with Rutgers," head coach Bill Tierney said. "You're always going to get a full 60 minutes of high intensity."

This is the 78th meeting between the intrastate rivals, who have played each other every year since 1926 except for the war years of 1944 and 1945. The game is played for a trophy named for Harland Meistrell, who played for two years at each school in the late 1910s, helping to revitalize the two programs. Princeton won the Meistrell Cup in every year of the 1990s to take a 47-28-3 overall lead in the series.

The last 25 matchups have seen Tom Hayes on the sideline as head coach of the Scarlet Knights. This year will be his 26th and last, however, since he announced in October that he will retire at the end of this season. His final year has not gone particularly well, as Rutgers stands at just 1-3. The Scarlet Knights opened the year with a surprising 15-5 loss to No. 19 Delaware, and were beaten soundly by No. 3 Virginia, 17-8.

Nevertheless, just as Princeton's 2-1 record does not guarantee a championship team, Rutgers' 1-3 mark does not ensure a losing season. The Scarlet Knights played the Cavaliers close for much of the first half and barely let Navy get away, 11-8, in their most recent contest. Rutgers will be looking to turn things around with an upset of Princeton.

"The game has a rich tradition," Tierney said. "This year has a little added importance in that this is Coach Hayes' last year, so I know they're going to be pretty fired up."

The Scarlet Knights' strength is unquestionably in their attackmen. As expected, preseason All-American Keith Cromwell has racked up big scoring numbers with 12 goals and 10 assists on the year. He notched a career-high 10 points with six goals and four assists in Rutgers' lone win, a 19-10 shellacking of Radford. Joining Cromwell on the front line is freshman Mike McLaughlin, who has made an immediate impact with seven goals and nine assists on the year.

When faced with similar offensive firepower against Virginia, the Tigers scrambled to match the Cavaliers' goal for goal but could not keep up. In its win over Hofstra, Princeton reverted to its reserved, precise offense of the early 1990s. The slowed pace had the effect of giving the offense better looks at the net and providing the young defense with more time to regroup for the opponent's next possession.

"They're a good team with an attack that does a lot of scoring," senior midfielder Chris Berrier said. "So we have to hold their attack in check and [force] their midfield to beat us. We've been working on making better decisions about when we should push the ball and when we should give the defense a break. Probably over the last two games, we've been a little hasty taking shots."

Princeton rode on high expectations after its opening win over Hopkins, but lost that momentum over break, particularly in the Virginia contest.

Tierney called that game, "as devastating a loss as we've had in a long time."