Last spring, the men's lacrosse team had one of its youngest rosters in recent memory. Yet despite their inexperience and the loss of their leading goal scorer to a knee injury, the Tigers responded to the adversity by not only winning the Ivy League title, but also reaching the NCAA championship game.
This fall, thanks to a blend of veteran leadership and strong freshmen, Princeton is off to a flying start in its fall preseason.
"We've got a lot of people back that have played a lot of lacrosse," head coach Bill Tierney said. "We've got a fabulous senior group, as good a senior group maybe as we've ever had as far as leadership. We have the perfect combination of young and old.
"I think it just clicked this fall, for some reason. Usually we don't win in the fall."
Fall wins
Earlier this month, Princeton traveled to Loyola to take part in a small tournament. The Tigers defeated Maryland, 9-4, and Georgetown, 14-7, in two abbreviated contests.
"You don't want to be the champion in the fall, you want to be the champion in the spring," Tierney said. "We've never given much importance to the fall results."
While the records from these fall contests do not count toward any standings, these games do allow coaches to give freshman athletes a chance to get a taste of lacrosse at the collegiate level.
Thus far, Princeton's first-years seem to be making the adjustment well.
"They're all that we had expected and maybe more," Tierney said of his freshmen. "The kids are just really, really talented."
"[Midfielder] Drew Casino is going to be an impact face-off [specialist]. Rick Schultz is going to be a great defensemen for us. The two attackmen — Jason Doneger and Ryan Boyle — are all that we can ask them to be. You're going to be hearing those names for years at Princeton."
On the national scene the fall season has offered coaches and officials the opportunity to gauge the impact of rules changes that were announced over the summer.
Changes
In early July the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Committee announced the institution of a 60-second shot clock. However, this drastic measure to increase the pace of the game was postponed later in the summer and is not scheduled to go into effect until the 2002 season.
Still, some changes will be evident on men's lacrosse fields this spring. In an attempt to eradicate delays caused by substitutions, the committee eliminated the sideline horn — requiring that all substitutions be made on the fly.
"Now you don't get that horn, you can't get those defensive midfielders, who have been a mainstay of our program — last year we had [senior] Rob Torti and [junior] Kyle Baugher and [senior] Winship Ross and Chris Berrier ['00], now [senior] Chip Buzzeo — on the field," Tierney said. "What we found was that it's not as easy to get them on [the field]. They probably won't play quite as much as they had. But [it's] better than we first thought when we heard the rules."
With the increase of on the fly substitutions, the committee also extended the size of the substitution box. Previously, the box was 10 yards long, but now the sides have been extended five yards on either side.
"Part of the reason for the box was to create easy substitutions, more transitions, more offense," Tierney said. "Interestingly enough, now that you've got a 20-yard length of a box, what we're finding is that it actually stops fast breaks."
The new rules changes, including the shot clock, were made in an attempt to decrease stalling and lulls in the flow of the game. Such actions, in theory, would make the game more enjoyable to watch both in person and on television.
Despite some initial concern, the new lacrosse legislation will not change the way Princeton plays.
"[The new rules] don't affect us as much as we thought," Tierney said. "Dave Metzbower, my assistant, did a fabulous job this fall with the substitutions.
"When these rules came out, people said that 'Princeton's done.' With 20 pretty good midfielders I think we're far from done."
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