Men's lacrosse hopes to avoid repeating history against Virginia

The first two weeks of March last year went as follows for the Princeton and Virginia men's lacrosse teams — the Tigers started off with a win over Johns Hopkins, and the Cavaliers began by falling to Syracuse. On the second weekend, Princeton traveled to Virginia to get drilled by a high-powered Cavalier offense.

This year, March started with the Tigers easily defeating No. 4 Johns Hopkins, 8-4, and Virginia being overtaken by No. 1 Syracuse, 13-7.

That's where Princeton hopes the similarities between last year and this year stop, however, when the No. 2 Tigers (1-0) host the No. 3 Cavaliers Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at 1952 Stadium.

Without a doubt, the Princeton-Virginia game has always been an affair to watch. The two teams have combined for four of the last five national championships, and many lacrosse pundits predict that the NCAA finals this year will include either the Cavaliers or Tigers facing Syracuse.

"I don't think the score in the Virginia-Syracuse game was quite indicative of what went on out there," Tierney said. "Virginia played a good, solid first quarter where they were leading 2-1 and then got a three-minute, unreleasable penalty called on them, during which Syracuse scored three quick goals."

Indeed, careless errors such as the penalty incurred by Virginia in the beginning of the second quarter against Syracuse might plague the Cavaliers time and time again because the team is replete with youth.

"Virginia has a lot of good, young talent. They remind me of our team last year," Tierney said. "They have a couple of great players in Conor Gill, the [Cavaliers'] only first-team All-American returning, and then Mark Koontz in the back is looking to be a first-team this year."

Princeton has five returning All-Americas, though none were on the first team. The Tigers hope these five players, along with several freshman who turned in strong performances against Johns Hopkins, will be enough to counter Gill's attack and Koontz's defense.

One of the freshmen standouts against the Blue Jays was attackman Ryan Boyle, who came away from the win with a total of four assists. He displayed more than just an ability to get assists, though.

"The points, I don't worry about too much, but the poise I worry about a lot. He showed a lot of poise for a kid out there in his first Division I lacrosse game," Tierney said.

Certainly, the entire team demonstrated such composure against the Johns Hopkins attack, essentially smothering it for three of the four quarters.

The fourth quarter, in which the Blue Jays outscored the Tigers, 3-0, revealed some areas in which the Tigers might need improvement, however.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"We couldn't win a face off in the fourth quarter, and we couldn't get the ball out of our end when we did get it," Tierney said. "We've been working on those two aspects and I think we'll be better this week."

If the Tigers are able to win face-offs over the entire 60 minutes and maintain a solid transition between the defense and midfield, victory over the visiting Cavaliers is not unlikely. A win over such a strong program would go a long way toward securing an at large bid to the 12-team NCAA Tournament and taking some of the pressure off the team for the Ivy League season.

"These first two games are real important as far as getting wins in the bank," Tierney said.

"There are two ways to get into the tournament. You can either win the league or you can win some big games. If you don't win a game like this Saturday and then don't win against Hofstra [March 17] and then Syracuse [March 24], then you are up against the wall having to win the league."