Again ranked No. 1, men's lax to keep one eye on polls

The men's lacrosse team, coming off a 15-2 victory over Brown, is exactly where it wants to be — ranked No. 1 in the country. Forget all the cliches about how polls don't matter.

"I told the guys we can't avoid this thing. Let's grab [the No. 1 ranking]," head coach Bill Tierney said. "Let's acknowledge it. The normal thing for coaches to say is that polls aren't important, that the only thing that matters is the playoffs.

"We're going to say from this point on that [polls] are important. We'll try to be No. 1 for the next eight weeks."

Princeton (7-1 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) was ranked No. 1 for one week earlier this season, but then it suffered a 14-8 loss at the hands of Syracuse, which reclaimed the top spot. But the Orangemen, now ranked No. 3, lost last weekend in overtime to Loyola, opening the door for the Tigers to ascend to No. 1 for a second time.

Princeton's first test this time around as the country's best team comes 3 p.m. tomorrow at 1952 Stadium against Harvard (6-3, 1-2). The Tigers hope that they'll have more luck at No. 1 at this point in the season — they are 0-1 when ranked No. 1 and 7-0 when No. 2 or lower.

The Crimson have been on a roller-coaster ride as a team this year, beating a good Duke team 6-5 with solid defense and then falling flat on their faces against Cornell in a 16-3 debacle. Princeton has no idea which Harvard team will show up tomorrow.

"Harvard is . . . I don't know about Harvard," Tierney said. "We're approaching this like we do every other game — this is a tough team; it's an Ivy League battle; we've got to win this game and continue to set us up for next week [against Cornell]."

The Ancient Eight has been kind to Princeton over the last few years. The Tigers have won 34 straight conference matchups, just five shy of Cornell's mark set in during the 1970s. With such a tradition of dominance, you might think it's hard to get Princeton up for every game. But that's far from the case.

"We don't talk about the streak thing," Tierney said. "It's there, like polls and rankings, you can't ignore them, but the bottom line is the pressure that the kids put upon themselves year to year, especially in this Ivy League thing.

"We've had three senior classes that have gone undefeated through the Ivy League, and that's the goal. You want to go 24-0 in the Ivy League, and the only way to do that is to win the next game. You can't do it if you lose one. Whether it be Cornell or anyone else, you get up for that game. In a year like this, it's been a little easier, with all the upsets out there."

Does Harvard have the tools to pull out another upset, like Loyola's shocker over Syracuse? The Crimson return last season's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Matt Primm, at attackman, along with the talented Roger Buttles. Harvard is also solid in the net, with Jake McKenna handling duties well this season as a freshman.

The Crimson played Wednesday, beating Brown at home, 7-4. The game was deadlocked at four going into the fourth quarter, but Harvard dominated the final 15 minutes to pick up its first Ivy League victory on the season.

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But the Crimson might be running into top-ranked Princeton at the wrong time. The Tigers, who have triumphed over Harvard 10 straight times, seem to have improved from week to week and have had an easy time in Ivy games this season, outscoring their opponents by a margin of 47-14.

"We've been known to click at this time of the year," Tierney said. "I'm certainly believing the offense is getting to know each other pretty well. Coach [Dave] Metzbower has done a great job opening the offense up a bit, giving kids a little more freedom. The key, of course, is for our defense to continue to play well."