ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

With returning attackmen like junior B.J. Prager and senior Matt Streibel it would be easy to assume that a freshman would have trouble cracking into the rotation for the men's lacrosse team.

Freshman Ryan Boyle has not only cracked into that rotation but has taken it over and now leads the team in scoring with 11 goals and 16 assists through the first eight games of the season.

But it was one week ago when the freshman had his breakthrough game. Making the trip to Penn for a Tuesday night game, Boyle scored two goals and had six assists for eight points on the night. It was the first time a Tiger had picked up that many points since Jesse Hubbard '98 — one of the greatest attackers in Princeton history — had eight against Hobart in 1996. For his efforts, Boyle was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week.

But the most impressive part was that Boyle sat down before even playing 30 minutes of the game.With the Tigers up 13-2 at halftime, head coach Bill Tierney decided to sit Boyle and let him rest instead of running up the score on the overmatched Quakers.

The freshman showed that his performance in Philadephia was not a fluke when he led Princeton with three goals in the Tigers' win over Brown Saturday.

"The thing I like most about Ryan is the way that he improves every game," Tierney said.

If the freshman keeps improving at this rate he might be able to stake his own claim beside those of players like Prager and Hubbard as one of the top players to ever put on the Orange and Black.