Men's lacrosse battles doldrums on eve of NCAA tourney seed selection

Princeton did not make it to the NCAA Lacrosse Championships until 1990. Since then, though, the Tigers have been there each of the past 11 years — compiling the best post-season record, 21-6 — of any team in the nation, and coming away with five national championships.

This Sunday, the NCAA tournament selection committee will meet and announce that Princeton, with its automatic bid from winning the Ivy League, will be going to its 12th straight tournament. Before that happens, though, No. 1 Princeton (10-1 overall) will take on a much weaker Hobart team (5-6), tomorrow at 1952 Stadium.

If everything goes as it likely will and Princeton wins tomorrow's meeting with the Statesmen, the Tigers should get into the tournament with a No. 1 or 2 seed.

But what if something goes wrong?

A Princeton loss tomorrow is very unlikely, but head coach Bill Tierney reports that the Tigers have not been able to maintain focus for tomorrow's game at practice this week.

"[The players have been preparing] terribly for Saturday's game," Tierney said. "I threw them off the field [Wednesday]. It's a hard week. The Ivy thing kept us in sync, knowing that you had to win each one to win that championship and to guarantee you that automatic qualifier."

In Saturday's game, Hobart will be relying almost entirely on its offense. The Statesmen have averaged a sturdy 10 goals a game against fairly competitive defenses.

"I'm expecting that they'll be what they were last week [in their 19-11 loss] to Loyola — a team that can score goals," Tierney said. "They've been giving up some goals, too. It's more about us. It's more about our shooting, it's more about our defense. Then again, they do some different things."

What Hobart does differently is constantly forcing the ball inside to its attackers. Whereas Princeton will usually pass the ball around the perimeter and either find a man open inside or rip the 25-foot shot, Hobart will first look to hurl it into the man underneath, hoping for an easy goal.

In years past, playing the Statesmen late in the season has been helpful for Princeton, because Hobart has often been similiar in strength to the lower-seeded teams in the first round of the tournament. This year, though, Hobart has built only a 1-6 record against ranked teams, and is at least a full tier down from the 12 teams which will qualify for the tournament.

"We scheduled Hobart five or six years ago. They were always a team close to getting into the playoffs — sometimes they got in, sometimes they didn't," Tierney said. "This year, they've had a tough year, so I think that, for the kids' focus this week, it's just been a little tougher."

If the unlikely happens and the Statesmen turn out to play Princeton close or even beat the Tigers, Princeton could find themselves seeded in rocky territory come draw time.

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"I told them that we're not playing to be number one," Tierney said. "We're playing to not be number five or six and if we lose this, we will be number five or six."

As Tierney went on to explain, the Tigers do not care as much about their ranking as long as the team gets a top four seeding — the top four being the teams that get coveted first round byes. The teams which will likely have the top four seeds are Princeton at No. 1, the winner of Georgetown-Syracuse at No. 2, the winner of Loyola-Johns Hopkins at No. 3, and Notre Dame or Maryland at No. 4.

With a top four seed, Princeton's first game would be either May 19 or 20. Already, the Tigers are looking ahead to see who their opponent might be.

"I think we're going to see Hofstra, Towson or Georgetown, somebody in that group in the quarterfinals, maybe Massachussetts," Tierney said.

If the Tigers drop to number five or worse, though, Princeton would then have a first round matchup next Saturday, May 12. And with a five or six seed, the Tigers would be playing a three or four team in the quarterfinals — maybe Maryland or the winner of this weekend's Johns Hopkins–Loyola matchup.