M. lacrosse to battle Brown for Ivy title and NCAA bid

The Ivy League champion will be crowned tomorrow at Stevenson Field in Providence, R.I.

The men's lacrosse team travels to Brown this weekend to take on the upstart Bears in a matchup of the two first-place teams in the conference that will decide who gets the league's automatic NCAA bid.

Although Brown (7-6 overall, 4-1 Ivy League) has not contended for the league title this late in the season for nearly a decade, the much-improved squad poses some serious threats to the Tigers' (7-4, 4-1) stranglehold on the Ancient Eight.

"Last season Brown had to deal with a lot of injuries," head coach Bill Tierney said. "They're healthy now and they're obviously playing well as everyone saw when they beat Cornell last week."

Despite the Bears' mediocre 7-6 record, five of the team's six losses came by two goals or less. One of those losses, a 14-13 overtime heartbreaker to then No. 1 Syracuse, served as a warning to the lacrosse world.

"I think they [Brown] were underrated before the Syracuse game," sophomore attackman Ryan Boyle said. "But after that game, people started talking and noticed how good that team is."

The key to the game will be who wins the battle between Brown's potent, high-powered offense and Princeton's rough and stingy defense.

Brown is led by attackmen junior Jon Thompson, sophomore Brian Miller and freshman Ryan Culligan. Assisting the front line are middies senior Jimmy Mormile and junior Chas Gessner. Mormile leads the team in goals and overall points, while Gessner stepped up against Cornell last week, tallying four goals to complement his two assists.

The Tigers counter with maybe the strongest back line in the country.

Anchored by junior Julian Gould in net, Princeton also boasts a very physical defense. Senior captain Scott Farrell leads the unit and is accompanied by juniors Damien Davis, Joe Rosenbaum and Brian Lieberman, and sophomore standout Ricky Schultz.

"They have some pretty ridiculous offensive players," Schultz said. "But we have to try and play our game. We need to respect them, but not so much that we play soft. We can't play scared."

The key for Princeton on defense will be giving up the "right kind" of shots.

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"The defense is willing to give up the 12-15 yard shot," Boyle said. "We want Julian to get a good look at the ball. When we give up the right kind of shots and Julian saves them, it's tough to beat our defense."

"We have a lot more confidence now on defense," Schultz added. "We've all gotten better individually and as a unit, except for Damien maybe. He's already as good as you can be."

On the other end of the field, the Tiger offense will have to figure out a way to beat Brown goalie Mike Levin. Levin has been strong all year and came up with several key saves in the Bears' win over Cornell.

"We know he's an athletic goalie," Boyle said. "He likes to move around a lot. It's important for us to jump on him early. We can't let his athleticism hurt us. It's always important to get a goalie out of what he does best."

Princeton will also look to move the ball around a lot and take advantage of the unusual depth it has on attack and in the midfield.

"We have a lot of midfielders who are alike and play well together," Tierney said. "[Seniors] Danny Clark, Kyle Baugher, [juniors] Brad Dumont, Josh White, Owen Daly – these guys have been playing great for us.

"What makes them most dangerous is that they are playing so unselfishly that you never know which one is going to score."

Despite the possibility of an at-large bid to the tournament if the Tigers lose, the team doesn't want to leave its fate up to the selection committee.

"We feel that if we lose, we're out," Schultz said. "There is a sense of urgency right now. No one wants to lose this game."

"We're looking at this game as our first playoff game," Boyle added. "If we get in the tournament, then we'll see what happens. But right now we just want to be in. And we control that now. If we win this game, we're in."