Men's lacrosse to play Yale in Ivy League opener

With men's lacrosse playing three of the top four teams in the preseason rankings at the beginning of the season, one would be fooled into thinking that the important games are past the Tigers.

"The [Ivy] League is our number one priority," coach Bill Tierney said.

No. 3 Princeton (3-2 overall, 0-0 Ivy League) opens the Ivy season against Yale (5-1, 0-1), who is currently ranked No. 16 in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association rankings.

No one on the lacrosse team has forgotten last year's home loss to the Elis to open the Ivy season. The loss left loyal Tiger fans swooning because their team was in danger of missing the NCAA tournament.

The loss ended Princeton's 37- game league winning streak, which was only two shy of the record set by Cornell in the mid-70s.

The Tigers recovered from that loss and went on to win eight straight games before falling to Syracuse in the national title game.

Princeton will travel to Yale with revenge on its mind, and it hopes to continue its modest three-game winning streak. All three wins have been on the road after the Tigers dropped their first two games of the season at home. After traveling to Yale, Princeton plays at Penn before finally returning home to face Quinnipiac.

Victory over the Elis will not be easy, however. Yale has won four of five to begin the season, and are coming off a 22-3 thrashing of the Crusaders of Holy Cross. They dropped their first league game to Cornell, 16-8.

The Elis like to fast break as often as they can, even off the face-off — something Princeton will have to be wary of. On the year, the Tigers are only 46 percent in face-off wins. Tierney would like to see that number closer to 60.

Senior attack Mike Scaglione leads the team with 22 points on 13 goals and nine assists. One of his favorite targets is midfielder Edward Britt, who is leading the team with 15 goals.

One of the things that Princeton has been missing this year has been scoring from the midfield position. Against Rutgers on Tuesday, all 10 Princeton goals came courtesy of the attack.

"Scoring from the midfield — I'm really concerned about that," Tierney said. "We're getting our shots, we just aren't finishing."

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In addition, the Tigers have been forced to rely heavily on five seniors to man the midfield, which means that many of the younger players have little or no playing experience.

"Our overall depth at that [midfield] position is not good," Tierney said.

Another trouble spot for the Tigers has been scoring on the extra-man advantage. Before converting on three of five against the Scarlet Knights, Princeton had converted on only two of their last 20.

Despite these troubles, the Tigers are still winning, a huge plus for the team because improvement in these problem areas is expected.

The Tigers have played very well on attack, as the frontline of senior Sean Hartofilis, junior Ryan Boyle and sophomore Jason Doneger appear to have found their comfort zone.

Hartofilis scored a career-high six goals against Rutgers to move into seventh place on the school career scoring list. Doneger has gotten over any rust he may have felt after taking last year off and has scored 12 goals in the last three games.

On the defensive end, senior Damien Davis has been phenomenal in keeping his man in check. He held Syracuse's Michael Powell, defending Player of the Year, scoreless for the first time in Powell's career. For his efforts, Davis was named Inside Lacrosse/Warrior Division I-Player of the Week.

He will be expected to supply more of the same as Princeton begins the main stretch. An Ivy title not only means an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, but also means that the Tigers will have accomplished their main goal for the season.