Men's lacrosse freshmen introduced to college game

The men's lacrosse team headed to St. Louis on Friday for a weekend of team building and scrimmages. On Sunday morning the Tigers fell to Notre Dame, 8-4, before beating Butler, 13-10, that afternoon.

The trip was a great opportunity for the freshmen to get experience with college-level play, as well as playing with the rest of the team.

"The Ivy League allows us one contest in the fall," head coach Bill Tierney said. "The fall for us is very low-key; we're only allowed 12 days and it's really more to get the freshmen familiar with the program. It's a great way to see how things are going and evaluate how we do against teams other than us."

In order to get as many people on the field, the Tigers began both games by fielding their first string team and then played their second string team in the second half.

"Our mentality isn't to be the fall national champs, it's to be the spring national champs," Tierney explained.

"Overall, I would like to think we're capable of a lot better lacrosse, but this gives us a chance to evaluate and see what we've got and see what we need to work on in the winter," he continued.

Princeton will again be a young team this year, having acquired 10 new freshmen. The weekend scrimmages gave the newbies time to shine and Tierney is confident about their future contributions to the team.

"The freshmen are really good this year," he said. "We're very impressed."

The Tigers also returned skilled veterans, including honorable mention All-American Jason Doneger (senior attack) and Ivy League Rookie of the Year Peter Trombino (sophomore attack). It seems that Princeton may have the makings for another championship title.