CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — The outcome of the men's lacrosse team's contest against Virginia (4-0 overall) on Mar. 12 was far removed from what anyone would have predicted after watching the first twenty minutes of play.
While the Tigers (0-3) suffered through a lackluster effort in the first quarter, junior goalkeeper Dave Law stepped up and saved all five Cavalier shots on cage. With the saves, he keept the score tied at 0-0 in spite of Virginia's 11 shots during the period.
In the second quarter, Princeton seemed to have finally found its rhythm. Freshman attack Rob Schneider's unassisted goal 45 seconds into the second quarter put the Tigers on the board first. After a Cavalier score, sophomore midfielder Mike Gaudio responded with a blazing shot past Virginia goalie Kip Turner to give Princeton the advantage once again, 2-1.
The story of the night, though, was that the Tiger team simply couldn't keep pace with the Cavaliers. Unable to handle Virginia's athletic, aggressive defense and its speedy transition game, Princeton fell to the Cavaliers in Charlottesville by a final margin of 11-7.
"In the first half, in the first 10 minutes, I thought they outplayed us, but after that I thought we played great — [but then] here we are losing 4-2 [at halftime]," head coach Tierney said.
Bleeding profusely
Indeed, the Tigers were unable to answer Virginia's next three goals, and Law could only come up with one save during that stretch. Moreover, Princeton's offensive attempts were continually frustrated by Turner throughout the second quarter, with his biggest stops coming on three consecutive saves late in the game.
At halftime, though, the Tigers' offense could not be faulted for not playing hard. Senior attack Jason Doneger embodied that expended effort and suffered severe facial lacerations from a stick caught up under his helmet.
"We can take away from this the fact that we came out and we did play with all of our hearts," said sophomore attack Scott Sowanick, who noted that Doneger had been "bleeding profusely" after the incident.
Princeton's comeback attempt got off to a rocky start in the second half as the Cavaliers' attack John Christmas scored only 19 seconds after the faceoff to put his team ahead, 5-2. Princeton, though, quickly capitalized on a man-up opportunity with a score by Doneger off an assist from sophomore attack Peter Trombino.
The scoring was fairly even in the third quarter, with Virginia's lead bouncing back and forth between two and three goals. It seemed as if the Tigers might keep that lead at two after a goal by Sowanick, who swept down from the restraining line to get a step on his defender and rip one home.
However, Virginia immediately responded with a goal of its own with just 12 seconds left in the quarter to kill any chance of a momentum swing. The Cavaliers' lead stood at 7-4 heading into the fourth quarter.
Some of Princeton's play in the final fifteen minutes was promising, but the renewed surge of effort wouldn't be enough. Virginia continued its run to push the score to 9-4 before Trombino could answer. By that time it was too little, too late.
"I thought the first half we played great defense, and David played great in the goal — we did kind of what we wanted to do. [But] give credit to Virginia: they kept doing what they did and it finally wore us down," Tierney said.
The Cavaliers scored twice more in the fourth quarter, and the scoreboard read 11-5 before Schneider and then Trombino scored the Tigers' final goals.
"In the fourth quarter, we started clicking, [but] that's just not going to cut it," Sowanick said.
Insurmountable defense
In the end, the Virginia defense was insurmountable for Princeton. Unlike Johns Hopkins' more organized, disciplined defense, Virginia's defense went after the ball aggressively — a strategy the Tigers had difficulty handling.
"We didn't play intelligently. A team tonight like Virginia chases you around frenetically, and. . . you've got to handle that in a calm, intelligent way, and we didn't do that tonight," Tierney said.
While Princeton's trouble areas — clears, face-offs and shooting — have improved, the Cavaliers still controlled face-offs and shots in the game. The Tigers will look to improve on these factors, as well as on both their defensive stops and offensive play without last year's star, Ryan Boyle.
"We need to take it upon ourselves to distribute [the offense] evenly, or for individuals to step up, but I think we're fine. We've got some really great players, and unfortunately we're 0-2, but we'll be there," Sowanick said.
With a home game against defending national champion Syracuse coming up next weekend, the Tigers hope to "be there" soon.
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