This Saturday the men's lacrosse team travels just a few miles north to New Brunswick to face Rutgers in the team's final non-Ivy League game of the season. After defeating Penn in overtime on Tuesday to claim their first win of the season, the Tigers know they need to continue to turn around what has been a disappointing campaign so far with a win against the Scarlet Knights.
The last time the teams met was in the opening round of last year's NCAA tournament. Princeton (1-5 overall, 1-1 Ivy League) came away with a convincing 12-4 win, the second time it defeated Rutgers (3-5, 1-2 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference) during that season.
The instate rivals compete for the Meistrell Cup, an honor given annually to the game's winner. The Tigers enter this year's contest confident, knowing they have come away with the cup for 15 consecutive years.
The Scarlet Knights are led by goalie Greg Havalchak. Havalchak was a second team All-American last season as a sophomore and has only improved since then.
"I think they've got the best goalie in the country," head coach Bill Tierney said. "He's tough to score on — he's a big kid, he plays his angles well, he takes up a lot of room, he's really good."
The matchup between the Princeton shooters and Havalchak could be one of the most important of the game. The Tigers will have to step up their shooting in order to put in enough goals against a goalie of Havalchak's caliber. Princeton only scored on 16.7 percent of its shots against Penn on Tuesday, an exceptionally low figure that the Tigers must improve upon this weekend.
Princeton's offensive unit is led by a trio of sophomores: attackmen Scott Sowanick and Peter Trombino and midfielder Mike Gaudio. Sowanick leads the team in both goals and assists with 11 and six, respectively. Trombino has tallied nine goals on the season, while Gaudio has contributed eight goals.
Gaudio has shown exceptional improvement for the Tigers this season. Last year, he scored only one goal on the season while seeing action in just six games.
The likely starter in goal for Princeton is freshman Alex Hewitt. Hewitt started his first collegiate game against Penn and made nine saves with a 64.3 save percentage. All three of the Tigers' goalies — junior Dave Law, senior Matt Larkin and Hewitt — have been playing at an equally high level. Hewitt's top notch play last week in earning a win convinced Tierney to give him the starting nod for another game.
Besides Havalchak, other key players for the Scarlet Knights include attackmen Leif Blomquist and Nate Sanderson. Blomquist leads Rutgers' offensive attack with 23 points on 10 goals and 13 assists. Sanderson has zero assists, but he paces the Scarlet Knights with 13 goals.
Going into the game, there is no single area where Princeton has a clearcut advantage over Rutgers. One unit that should provide the Tigers with a strong effort is their defense, which played a solid game on Tuesday and held Penn to just five goals.
The game will have little impact on Princeton's chances of making the NCAA tournament. As the Tigers are 0-4 so far outside of the Ivy League, there is virtually no chance of them receiving an at-large bid to the tournament. Princeton's only option for making the tournament is to win the Ivy League, standings on which the Rutgers game has no effect.
Nevertheless, the game could have serious ramifications for the momentum and confidence of the struggling Tigers. After beginning the season 0-5, Princeton is hoping to use a victory against Rutgers to build on the confidence it gained in its overtime win over Penn.
The Tigers will need as much momentum as they can get heading back into Ivy League play. With already one loss against Yale, they have very little room for error if they want to continue its streak of 10 straight Ivy League Championships. No team in any sport has won 11 consecutive Ivy League Championships, something that Princeton hopes to accomplish in the process of turning its season around.
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