Coluccini frustrates Princeton

SYRACUSE, N.Y., April 8 — Six times since 1993, Syracuse has had the last laugh against the men's lacrosse team with season-ending wins in the NCAA tournament.

On Saturday, though, Syracuse had the first laugh against Princeton with a score two minutes into play — and, thanks to great goaltending, got the last as well.

The No. 6 Tigers (5-3 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) failed to score first for the first time all season and fell to the No. 15 Orange (3-5), 7-5, amid weak offensive execution hampered by the brilliant play of Syracuse's Peter Coluccini in goal.

"I was disgusted with how we carried out our gameplan in the first half," head coach Bill Tierney said. "[But, Coluccini] had a great game in goal — that's one of the best efforts I've seen in too many years at Princeton."

The first quarter started poorly for the Tigers. Junior attack Peter Trombino threw a feed from behind the net to Syracuse, who promptly cleared the ball and converted its possession for the first score.

A missed shot on the Tigers' next possession gave the Orange the ball again, and after sophomore goalkeeper Alex Hewit stifled an opposing shot, the Tigers threw the ball away yet again behind Syracuse's goal.

Finally, freshman attack Tommy Davis, fed by junior attack Scott Sowanick, found the goal for Princeton with a shot about five yards off the crease.

"It's frustrating, because I don't think we played our game in the first quarter," Tierney said. "We were tied 1-1 at the end of the first quarter, but it took a lot of out of us, a lot of mental stuff."

Princeton had a chance again in the second quarter, which they started man-up on a 30 second penalty against Syracuse. Coluccini saved a high shot by freshman midfielder Mark Kovler, and his team took the ball right down the field to kill the penalty.

Syracuse then forced Hewit to make a save, but a player on the crease capitalized on the rebound to give the Orange a 2-1 lead.

The opportunities, though, kept coming for the Tigers. Princeton found itself man-up again with 13 minutes, 26 seconds left in the half and again couldn't capitalize as Trombino had a low-angle shot saved. Davis, too, found himself stuffed with his toes on the crease.

Trombino and senior midfielder Mac Bryson would again find themselves stopped short of the net before the half, in addition to several players who gunned the ball wide or off the pipes.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Though a solid Tiger defense and seven Hewit saves kept the halftime score at 2-1, the Tigers were unable to finish on their plays, and Coluccini notched eight saves.

"You look at their goals and they took advantage of some situations, and you look at our goals and we didn't," Tierney said.

Syracuse would most dramatically take advantage of the Tigers with a three-goal run to open the first 10 minutes of the second half.

On four consecutive Princeton possessions to open the half, the Tigers turned the ball over in their own box, only to have Syracuse convert the mistakes directly into three goals and a 5-1 lead, devastating in such a low-scoring contest.

With 77 seconds left to play in the third quarter, junior midfielder Whitney Hayes finally dodged around the crease to score an unassisted goal. But it didn't shake Coluccini.

Early in the fourth quarter, he showed the Tigers his own stripes. After Kovler had three shots blocked or checked away, sophomore attack Bob Schneider and Trombino were both stuffed. Schneider hit the pipe and Kovler was saved again, with Syracuse finally controlling the ball on the last save.

To put the icing on the cake, the Orange forced Hewit to make a mistake on an ensuing ride and caught him for an empty-net goal and a 6-2 lead that all but sealed the game.

Syracuse scored once more, freshman midfielder Josh Lesko scored twice and Trombino scored once for the Tigers to end the game at 7-5. Trombino's goal came with 18 seconds left; he narrowly continued his streak of having a point in every game he has played in at Princeton.

Coluccini would finish the game with an incredible 19 saves to send a frustrated Princeton team packing.

"The guys actually were mixing up their shots pretty good, [so] you've got to give him a lot of credit," Tierney said.

The Tigers' offensive breakdowns, though, were also the result of solid play in front of the crease.

"[Syracuse did] an amazing job, I thought, defending our guys individually, which meant that as a team they didn't have to do quite as much of slides or anything," Tierney said.

Should each team make the NCAA tournament in May, they are likely to face each other again. Tierney noted, however, that if there was a silver lining in the team's two-goal loss, it was that he hoped Coluccini would be hard-pressed to play a better game than he did on Saturday.

And though this close loss, like the one against Virginia, is a hard one to take, for now, the Tigers will need to fight their way through the rest of their Ivy League season if they're still to retain a chance to have the last laugh.