Princeton visits defending champs

Sitting among a record-breaking crowd that topped 20,000, the men's lacrosse team watched last Saturday as two national powerhouses — No. 4 Virginia (3-1 overall) and No. 8 Syracuse (1-2) — faced off. Nursing bruised pride from its double-overtime loss to No. 5 Johns Hopkins (1-1), the Princeton squad was on a reconnaissance mission for its upcoming game.

The No. 6 Tigers (1-1) will take on the No. 8 University of Virginia on Saturday in a matchup that is sure to be a thrilling, high-energy game.

Princeton's greatest challenge will be contending with the Cavaliers' high-powered attack.

"We're just really excited to get out there," senior tri-captain Scott Sowanick said. "Playing Virginia is one of the most fun games ever [because] they go out and they just play, and for us it's kind of a change from what we do, so we get really excited to do it, just to go out and have fun."

The Tigers know what they are facing, as they watched Virginia take on Syracuse last Saturday, and they know it will be a very different game from last weekend's 7-6 double overtime loss to Johns Hopkins in the Face-Off Classic.

While both the Blue Jays and Princeton are defensively minded teams with an eye toward strategy, the Cavaliers are all about quick transitions and heavy firepower on offense.

To combat Virginia's speed and strength the Tigers spent this week upping the tempo of their game and continuing to work on taking more shots. Head coach Bill Tierney will be especially dependent on his attacks to bring home a win.

"I'd say [senior attack] Peter Trombino is the guy we're counting on this week," Tierney said. "I think he's been a little less aggressive than we'd like in the past two games, certainly in the last game. We need Pete to take eight to 10 shots in a game. We're going to count on him to try and lead us Saturday."

The attacks are not the only ones facing a challenge this weekend, as junior goaltender Alex Hewit will be tasked with stopping the Cavaliers' onslaught.

Virginia has 56 goals this season on 170 attempts so far, scoring an average of 14 goals a game. Fortunately for the Tigers, Hewit excels under pressure.

"[Hewit's] actually a goalie, who when he sees more action, unlike the week before where he wasn't seeing too many shots against Canisius, he actually is a guy who does better when he gets in a rhythm like that," Tierney said. "He'll certainly see a lot of shots this week. We're very confident he's going to do very well."

Stopping junior preseason All-American attack Ben Rubeor will be Hewit's toughest task. Only the eighth player in school history to score more than 50 goals in two seasons, shutting down Rubeor will be a key element to a Tiger victory. Princeton will also have to be wary of Danny Glading and Derek Bilings, who are both very talented attackmen.

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Princeton has its own offensive talents as well, who will try to improve on their scoring output against Johns Hopkins.

"We're going to continue to take a lot of shots like we did last week and hopefully get a few more than six goals," Tierney said. "You don't beat a team like Virginia scoring six goals, that's for sure."

As always, the bottom line will be who can score more goals, and against Virginia, that means scoring a lot more than the Tigers are accustomed to.

"If we can get double figures, then I think we have a chance, we have a good chance," Tierney said. "The chances of keeping Virginia into the fives and sixes are pretty remote, so the overall plan is just to get a few more than we did last week, and hopefully play as well defensively as last week, and see what happens."