Tigers come up just short against U.Va.

The Tigers’ success in keeping pace with Virginia (6-0) from the first whistle was a far cry from last week’s contest against Johns Hopkins, when Princeton (1-2) faced an insurmountable 10-1 deficit at the half. But due to a few defensive lapses, the Tigers ultimately fell 12-10 in their fourth consecutive loss to the Cavaliers.

“The real positive was that we played almost 60 minutes today, and we haven’t done that,” head coach Bill Tierney said. “We gave them a quick start at the beginning of both halves again, so we need to keep working on that. It was better but clearly not enough yet.”

The biggest breakdown came at the beginning of the third quarter. The Tigers entered the locker room trailing only 6-5, but the confidence and poise with which they played in the first half momentarily abandoned them in the opening four minutes of the third frame. After winning the face-off, the Cavaliers streaked downfield firing shots at the Princeton goal.

Shamel Bratton was the first to strike when he dodged two Tiger defensemen and beat senior goalie and co-captain Alex Hewit at 13 minutes, 21 seconds. Less than half a minute later, Brian Carroll scored his 12th goal of the season, lifting Virginia to an 8-5 lead. Danny Glading continued the onslaught 20 seconds later when he slipped a shot past Hewit, and Carroll finished it off with a man-up goal at 11:43. Carroll ended the game with a hat trick and one assist.

Faced with a five-goal deficit, the Tigers could have very easily given up. But senior attack and co-captain Bob Schneider refused to go quietly. About six minutes into the quarter, Schneider rolled right, turned back to his left and released a shot that slipped just below the crossbar past the stick of goalie Adam Ghitelman.

The Tiger offense fed off Schneider’s goal and came alive. After sophomore attack Scott Mackenzie fired wide of the net, Princeton regained possession and slung the ball around the perimeter purposefully. Junior midfielder Josh Lesko spotted senior attack Alex Haynie wide open in front of the goal, and one short pass later Haynie converted on the doorstep to put the Tigers within three.

With two minutes to go in the third frame, junior midfielder Mark Kovler received a pass from Mackenzie and made it 10-8 on a blistering shot from 15 yards out that skidded past Ghitelman. Kovler led the Tigers on offense, finishing the game with four goals to increase his total to seven.

Though Carroll stemmed the scoring tide when he completed his hat trick in the final two minutes of the third, a Princeton comeback seemed feasible as the Tigers were firing on all cylinders. This was due largely to the effort of senior midfielder Alex Berg, who won 16 of 25 face-offs on the day, going an unheard of 9-12 in the first half alone.

Both Schneider and Kovler scored in the fourth quarter to keep the hope for a win alive, but in the end the Tigers’ effort could not match Virginia’s. Ghitelman made a great save on senior defenseman Dan Cocoziello with less than two minutes to go, and from that point forward the Cavaliers managed to hold off Princeton.

Though the Tigers dropped their second straight game, they showed much improvement from last week in terms of quick slides on defense and assertiveness on attack.

“One thing I’ve learned at Princeton,” Tierney said, “is that you never want to accept defeat and say it’s ok because it’s not. It’s not ok that we lost this game. What I will say, though, is that this is one different lacrosse team than showed up last week, and I’m so proud of their effort and what they did out there today.”

Their performance in this game, the first regular-season college lacrosse contest ever to be televised on ESPN, should encourage the Tigers as they prepare to face Hofstra at home this weekend. The Tigers’ end goal is always making the NCAA tournament in May, and if they continue to improve in each outing, it is certainly an attainable one.