Brown loss ends Princeton’s season

The Tigers did not receive an at-large bid to the tournament, whose seeds were announced last night.

Going into the game, Princeton knew it needed to jump out to an early lead and keep Brown’s defense — sixth-best in the nation in goals-against average — off-balance. In the first period, the Tigers put up 10 shots compared to the Bears’ two, displaying the relentless offensive mentality that has been a trademark of Princeton lacrosse in the era of head coach Bill Tierney. Junior attack Tommy Davis converted on two of those 10 attempts, including a laser that seemed to hit the net just as the buzzer sounded to signal the end of the first quarter. For the first time this season, the Tigers shut out their opponent for the first 15 minutes of play.

Princeton’s early success, however, proved to be ephemeral. The Tigers’ well-oiled offensive machine seemed to wither and stall as the second quarter began, and the momentum turned in favor of the home team. The Bears pounced on a Princeton squad that seemed to be resting on the laurels of its early lead. Brown went on the offensive and caught the Tiger defense on its heels, scoring four times in the second quarter. Princeton’s lone retort came from senior attack Bob Schneider, who gunned one from the top of the box past Bears goalie Jordan Burke on an extra-man advantage for the Tigers with less than two minutes remaining in the half.

If anything, the end of the second quarter was even more dramatic than that of the first. With less than a minute to go in the half, the Princeton defense deflected a pass intended for attack Thomas Muldoon, sending the ball rolling in front of the Tigers’ net. Brown attack Kyle Hollingsworth, who scored four times against Cornell a week ago, found himself lying on the ground where the ball fell and used his stick to slap-shot the ball past senior goalie Alex Hewit.

“We definitely had our ups and downs,” Hewit said. “Things went our way the first quarter and just not so well the rest of the time. I guess you can say that the game kind of sums up our year.”

The Bears scored on yet another unconventional goal late in the third quarter. After forcing a turnover, senior defenseman Dan Cocoziello picked up the loose ball behind the Princeton net but was immediately leveled by Brown attack Jack Walsh as he attempted to pass the ball off to Hewit. The ball flew across the field to wide-open Bears attack Andrew Feinberg, who redirected it into an empty net.

The low scoring total was indicative of both teams’ tremendous defense. Hewit and Burke both made 13 saves and coordinated their teams’ defenses. Hewit also scored a goal, taking the ball the length of the field after a faceoff and rocketing a shot by Burke to bring the Tigers within one.

Unfortunately for Princeton, a miraculous comeback like the one the Tigers orchestrated against Harvard three weeks ago was not meant to be. Princeton could not find any open shots following Hewit’s goal and could only watch as the Bears held possession for nearly seven minutes.

After regaining possession with 51 seconds left in regulation, Tierney called a timeout to regroup his squad for one more attack. The stifling Bears defense, however, did not even allow the Tigers to get a shot off.

“It was just a microcosm of our season,” Tierney said. “We played some amazing minutes. We did a lot of really good things but just couldn’t score enough goals. We made some uncharacteristic mistakes, and they scored two of the weirdest goals I’ve ever seen. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I don’t believe this team deserved to have their season end the way it did.”