Men's Lacrosse: UMass up first in title run

The Tigers will face No. 15 UMass in their first-round game at 5 p.m. Sunday in Class of 1952 Stadium.

“It’s pretty neat, to say the least,” sophomore attack Jack McBride said. “It’s going to be a big game. All the kids my class and the class below have never played before in the tournament, so it’s going to be interesting. There might be a few nerves here and there, but as soon as the game starts, everyone should calm down and just play the game.”

As the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference champion, UMass (9-5) earned an automatic bid into the tournament and the team’s first tournament appearance since 2006, when the Minutemen made a run into the championship game.

Despite a strong record in its conference, UMass has not demonstrated an ability to keep up with the nation’s other powerhouse programs. The Minutemen’s losses this year have come at the hands of five teams, three of which — Syracuse, Albany and No. 12 Brown — fell to the Tigers.

Nevertheless, UMass poses a very real and convincing threat to Princeton’s title hopes. The Minutemen feature one of the nation’s top goalies in Doc Schneider, whose .658 save percentage ranks first in the nation. The preseason All-American anchors a UMass defense which, like Princeton, allows a meager average of 7.8 goals per game. Schneider took the Minutemen to the finals of the NCAA tournament in his freshman year and will no doubt look to replicate the feat with a strong outing against Princeton.

“Our coaches do a great job on telling us where to shoot and where they see spots of weaknesses on these guys,” junior faceoff man Paul Barnes said. “As long we take good shots, we’ll be just fine.”

Though Schneider may be the statistically superior goalie on the field Sunday, Princeton’s freshman goalie, Tyler Fiorito, will by no means be a pushover. Fiorito has allowed an average of 7.55 goals per game this season, just a shade above Schneider’s average. What some may say is a lack of experience will be countered by Fiorito’s knack for coming up big in the clutch.

Matched up in the net with another All-American goalie last week in Brown’s Jordan Burke, Fiorito did not allow a goal until almost midway through the third quarter.

Princeton, meanwhile, jumped to an early and insurmountable 8-0 lead on its way to an 11-7 victory. Nor can one forget Fiorito’s key saves in the wins over Syracuse, Johns Hopkins and UMBC, in which he held teams that normally score into the double digits to goal totals well below their averages.

The task of sending the ball past Schneider will fall on capable and experienced shoulders. Princeton’s offensive front features a myriad of balanced scorers, including four players who have at least 36 points on the season.

McBride and senior attack Tommy Davis lead this group with 41 points apiece, while senior midfielder Rich Sgalardi leads the team with 23 assists on the season and senior midfielder Mark Kovler ranks second on the team with 28 goals scored.

Davis and McBride have been hot as of late, as they recorded seven points apiece over the past two games against Dartmouth and Brown to seal the Ivy title.

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“[Burke and Schneider] are definitely two completely different styles of goalies,” McBride said. “We know [Schneider’s] going to make a few saves, and the biggest thing we’ve talked about is not getting frustrated and to just keep shooting to the corners to beat this kid.”

On the other side of the field, the UMass offense will be spearheaded by attacks Tim Balise and Jim Connolly. The two have combined for 65 goals this season, including eight of the team’s 11 in its win over Rutgers. Connolly has proven especially dangerous in the man-up situation, in which he has scored seven times this season.

“We just started talking about how we’d take care of these guys on defense. But the thing is, we’ve played a lot of teams with lots of great individual players this season, and we just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing all year and play good solid team defense for 60 minutes. The rest should take care of itself,” Barnes said.

In the past, UMass has played to play a rather individual offensive game. The team’s 136 scores have come with only 55 assists, a 40 percent ratio that is well short of Princeton’s 55 percent. This statistic seems to suggest that, should Princeton’s defense successfully contain Balise and Connolly one-on-one, the final score will likely fall in the Tigers’ favor.

Because of Princeton’s seeding, Sunday’s game will be played at Class of 1952 Stadium, where the Tigers have not lost in 16 games.

“It’s definitely good to be relaxed and play at home,” McBride said. “We have a pretty similar schedule to what we’ve had for the past two weeks, and playing in front of the home fans in ’52 will definitely be a big help as well.”

The two teams have met twice before in the NCAA tournament, and Princeton emerged victorious both times with an 11-6 win in 1995 and an 11-9 win in 1997.