It’s championship week in college lacrosse.
If you told fans at the start of the season that Princeton men’s lacrosse would be ranked No. 2 in the country by May, they might have assumed the Tigers (11–2 overall, 5–1 Ivy League) would also host the Ivy League tournament. However, No. 1–ranked Cornell Big Red (12–1, 6–0 Ivy League), with the NCAA’s all-time leading goal scorer CJ Kirst, has secured the hosting rights instead.
The Tigers enter the Ivy tournament as the No. 2 seed and will face third-seeded Harvard (10–3, 4–2 Ivy League), ranked No. 11 nationally, in the semifinals. Meanwhile, the top-seeded Big Red will match up against the struggling Yale Bulldogs (5–7, 3–3 Ivy League), who are fighting to keep their season alive.
“I think every coach in this league takes a lot of pride in trying to play really hard schedules and trying to play some of the best out-of-conference opponents and put ourselves in a position to earn bids at the end of the year,” Head Coach Matt Madalon told The Daily Princetonian.
While Princeton already has a spot in the NCAA tournament essentially secured, this weekend will have implications for their seeding and the momentum for the rest of the season.
NCAA tournament implications
In both 2023 and 2024, the Tigers needed to win the Ivy tournament to secure the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. In 2025, with the nation’s second-best RPI, the Tigers are safely in — regardless of this weekend’s outcome.
“In previous years, we had to play desperate, and when we played desperate, we’re at our best,” senior captain and long stick midfielder Michael Bath told the ‘Prince.’
“This week, we’ve been trying to mimic that desperation feeling. We can keep setting ourselves up for success by getting a higher seed and giving us a better chance to go further in the tournament,” he continued.
If the Tigers win the Ivy League tournament and No. 3 Maryland (11–2, 3–2 Big Ten) falls to No. 5 Ohio State (13–2, 4–1 Big Ten) in the Big Ten championship, Princeton could make a compelling case for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.
“Oh man, that would be a dream,” Madalon said. “That’d be a really cool opportunity for our team.”
The last time the Tigers entered the NCAA tournament as the top seed was in 1997, under legendary head coach Bill Tierney. During Tierney’s tenure, Princeton captured six NCAA championships between 1992 and 2001.
Though the Tigers haven’t hoisted the trophy since 2001, they made a return to championship weekend in 2022 under Madalon, breaking a decades-long NCAA tournament drought. Several seniors on this year’s roster played in that Final Four appearance, where Princeton fell to eventual champion Maryland, 13–8.
“We’ve just been trying to get them to understand how big this moment is,” Bath said of the team’s underclassmen. “Winning this weekend can set us up for a serious run at this thing in May.”
“Everyone we’ve spoken to is talking about the weekend, but for us, it’s just the Friday night game,” Madalon said.
Previewing the four-team field
The Big Red enter the tournament as clear favorites. Back in March, they defeated the Tigers 15–10 in Ithaca, led by a dominant seven-point performance from CJ Kirst (5 goals, 2 assists).
Kirst, a Tewaaraton Award nominee, is the only player in Division I lacrosse averaging more than four goals per game (4.69).
“CJ [Kirst] is the best player in the country,” Madalon had written to the ‘Prince’ after Princeton lost to Cornell in March.
The Big Red are coached by former Big Red standout Connor Buczek, who has transformed the Cornell attack. Led by Kirst, Michael Long, and Ryan Goldstein, Cornell has scored 10 or more goals in every game so far and come into the tournament averaging an impressive 16.14 goals per game. Long and Goldstein are also Tewaaraton nominees.
Moreover, Cornell face-off specialist Jack Cascadden has had a notable 2025 season, winning over 62 percent of his face-offs. The Big Red don’t have many weaknesses and are the current betting favorites to win the national championship.
At 4 p.m. on Friday, Cornell faces off against Yale. Despite a preseason ranking of No. 9, the Bulldogs have lost seven games in 2025.
Following that game, the Tigers will take on Harvard. Princeton is led by its own Tewaaraton nominee, standout senior attacker Coulter Mackesy. Mackesy has scored at least one goal in 31 straight games and is three goals behind Jesse Hubbard ’98 for No.1 all-time in the Princeton record book. The rest of the roster is also stacked with five first-team All-Ivy League selections, the most since 2001: senior defender Colin Mulshine, sophomore midfielder Tucker Wade, junior goalie Ryan Croddick, and sophomore midfielder Cooper Mueller rounded out the selections.
“[Mulshine] has been a mainstay down there on the defensive end ever since he stepped on campus,” Madalon said. “He’s had to cover some of the best matchups all throughout his career, week in and week out.”
Croddic, meanwhile, leads the Ivy League in save percentage, at just over 60 percent per game. After seeing limited time during his first two years under former goalie Michael Gianforcaro ’24, Croddick has now burst onto the scene during his junior year.
“We have the best goalie in the country,” said Bath.
First-year attacker Peter Buonnano, who was named the unanimous Ivy League Rookie of the Year, has also had a strong performance. He has 12 goals and five assists in his last seven games after having just one goal and one assist in the first six.
The Crimson stand in the way of Princeton. Last time the sides met, the Tigers won 13–11. Croddick made 17 saves, and Mulshine held Harvard star and Tewaaraton nominee Sam King to just one goal off seven shots.
“We’re going to have to bring our A-game,” Madalon said. “If you expect to beat those teams, you know, you can’t have their superstars scoring a bunch of points.”
King has 35 goals and 30 assists for the Crimson and was a first-team All-Ivy selection. Crimson junior midfielder Logan Ip was also a first-team selection. Ip has been consistent for the Crimson on both ends of the field, with 35 points on offense and 15 ground balls plus two caused turnovers on defensive.
For Madalon, the three keys for Princeton last time were to play their brand of lacrosse for 60 minutes, control the possession game, and contain the Harvard offense for the entirety of the game.
“They’ve earned the opportunity to be here,” Madalon said. “But, at this point, everything’s zero and zero, everything in the past doesn’t matter.”
“We feel good,” Bath said. “But what we’ve been saying is this group hasn’t really accomplished anything. We haven’t won any championships.”
The Tigers are now looking to win the 2025 Ivy tournament title for the third consecutive year.
Hayk Yengibaryan is an associate News editor, senior Sports writer, and education director for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Glendale, Calif.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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