No. 3 men’s lacrosse set to open 2026 season with tough non-conference slate

After a heartbreaking quarterfinal exit ended their 2025 campaign, No. 3 Princeton men’s lacrosse (0–0 overall, 0–0 Ivy League) enters 2026 with national championship aspirations and a non-conference schedule stacked with the nation’s best.

“It’s very motivating coming out of last year,” head coach Matt Madalon told The Daily Princetonian. “It was a very good Syracuse team, and we just came up a little short.”

The Orange and Black will open their season at home on Saturday against No. 14 Penn State (1–1, 0–0 Big Ten). The Nittany Lions were ranked No. 7 in the preseason poll, but dropped to No. 14 after being upset by then-unranked Villanova (1–0, 0–0 Big East).

“Just being able to go out and play the game that we all love is always what I’m looking forward to on the day-to-day,” senior face-off specialist Andrew McMeekin said.

“I would love to cement our class’s legacy on Princeton lacrosse with the national championship and set a further expectation of what our teams in the future should be doing for the younger guys as well,” he continued.

The Penn State matchup begins a challenging stretch, and the difficulty escalates rapidly as Princeton travels to face No. 1 Maryland (1–0, 0–0 Big Ten) before returning home for a highly anticipated rematch with No. 2 Syracuse (2–0, 0–0 Atlantic Coast Conference).

“I think the guys have Syracuse X’d on the calendars for revenge from last year,” senior goalie Ryan Croddick said.

Madalon, however, was more focused on the game this weekend.

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“Syracuse is so, so far away. That’s not even a thought in our program. Just everyone’s pretty singularly focused on Penn State. All exciting games on the horizon, but one at a time for us,” he said.

Maryland, Syracuse, and Penn State were three of the four semifinalists in last year’s NCAA tournament, while the fourth — No. 4 Cornell (0–0, 0–0 Ivy League) — is a team Princeton will face at least once during the regular season.

The Tigers will also host No. 6 University of North Carolina (1–0, 0–0 Atlantic Coast Conference) and No. 18 Rutgers (1–1, 0–0 Big Ten) in early March before Ivy play begins on March 14th.

“Those are five outstanding out-of-conference teams. They’re going to test us all differently,” Madalon said.

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Defending national champion Cornell, however, has just two non-conference games against a preseason top-10 opponent scheduled — Penn State and Richmond — demonstrating the relative difficulty of Princeton’s early slate.

“We always try to attack it [the non-conference schedule] with the hardest teams in the country, anytime, anywhere,” Madalon told the ‘Prince.’ “Give our guys the absolute best experience. Give our guys multiple opportunities to make it to the NCAA tournament, whether that’s through out-of-conference play or in-conference play.”

Despite losing Tewaaraton Award finalist and former standout attacker Coulter Mackesy ’25 to graduation, the Tigers enter the season with one of the best offenses in the country.

Offensive Coordinator Jim Mitchell’s attack will feature sophomore Peter Buonanno, junior Nate Kabiri, and junior captain Colin Burns. Buonanno, Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2025, will move from offensive midfield to join the junior duo.

“He’s such a talented offensive player, and being able to play alongside Burns and Kabiri for the next two years is really important,” Madalon said of Buonanno.

The offensive midfielders for Madalon’s squad will be senior attacker and captain Chad Palumbo and junior midfielder Tucker Wade. Palumbo is a preseason first-team All-American and featured on the Tewaaraton Award watch list, awarded annually to the top player in the nation.

Another player to watch out for will be first-year midfielder Parker Reynolds.

“He’s just been really productive throughout the fall,” Madalon said. “He’s kind of found himself on the top two midline, so he should be ready to rock and roll.”

The uncertainty for Madalon’s squad will come from defense. Despite Croddick returning, the Tigers lost Colin Mulshine ’25 and Michael Bath ’25 to graduation, both of whom played an instrumental role for four years.

“They were both three to four-year starters, so just being able to replace those guys, get some chemistry, that’s been our challenge all fall,” Madalon said.

Senior defender Cooper Kistler will slide back into the close-defense role he held as a sophomore after spending his junior year as long-stick midfielder, while junior defender Hunter Spiess and sophomore defender Finn Fox will round out the unit in front of Croddick.

“[Some of] the more senior guys on defense are me and Cooper … sliding into leadership roles, as opposed to last year, three senior starting defenseman,” Croddick said. “So it’s definitely a different role to be in, but looking forward to it for sure.”

Croddick added that Fox and Spiess “were able to put their names out there and take the reins of the defense.”

The Tigers’ roster caps off with three elite specialists: junior short stick midfielders Cooper Mueller and Jackson Green with McMeekin at the face-off position, who is looking to recapture his end-of-season form from 2025 after adjusting to last year’s new face-off mechanics.

For McMeekin, the transition to the new mechanics was not immediate.

“Having half a season under my belt last year, I really turned things around in the second half,” McMeekin said. “Now I feel as confident as ever. With a full year under that rule set and a great fall and spring of practice, I’m hoping to keep the momentum rolling and start this season where I left off last spring.”

Picked No. 1 in the Ivy League preseason poll ahead of defending champion Cornell — which graduated a large senior class including 2025 Tewaaraton Award winner CJ Kirst — the Tigers enter the year with both momentum and expectation.

A brutal opening month will offer little room for adjustment, but it also presents an early opportunity for Princeton to establish itself as a legitimate national title contender.

“I think in a day-by-day practice situation, we’re focused on not even game by game, but drill by drill and rep by rep,” McMeekin said. “I think it’s easy to get lost a little bit if you’re just focusing on the end picture of a national championship.”

Hayk Yengibaryan is a head News editor emeritus and senior Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Glendale, Calif. and typically covers breaking news and profiles. He can be reached at hy5161[at]princeton.edu.

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.