“I think I blacked out,” senior goalie Ryan Croddick told The Daily Princetonian.
Moments earlier, with the game tied at nine in the fourth quarter, Croddick made three consecutive saves to keep Princeton alive. He would finish with 25 saves, a new career high and the most by a Tiger since 1985.
“It was super quick, just kind of ate them with my body, got in front of it, they were pretty close to the cage, so just happy I got hit,” Croddick said.
The trio of saves swung the momentum for good.
No. 7 men’s lacrosse (3–1 overall, 0–0 Ivy League) rode Croddick’s heroics to an 11–9 upset victory over the No. 1 ranked University of North Carolina Tar Heels (5–1, 0–0 Atlantic Coast Conference).
After beginning the season with a disappointing loss to No. 15 Penn State (3–2, 0–0 Big Ten), the Tigers have rattled off three consecutive wins over No. 6 Syracuse (4–2, 0–0 Atlantic Coast Conference), No. 9 Maryland (1–3, 0–0 Big Ten), and now, UNC.
All three teams have each spent at least one week ranked No. 1 in the Inside Lacrosse media poll.
“We really went internal after that first game,” Croddick said. “I think that the media and the press got to us early on in the season with that first game coming in super highly ranked.”
Following the loss to the Nittany Lions, head coach Matt Madalon switched senior midfielder and captain Chad Palumbo from offensive midfield to the attack, sliding sophomore attacker Peter Buonanno into Palumbo’s role.
“We kind of move guys around,” Madalon said. “We don’t have a long preseason, so you’ve got to quickly figure that out.”
Junior defender Jack Stahl — who held Syracuse star attacker Joey Spallina to zero points on Friday night — got the matchup against Tar Heel star attacker Owen Duffy. Duffy was a consensus preseason first-team All-American.
“Once that game was over, we turned the page as fast as possible,” Stahl said. “Duffy’s an amazing player, great athleticism and speed, so really hard to guard him, but trying to come with the best plan we could.”
Offensively, the trio of Palumbo and junior attackers Nate Kabiri and Colin Burns led the charge against the Tar Heels. Burns finished with four goals and one assist, Kabiri added three goals and three assists, and Palumbo chipped in one goal and two assists.
Princeton struck first at Sherrerd Field as Kabiri connected with Burns for the opening goal. The two have been teammates since 2021, playing together in both high school and club lacrosse.
After three consecutive stops on the defensive end, senior midfielder Quinn Krammer made a critical turnover in midfield as Tar Heels star attacker Dominic Pietramala tied the contest.
The connection struck again later in the period, as Kabiri found Burns for a second time to put Princeton up 2–1 entering the second quarter.
The Orange and Black carried the momentum, scoring two quick goals courtesy of senior midfielder John Dunphey and Palumbo to make it 4–1.
Minutes later, miscommunication from Princeton at the end of the shot clock allowed North Carolina to cut the deficit to two.
The biggest play in the first half came on the defensive end. After two flags assessed to the Tigers, the Tar Heels had a six-on-four opportunity for 30 seconds. Despite the visitors finding star attacker Owen Duffy at the doorstep, Croddick was there to make the save.
“You gotta do what you gotta do to win the game,” Croddick said. “This team’s very high pace, taking a lot of shots, so just gotta be ready at all times.”
With 3:30 remaining in the half, Burns completed his hat trick to make the score 5–2. However, North Carolina refused to back down, scoring two goals in 28 seconds to cut the deficit to one as both teams went to the locker room.
After exchanging goals to start the second half, Burns and Kabiri both found the back of the net to bring the score to 8–5 Tigers with 2:49 remaining in the third. The Tar Heels got one back and earned a man-up opportunity to end the period.
Despite killing off North Carolina’s extra-man opportunity, the Tigers could not slow the Tar Heels’ attack. In just over two minutes, the visitors scored three unanswered goals without Princeton touching the ball, taking their first lead of the game at 9–8.
“It didn’t feel great,” Madalon said of falling behind. “We’re looking at our guys and being like, ‘hey, you got to make a play. No one’s going to hand this thing to you. You got to go out, make plays, execute.’”
After Buonanno tied the game at nine, it was Croddick coming up big for the Tigers. The Rumson, N.J. native made three consecutive saves to keep the Tar Heels at bay.
“Honestly, I wish we played better time slides, better one-on-one defense,” Madalon said. “I wish [Croddick] didn’t have to have that performance.”
On the other end, junior midfielder Tucker Wade scored what proved to be the winning goal to make it 10–9. After senior face-off specialist Andrew McMeekin won a crucial face-off, Kabiri capped off a six-point performance off a pass from Burns to seal the win for Princeton.
“[Croddick] definitely bailed us out this game,” Stahl said. “He’s a great leader in between the pipes.”
The Tigers will now turn their attention towards this coming weekend’s in-state rivalry against No. 16 Rutgers. Princeton will host the 103rd meeting between the two sides, with the Meistrell Cup on the line. The trophy is named after Harland W. Meistrell, who restarted lacrosse at Rutgers in 1920 and at Princeton in 1921.
“You never want to be satisfied,” Croddick said. “[We] came off a win on Friday, knew we had to bring it even harder. But going into next week, it’s the next opponent.”
“We’ve got Rutgers next Saturday, it’s an in-state rivalry, we play for a trophy, so just really excited to get the next one done and keep the energy high,” he continued.
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.
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