Kings of the Ivy: No. 2 men’s lacrosse finally topples No. 4 Cornell 19–9 to claim tournament title

Following Friday’s win over No. 9 Yale (9–5 overall, 4–2 Ivy League), senior captain and attacker Chad Palumbo was as excited as ever for the rematch against No. 4 Cornell (11–3, 5–1), who had beaten the Tigers seven straight games dating back to 2018. 

“We’ve wanted Cornell, we’ve thought about this ever since we lost to them earlier in the year. This is exactly how we wanted things to play out, and this group is hungrier than ever,” Palumbo told The Daily Princetonian. 

That hunger was on display all game long as No. 2 men’s lacrosse (13–2, 5–1) jumped out to a 3–0 start and didn’t look back. Ten Tigers found the back of the net en route to a 19–9 win for Head Coach Matt Madalon’s squad.

“Good to get the monkey off,” Madalon told the ‘Prince.’ “Obviously, [Cornell] has beat us up a little bit, so to be able to get that done, just another accomplishment for this group, but eyes are still looking far, far ahead here.”

Junior attacker Nate Kabiri — named the Ivy League Most Outstanding Player — led the Tigers with two goals and five assists. Palumbo and junior attacker Colin Burns both tallied three goals and two assists, while junior midfielder Tucker Wade had a second consecutive hat trick.

“It felt great,” Palumbo said of the win. “It’s been a long time since somebody beat that team, so we did go into it pretty hungry, and we worked our tails off, and ended up going in our favor.”

At midfield, senior face-off specialist Andrew McMeekin got off to a slow start but finished 14-for-26, keeping Cornell face-off specialist Jack Cascadden at bay. In the process, McMeekin broke the all-time faceoff record with his 647th career win, breaking a 34-year record set by Greg Waller ’92.

Defensively, as has been the case all year, junior defender Jack Stahl got the opposing team’s biggest offensive threat. Stahl held Ivy League Attackman of the Year Willem Firth to two goals on nine shots. Senior goalkeeper Ryan Croddick — who had a season low of around 41 percent save percentage in the regular season game against Cornell — finished with 18 saves. 

In the regular season, Stahl was on Big Red attacker Ryan Goldstein, but with Firth establishing himself as the No. 1 option during the season, Madalon and defensive coordinator Jeremy Hirsch made the switch. Sophomore defender Finn Fox was on Goldstein, holding him to one goal on seven shots. 

“I think [Goldstein and Firth] are two of the best in the country, so I think just being able to prepare Fox and Stahl as best we could, knowing those matchups were going to be tough, and those guys did a really good job,” Madalon said. 

Wade got the scoring started for the Orange and Black. Shortly after, sophomore midfielder Jake Vana and Burns made it 3–0 within five minutes. Princeton was playing a physical game, with a tenacity it had rarely shown this season. However, the Big Red didn’t back down early, cutting the deficit to one late in the opening quarter. 

“It’s always good to get on the jump on any team early in the first half,” Wade said. “Also, that’s been some of our struggle throughout the season, and some of the games that we dropped, and the first one against Cornell, pretty much my entire career, when we played Cornell, we’ve had to dig ourselves out of holes, so being able to not start at that deficit was pretty huge.”

As was the case at several points in the game, once Cornell got within striking distance, Princeton delivered another big punch. Up by one and having not scored in the last 15 minutes, the Tigers rattled off three straight goals to take a 6–2 lead. 

Following a Cornell timeout, tensions were high at Schoellkopf Field. Goldstein received a penalty for shoving junior midfielder Cooper Mueller to the ground. After a penalty kill by the Big Red, it was sophomore attacker Aidan McDonald getting the same flag. 

Defensively, Princeton ran a man-to-man defensive scheme, avoiding sliding and helping, and making Cornell beat them with individual plays. The Big Red had just four assists on Sunday afternoon and one in the first half.

At halftime, the Tigers led 7–5 after two quick goals by the Big Red to end the half. Cornell held a 10–4 advantage at the faceoff X. The Tigers felt that if McMeekin could get going, the opportunities would open up more and more. 

And so they did. Coming out of the locker room, McMeekin won six of his nine face-offs in the third quarter as the Tigers exploded for a 9–0 run. 

“We pride ourselves offensively on being able to stretch the box score and have a lot of guys get involved,” Palumbo said. “It’s a Princeton win offensively, and then defensively, the boys held it down all game. They played lockdown.”

An individual goal by Palumbo got the visitors started before Burns found first-year midfielder Parker Reynolds for his goal of the afternoon. After Palumbo completed his hat trick, it was Burns scoring back-to-back goals to make it 12–5. 

Up 12–5, Palumbo found a cutting McMeekin, who scored a behind-the-back goal for his fourth goal of the season. The Tigers continued to pile on, with junior midfielder Jackson Green and sophomore attacker Porter Malkiel joining the scoring party.

CAN YOUR FOGO DO THIS?!?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/cKSp4Sh3N8

— Princeton Men's Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) May 3, 2026

After Cornell gave up 16 goals in under 44 minutes, their head coach Connor Buczek had seen enough, subbing off starting goalkeeper Matthew Tully. However, it was too little too late. Cornell managed to stop the bleeding with its sixth goal of the afternoon to end the quarter, but the damage was done. 

Both sides exchanged goals as the Tigers closed out with a 19–9 win, making it three Ivy tournament championships in the last four years for Madalon’s squad. 

The focus now turns to the NCAA tournament. The NCAA selection show is slated for 9:30 p.m. With the win over Cornell, Princeton moved up to No. 1 in the RPI and is expected to receive the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. 

“There’s just a ton of uncontrollables, so we just got to focus on taking each day, one day at a time, and let the chips land where they may, do our best,” Wade said.

The No. 1 seed is significant. Since the NCAA’s expansion to a 16-team format in 2003, all but one No. 1 seed has made the final four, with the lone exception being the 2011 Syracuse team that lost 6–5 to Maryland in the quarterfinals. 

“Great accomplishment for the program… but just next game mentality,” Madalon said. “We gotta get better every week. That’s what we’ve preached all year, so if we can just keep getting better and fine-tuning our game plans, we can give this crew an opportunity.”

Sophomore attacker Peter Buonanno — the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year — was kept away from the team as he continued to recover from a hamstring injury. Madalon said that the staff looked to get him “another week of rest” ahead of the tournament.

Barring any surprises, the Tigers will open the NCAA tournament against the winner of Marist (11–4, 7–1 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) and Stony Brook (10–5, 4–2 Coastal Atlantic Conference). Madalon’s squad will be looking to make the final four for the first time since 2022 and win their first national championship in 25 years.

“The sky’s the limit,” Palumbo said.

Hayk Yengibaryan is a senior Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Glendale, Calif. He can be reached at hy5161[at]princeton.edu.

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