Croddick leads No. 1 men’s lacrosse past Duke, will play two-seed Notre Dame on championship Monday

The magical season for No. 1 men’s lacrosse (16–2 overall, 5–1 Ivy League) will last for two more nights. 

On the back of a historic 20-save performance from senior goalkeeper Ryan Croddick, the Tigers went on a 7–1 scoring run starting at the end of the second quarter and stretching into the middle of the third to upend No. 13 Duke (11–4, 1–3 Atlantic Coast Conference) 14–7 and advance to their first title game in 24 years. The Tigers will play for their first national championship since 2001 and the program’s seventh overall. 

“I’m just thrilled at the opportunity that this team gets to play on Monday,” Head Coach Matt Madalon said postgame. “These guys gutted through a really tough 60 minutes, so proud of them.”

After losing in the Final Four in 2022, Madalon will now coach his first national championship game on Monday afternoon when the Tigers play 2-seeded and the No. 3 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (12–2, 3–1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who dominated fellow ACC opponent and six-seeded Syracuse (13–6, 2–2) 15–7 in the other semifinal game. 

“There's a lot of distraction [during championship weekend],” Madalon said. “I think the teams that are most locked in get it done throughout this weekend. That's kind of what we tried to learn from [2022]: just try to stay internal as long as we can.”

On Thursday, Croddick was a co-recipient of the Ensign C. Markland Kelly Jr. award, presented annually to the top goaltender in college lacrosse. Two days later, he demonstrated his worthiness for the award by tying the program record for saves in an NCAA tournament game.

“We’re really proud of him,” Madalon said. “He’s the backstop, he’s the poise, he did a heck of a job.”

Last weekend, Penn State shut down junior attacker Nate Kabiri, a 2026 Tewaaraton finalist, an award presented annually to the top player in college lacrosse. This weekend, the Blue Devils shut down senior captain and attacker Chad Palumbo and converted at a 58.3 percent clip at the face-off X, with senior face-off specialist Andrew McMeekin struggling after a strong first quarter.

“I thought 27 [defender Charlie Johnson] on Duke was awesome,” Madalon said. “I thought he did a good job playing [Palumbo], got in him, tied him up, got under his arms early. Chad had a couple too many turnovers early.”

But the Tiger offense — built on a strategy of a balanced attack — continued to find a way. Junior attacker Colin Burns finished with four goals, while Kabiri had three goals and two assists. Madalon’s second midfield was integral, with sophomore midfielders Jake Vana (three goals) and Porter Malkiel (two goals) leading the way. 

“They’re phenomenal shooters, they’re really talented,” Johnson said. “You give them an inch and they’ll make you pay. Their midfield was really impressive as well, so hats off to them on the offensive end.”

Croddick was instrumental in the first quarter with five saves. Despite three early turnovers, Vana opened the scoring, and moments later, Kabiri scored his 100th career goal. Kabiri is only the second Tiger to record both 90 career goals and assists, following Michael Sowers ’20, who finished with a program record 302 career points (121 goals, 181 assists).

“From the first shot, you can kind of tell how the game is going to go from there, if it’s going to come easy or be hard,” Croddick said. “After that first shot, I was kind of feeling it. The grass was bouncing pretty nice.”

Duke got on the board and scored back-to-back goals courtesy of attacker Benn Johnston, with the latter marking the Blue Devils’ 100th unassisted goal of the season. Despite five first-quarter turnovers by Madalon’s squad, the Tigers led 3–2 at the end of the first. With that stop, the Tigers had now killed 23 of the last 24 man-up opportunities from their opponents. 

“We ran past people, we had opportunities, and when you don’t make them on those short offensive opportunities, then we play defense for a lot more than you want to,” Duke Head Coach John Danowski said. “When we made a mistake … [Princeton] made us pay.”

When they needed it most, the Tigers got back-to-back goals from junior midfielder Tucker Wade, their first-team All-American, with the latter coming with just one second left in the half. Duke went scoreless in the final 14:30 of the half as the Orange and Black led 6–4 at halftime. 

“You just gotta keep playing, we just trust each other, and I got a lot of trust in the guys around me to step up when I need them to,” Wade said. 

Despite losing four regular-season games, Duke never trailed at halftime until today’s contest. The Blue Devils dominated the stat sheet, leading in shots, shots on goal, face-offs, and committing just three turnovers to the Tigers’ 10, but the inability to get the ball past Croddick was their Achilles’ heel. 

“Those turnovers early weren’t great, but we know that our superpower is ball movement, so just getting back to that was what helped,” Kabiri said. “In terms of switches, we found early that they were playing sides on a lot of our off-ball actions, so [we tried] to take advantage of that.”

Croddick did not slow down in the second half, making his eighth consecutive save before Vana scored the Tigers’ fourth unanswered goal to make it 7–4. After Duke cut the deficit to two, it was the Tigers going on their traditional third-quarter run. Heading into today’s game, the Tigers were outscoring their opponents by 41 goals in the third quarter.

Three goals in a span of 90 seconds put the Tigers up 10–5. Late in the quarter, down four, Duke looked to cut the deficit to three on the man-up. Instead, a save and caused turnover by Croddick gave the ball back to Princeton, with Burns scoring his third goal on the man-down. 

“Obviously, taking penalties doesn’t help us there,” Croddick said. “I was yelling at the guys that this is the way that [Duke] could get back and climb back into this game, but I thought I could just make a play there. I love coming out of the cage … I got a jump on it; it was great.”

After both sides exchanged goals, it was Croddick coming up big yet again, making four saves in three minutes to contain the Blue Devil offense. Goals from Burns and Vana sealed a 14–7 win for the Orange and Black. 

The Tigers are no strangers to the quick turnaround, having played two games in one weekend twice this season, going undefeated both times.

However, they will face their biggest test against a Fighting Irish that won back-to-back national championships in 2023 and 2024.  Notre Dame is seeking its third title in four years, which would establish the program as a lacrosse dynasty.  

Notre Dame is led by junior defender Shawn Lyght, who is a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award and a two-time winner of the William C. Schmeisser Award, presented annually to the best defensive player in the country. Lyght, alongside All-American goaltender Thomas Ricciardelli, anchors the NCAA’s fifth-best scoring defense. 

In midfield, Notre Dame has arguably the best long stick midfielder in the country in Will Donovan, voted a first-team All-American by all three media organizations. Offensively, attacker Josh Yago leads the team with 54 points (32 goals, 22 assists) while fellow attacker Luke Miller has 44 points (33 goals, 11 assists). 

With members of Princeton’s 2001 national championship team in attendance and honored at halftime, the Tigers will play for a chance to join them in history. 

“I’m just so proud, man,” Madalon said. “I’m so proud seeing all our alumni in the stands, and everyone cheering, and obviously the 25-year reunion of the 2001 team, to be able to do that with all the Orange and Black support is really cool, but I’m really just so proud that these guys get this opportunity.”

“I think it’s awesome for the program as a whole,” Croddick said. “We all came here to play two games, not one, so just looking forward to playing on Monday.”

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

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