Princeton Men’s Lacrosse Surges To Win NCAA Opener

The Princeton men’s lacrosse team will face Syracuse on Saturday, May 17, at Hofstra in Hempstead, New York, in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament after beating Towson 22-12 in a first-round game at Princeton on May 10.

Princeton, seeded third in the tournament, never trailed against Towson. Midfielder Tucker Wade ’27 opened the scoring less than a minute into the game, and Princeton led 4-1 at the end of the first quarter before Towson rallied to forge a 5-5 tie with 6:24 left in the second quarter. But Princeton quickly reasserted control with four goals in less than 90 seconds and blew the game open with six straight goals to take a 20-10 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Princeton has struggled on faceoffs this year, winning only 46% of its draws, but Andrew McMeekin ’26 was dominant against Towson, winning 20 of the 32 faceoffs he took. His teammates took full advantage of the extra possessions.

Nate Kabiri ’27 and Wade led all scorers with five goals and two assists each, while Colin Burns ’27 scored four times and Sean Cameron ’25 added three goals. Coulter Mackesy ’25 became Princeton’s all-time leading goal scorer with a tally in the first quarter, giving him 164 goals for his career, one more than Jesse Hubbard ’98. Mackesy, who was named a first-team All-American attacker by USA Lacrosse magazine, also had four assists on the day. Chad Palumbo ’26 and Ivy League Rookie of the Year Peter Buonanno ’28 each chipped in a goal and two assists.

Defensively, Ryan Croddick ’26, the Ivy League Goalie of the Year, had 12 saves, and Princeton allowed only two goals in the last 25 minutes of the game. The Tigers also cleaned up their clearing game in the second half, completing 14 of 15 clears after going only eight of 14 in the first half, sloppiness that inspired coach Matt Madalon to call a timeout early in the second quarter and that he noted in both his halftime television interview and the postgame press conference. Madalon and his staff were voted co-Ivy Staff of the Year along with Dartmouth’s coaching staff.

With the Towson win, Princeton improved to 13-3 on the season. The Tigers went 5-1 in the Ivy League and beat Harvard 11-8 in the semifinal of the league’s tournament before falling in the final 20-15 to Cornell, which is 15-1 on the year and the top seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Big Red will play the University of Richmond in Saturday’s first game at Hofstra at noon.

Princeton now turns its attention to Syracuse, seeded sixth in the tournament, which defeated Harvard 13-12 in overtime on May 11 after trailing 11-6 early in the fourth quarter. The Orange won in part because they dominated faceoffs, winning 25 of 29. Syracuse’s John Mullen has been one of the nation’s top faceoff specialists this year, winning 65% of his draws.

Sam English ’23 is a Syracuse co-captain; like many athletes at Ivy League schools during COVID, he had to transfer to use the rest of his NCAA eligibility. An exceptionally versatile midfielder, he was named a first-team All-American by USA Lacrosse magazine.  

Both Princeton and the Orange are strong on offense, averaging 14 and 13.6 goals per game, respectively. But Syracuse has been streaky, going 12-5 on the year and losing the last three games of its regular season before locking up an NCAA playoff berth with wins over Notre Dame and Duke in the ACC tournament.