Quarterfinal Match Gives Princeton Chance To Avenge Early Loss

Princeton men’s lacrosse opened its season on Feb. 14 with a 13-7 loss to Penn State. On Sunday, the teams will meet again at noon at the University of Delaware in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.  

The winner of the Princeton-Penn State game will face Georgetown or Duke in the NCAA semifinals on May 23 in Charlottesville, Virginia.  

“The opener was an embarrassment, but it kick-started our season,” said Princeton co-captain Chad Palumbo ’26 after the beating Marist 17-8 in the first round last weekend. “We’re excited to get another shot at them.”  

Penn State, an NCAA semifinalist in 2023 and 2025, had an occasionally bumpy road to the quarterfinals. The Nittany Lions routed Cornell and Yale, both of which made the NCAA Tournament, while losing to unranked Villanova, Navy and Michigan. But Penn State beat Maryland and Johns Hopkins to win the Big Ten Tournament and secure a bid to the NCAAs, where it beat Army 10-6 in the opening round.   

The Nittany Lions’ best player may be attacker Hunter Aquino, who missed several games with injury but was a third-team All-American last year as a freshman. He had three goals against Princeton and scored eight goals and three assists in the Big Ten Tournament and the win over Army. Attacker Jack Iannantuono is the team’s leading scorer and the Big Ten freshman of the year.   

Big Ten lacrosse prioritizes defense — the conference’s coaches often refer to league games as rock fights — and the Nittany Lions gave up an average of 8.73 goals per game this year, thanks in part to first-team All-America defenseman Alex Ross. Goalie Preston Hawkins has saved 51.8% of the shots he’s faced on the year and made 11 saves against Princeton while giving up only seven goals.   

“They’re always one of the best-coached teams in the country,” Princeton head coach Matt Madalon said of Penn State after the Marist win. “It’ll be a tough game.”  

Since losing to Penn State, Princeton has won 14 of 15, losing only to Cornell at home on March 21. The Tigers avenged that defeat with a 19-9 win over the Big Red in Ithaca, New York, on May 3 in the championship game of the Ivy League Tournament, earning Princeton the top seed in the NCAA Tournament.   

The win, Princeton’s first over Cornell since 2018, was a critical one for the Tigers’ psyche. “Cornell has taken a lot from us over the years,” Palumbo said on ESPNU after his team’s 12-10 win over Yale in the Ivy tournament semifinals, “and there’s a lot of rage built up in us from that.” In the final, Palumbo promised, “You’re going to see a ferocity that I don’t think we’ve seen all year.”  

That prediction proved accurate. The victory over Cornell was Princeton’s most complete game of the season and showcased the squad’s talent all over the field. Attacker Nate Kabiri ’27, the team’s leading scorer on the year, led a balanced offense with two goals and five assists. Linemates Palumbo and Colin Burns ’27 each had three goals and two assists, and midfielder Tucker Wade ’27, a first-team All-American in Inside Lacrosse’s survey of media members, had three goals.   

Andrew McMeekin ’26 won 14 of his 26 faceoffs and scored a behind-the-back goal late in the third quarter, a rare feat for a faceoff specialist. First-team All-American Jack Stahl ’27 led a defense that kept Cornell under wraps for most of the game, and goalie Ryan Croddick ’26, a third-team All-American, had 18 saves.