Princeton Still Playing With Its Back Against the Wall

NEW YORK — The Princeton men’s lacrosse team likes to keep its options open. There are two roads to to the NCAA tournament — the at-large and automatic berth. Having both a resume worthy of an at-large berth and being a threat to win the Ivy League has been the mantra of Matt Madalon since he became the head coach.

But when they boarded a bus for New York for the Ivy League tournament over the weekend, the Tigers’ GPS had only one way to get in.

“It was a business trip. We packed our bags, we left the locker room and you couldn't get on the bus if you weren’t ready to give everything you had,” junior goalie Michael Gianforcaro said. “It’s a business trip. We got up here, and we handled our business.”

The return trip to Princeton was a bit more relaxing. After all, the Tigers knew their name would be called during the Selection Show that night. And that looseness was evident on the look-in as the Tigers danced around their locker room.

Princeton punched their return ticket in impressive fashion, first edging Penn 9-8 in the semifinals, essentially bursting the Quakers’ tournament bubble and avenging one of the Tigers’ three overtime losses during the season.

And then came a comprehensive 19-10 victory over Yale in the championship game Sunday afternoon at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, which saw Princeton score six seconds into the first quarter and lead 3-1 inside the opening 61 seconds. That lead stretched to 7-2 after the first quarter and 13-3 at halftime.

It was a microcosm of what Princeton can be when at its best.

“We really think that when this team plays a full 60 minutes, there’s not a team in the country that we can’t run with,” said senior defenseman Ben Finlay, the only current player on the roster to start every game of his career. “I think we’ve shown it this weekend that we’ve got a lot of gas in the tank and we’re really just taking it one week at a time, one day at a time, and we’re gonna give it all we got every weekend.”

All weekend at Columbia, Princeton played with the urgency of a team with its back against the wall, which it was — and has been — for a while.

“I didn’t want this to be my last game,” said senior Jake Stevens, who scored six goals on six shots Sunday. “I know no one did. And this whole weekend, it’s just you’ve got to win and move on, keep winning the rest of the season.”

The veterans helped guide this team through the potholes in the middle of the season when the Tigers lost four straight games before blasting Yale 23-10 at home on March 25.

And it’s a veteran group that made a run to Championship Weekend last year, after beating Yale in the quarterfinals.

“Sixteen seniors, that’s our only path is leaning on those guys,” Madalon said. “It’s the experience, the perspective, the grind through COVID, through everything, so those guys play with incredible passion. We’ll just lean on them, continue to lean on them.”

That experience, Stevens believes, will be essential for Princeton to make another deep run in this year’s NCAA tournament, even before he knew Penn State would be the first-round opponent.

“We know it’s a group that has been here before, we know what it takes to win,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who we play, we don’t worry about who’s on the other side of the field. It’s all about us. It’s all about our game and what we do, and if we play like we did today, we can beat anyone, in my opinion.”

Madalon joked he’s a hockey guy and success in the Stanley Cup playoffs and tournament lacrosse have similar ingredients, especially a hot goalie. The Tigers have that in Gianforcaro, who was named Ivy League tournament MVP after 32 saves on the weekend, including 17 in the championship game.

“It’s really exciting. I’m really happy about that, but it’s just a testament to the guys in front of me,” Gianforcaro said. “None of those shots are one-on-one. None of those shots are absolute hammers. I was able to make a ton of saves, but the guys in front of me just gave me the looks I wanted to see.”

Princeton will pack for another weekend business trip, with the Tigers heading to University Park to meet fifth-seeded Penn State Sunday. The Nittany Lions return to the tournament for the sixth time in program history and the first time since their trip to Championship Weekend appearance in 2019.

A year removed from their 11th Final Four appearance, the Tigers are focused on a return trip, realizing the road is a difficult one.

“From the first day we got together in September, it was that we want to get back to Final Four weekend, we want to hoist that trophy. I think we got a chance,” Gianforcaro said. “I wouldn’t bet on anyone but us. I love this locker room. I love this team, and we just want to go achieve our goals and we got an opportunity to do that. So, we’re really happy about that.”