NCAA Rewind: Struggling Defense Overshadowed Strong Princeton Offense

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2025 — look out for our NCAA Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings later this summer — our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking a last look at the 2024 college lacrosse season.

To do that, we’re taking a journey through 30 of the top teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse to see what went right, what went wrong and how we should feel about the season.

PRINCETON

USA Lacrosse preseason/final ranking: No. 19/No. 15
2024 record: 11-7 (6-1 Ivy League)

What went right: Princeton boasted one of the most underrated offenses in the country, checking in tied with UMass with 15.28 goals per game, good for 11th nationally. McKenzie Blake deposited 67 goals, and Grace Tauckus poured in 47.

Haven Dora — recently named to the U20 national team — was a balanced contributor with 29 goals and 40 assists, and Jami MacDonald was good for 34 goals and 31 assists. When you include Kari Buonanno's 21 goals and 22 assists, Princeton had five players with at least 43 points.

That offense allowed Princeton to remain in just about every game it played, outside of one lopsided loss — 21-11 to Loyola in Baltimore.

What went wrong: Princeton had the lowest-ranked scoring defense of any team ranked in the final USA Lacrosse Top 20. The Tigers tied for 82nd nationally with Detroit Mercy by allowing 13.17 goals per game, and that is simply not conducive to sustained success.

Goalkeeping was partially to blame, though Amelia Hughes (.413 save percentage) was not the biggest culprit of the defensive decline. Princeton was not good at causing turnovers (6.89 per game, 90th nationally) and rarely won the ground ball battle (13.83 per game, 102nd nationally).

Season highlight: The Tigers were at their best on April 3 against Penn, which was ranked No. 7 in the country at the time. The defense held the Quakers to single-digits, and Blake (five goals) and Dora (three goals, four assists) carried the offense in a 14-9 win.

Verdict: If Princeton could just play a little better defense, some of those close games could have flipped. The Tigers lost by two to Virginia and Yale, three to Florida and four to Maryland and Penn (in the Ivy League tournament).

There are a lot of exciting players coming back to Princeton, so defense should be a focal point this offseason for Jenn Cook and Co.