CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For the men's lacrosse team, slowing things down has accelerated its ability to win.
During Spring Break, Princeton exhibited an uncharacteristically impatient and sloppy offense in a 15-8 loss to Virginia on Mar. 11 in Charlottesville, Va. Saturday the Tigers slowed the pace of the game en route to an 11-8 win over Hofstra in their first home game of the season.
Against the then-No. 3 Cavaliers, Princeton started the game with a flourish, before wilting like overripe tobacco in the Virginia sun. The Tigers controlled the opening face-off and took the early lead soon afterwards as senior captain and midfielder Josh Sims unleashed a shot from the right side that found the back of the net.
The Tigers (2-1) opened up a 4-2 lead with five minutes, 10 seconds remaining in the first quarter when sophomore attackman B.J. Prager put a quickstick past Virginia (3-1) goalie Derek Kenney off a superb feed from junior attackman Matt Striebel.
Thirty-six seconds later, the home side countered. Cavalier attackman Conor Gill drove past freshman defenseman Damien Davis from behind the goal and slipped the ball into the net from the edge of the goal crease.
Virginia never looked back for the rest of the game. The Cavaliers' strong defense forced Princeton into numerous ill-advised shots and allowed only four more goals in the final 50 minutes of the contest.
Frustration
"I thought we were frustrated with the situation and therefore became impatient," head coach Bill Tierney said. "To Virginia's credit, they put more pressure on us, and we didn't handle it very well."
The plethora of pressured Princeton shots, combined with the Cavaliers' 59-38 advantage on groundballs, gave the defending national champions more offensive opportunities. Given these extra possessions, Virginia picked the inexperienced Tiger defense apart.
"One of our problems is that we think that we can play offense, so we don't slow it down, which hurts us defensively," Tierney said after the loss. "We've got to take our time. A bunch of times we took bad, bad shots within 15 seconds of clearing the ball, and when that happens it's going the other way and the balls end up in the back of your net."
Homestand
Following a shaky start in its home opener at 1952 Stadium on Saturday, No. 5 Princeton heeded the advice of its coach. After falling behind, 4-1, in the second quarter, the Tigers slowed down their offensive attack. Instead of shooting quickly, the home side spread the field and worked the ball around the edge of the restraining box, looking for an open shot.
This was the same style of offense that Princeton used during its championship years in the mid-1990s, and against the Flying Dutchmen (1-3) it produced the same results. The Tigers went on an 8-1 run in the subsequent 30 minutes, putting the game out of reach.
"We totally changed our offense," Tierney said. "We're going back to 1994. If we get the ball in our stick, it's going to stay in our stick for a while. We just can't think that we can run up and down with some of these teams and just take haphazard shots.
"Overall, it was a pretty smart day offensively. In the second and third quarters I thought we wore their emotion down by having the ball a lot."
Princeton dominated the last three periods in every aspect of the game. Behind three hard-hitting defensemen — senior Ryan Mollett, freshman Damien Davis and sophomore Scott Farrell — the Tigers held the Dutchmen scoreless for the entire third quarter. Princeton also contested every groundball during the game, controlling 37 versus Hofstra's 30.
"Virginia played a lot more physical than we did last week," Mollett said. "We knew we needed to step it up [against Hofstra]. We really came out and went after each ground ball, challenged each ground ball, and that's something that we didn't do last week, which is uncharacteristic of any Princeton team."
Following the ugly loss to Virginia, the men's lacrosse team played like the successful Princeton teams of the past against Hofstra — and will hope to continue that strong play in the coming weeks.
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