Men's lacrosse opens Ivy League slate in search of sixth consecutive title

For the past four seasons, Princeton's men's lacrosse team has moved through the Ivy League season like a construction crew laying a section of interstate highway on a midwestern plain — show up, flatten and move on to the next task.

Tomorrow, the Tigers (3-1 overall) will try to keep pouring asphalt on the rest of the conference when they host Yale (3-2, 1-1 Ivy League) in their Ivy opener at 1952 Stadium.

Under the guidance of head coach Bill Tierney, Princeton is poised for another run at the Ivy championship — which would be the school's sixth consecutive crown. This year, however, the Tigers will not find the terrain provided by its opposition to be nearly as smooth as in years past.

For the first time in recent memory, the Ivy League has five of the conference's seven teams in the Top 20 according to the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Men's Lacrosse Ranking. Princeton leads the pack at No. 4, while Cornell (No. 11), Harvard (No. 13), Brown (No. 14) and Yale (No. 20) are in close pursuit. A sixth Ivy team could be added to this list as Penn also received votes in the poll.

Hardware

The Tigers enter league play coming off one of their finest performances of the season. Princeton defeated Rutgers, 15-5, last Saturday to claim the Howard T. Meistrell Cup — the award given to the winner of the annual intrastate rivalry game. In the game, Princeton exhibited a stifling defense and a potent offense, led by senior midfielder and captain Josh Sims' five-goal performance.

Coaches and players both agreed that the Rutgers contest was good preparation for an Ivy schedule that has become more significant by the new incentive of an automatic NCAA Tournament berth, which will be presented to the league champion.

"Rutgers played well, and they played aggressively," Sims said. "And we expect to see a lot of aggressive competition coming up on the Ivy League schedule now that everyone's trying to get into the tournament. It should be a very competitive year for the Ivy League."

If true, this would provide a drastic change from the past half-decade. Princeton has won 25 straight Ivy League contests, a streak reaching back to 1995. Not surprisingly, the team has won or shared every Ivy title in that span.

The last time the Tigers did not win the league championship was 1994, when Brown claimed the crown. But Princeton still went on to win the NCAA Championship that season. To find a Princeton team that won neither an Ivy title nor a national championship, one would have to look back to 1991.

Past success does not guarantee a quiet ride for the Tigers this year, however. Cornell has demonstrated an ability to run with the nation's elite this season, having already defeated No. 19 UMBC and having barely lost to No. 6 Maryland, 8-7. Last weekend, in its Ivy opener, the Big Red demonstrated its prowess with a 12-4 drubbing of Yale.

Brown will also be a contender this season. Earlier this month, the Bears stunned then-No. 6 Duke, 10-9. Undefeated Harvard will also be a force to be reckoned with. Yale, Penn and Dartmouth will likely bring up the rear of the Ivies in the 2000 season.

"I think, in general, the league is much better — twice as good as it was two years ago," Tierney said. "Everybody seems to have better players now. I think it's going to be a pretty wild affair in the next five or six weeks."

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Despite the strong competition, Princeton is going to stick with the gameplan it has been using for the past few weeks. The Tigers are reverting back to their play of the early 1990s — featuring a patient, deliberate attack and a hard-sliding defense — that won two national titles in the first half of that decade.

"No matter who we play, we're going to play our style now," Tierney said. "I think all the kids are comfortable with that."