Men's Lacrosse: Struggling Tigers look to rebound

After struggling with injuries to several key players, the Tigers (1-4, 0-1) fell to Penn last week and are trying to snap a three-game losing streak. The Tigers have fallen from their previous No. 11 ranking and are now unlisted after receiving only a few votes in this week’s Inside Lacrosse poll.

The cause of the Tigers’ struggles have been no real mystery to head coach Chris Bates and many Tiger fans. “If we don’t have ball possession, we are not going to score goals,” Bates said. “We need to settle down offensively, and that’s of great concern.”

The Tigers’ offensive concerns stem from a consistent struggle to win face-offs. Princeton has a face-off win percentage of .367, the fourth-worst in Division I. Bates said that the Tigers “were better on Saturday but not as good as we need to be.”

Bates attributes some of the difficulty to the caliber of their opponents so far this year.

“All of the teams that we are playing have really high-quality face-off guys,” Bates said. “We’ve worked on it in practice, so hopefully that will pay off.” All of Princeton’s matches this year have been against ranked teams.

With fewer offensive opportunities, the Tigers’ woes are only multiplied by a lack of offensive chemistry. In the absence of the 2010 team’s leading scorer, senior attack Jack McBride, Princeton needs to find an offensive rhythm, according to Bates. “We are putting guys in more offensive roles and they have not been in these roles before.”

McBride has been suffering with a groin injury that leaves him unlikely to play in the game on Saturday.

Many Tiger fans could have looked toward freshman midfielder Tom Schreiber as a new focal point of this untested offense. Schreiber caused some stir in the lacrosse world after leading the team with seven goals during his first four collegiate games. Schreiber, however, was also unable to play against Penn and looks unlikely to play in the match against the Bulldogs.

The team has been forced to rely on untested teammates from the bench as Tiger fans must look on to see “who will fill the gaps,” said Bates. “It’s a growing experience.”

“We need to make fewer mistakes on offense [and] better shooting decisions to give our defense a rest.”

Offensive troubles aside, Princeton will face a tough opponent in Yale. Although the Tigers won both matches against the Bulldogs last year, the current Yale squad has fared well this season. Yale lost its previous outing to Cornell, but only by a two-goal margin, for its only loss of the season.

Princeton will face difficulties keeping possession of the ball, as the Bulldogs lead Division I with 13.4 forced turnovers per game. They also boast the fourth-best overall defense, allowing 6.2 goals per game.

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Making matters more difficult will be Yale specialist Dylan Levings, who is the nation’s best faceoff player and has a face-off winning percentage of .760. Yale is also second in scoring in Division I play, averaging 14.4 goals per game.

With a must-win game on their horizon, Bates and the Tigers are preparing for a fight.

“The team feels good. We know our backs are against the wall [so] we’ve tried to shift our focus a little bit,” Bates said. “I think our guys know the importance of shifting how we prepare.”

The Tigers will take on the Bulldogs at 1 p.m. at Class of 1952 Stadium. The game will be broadcast locally on Verizon FiOS.