Men's Lacrosse: Tigers hope to rebound against Brown

Princeton (1-5, 0-2 Ivy League) has struggled with injuries in the first half of the schedule, losing three opening day starters. However, the team should still expect to contend against Brown (3-4, 0-1), who has traditionally given the Tigers little trouble.

Though the Bears have the stronger record entering the game, Brown earned its three victories over Saint Joseph’s, Quinnipiac and Vermont, three teams which are rarely contenders and none of whom have a winning record so far this season.

Princeton has fallen to Brown only once in the past decade. In head coach Chris Bates’s two years at the helm, the Tigers have won both meetings, 9-7 in 2010 and 14-7 in 2009.

Ultimately, the common thread among losses this season is persistent injuries, which have left at least five starters unable to play at times.

The Tigers lost freshman midfielder Nick Fernandez for the season after he broke his arm in the overtime loss against then-No. 19 Yale last week. Senior attackman and co-captain Jack McBride is out with a groin injury, while senior midfielder Tyler Moni recently broke his wrist; neither is expected to return this season.

Furthermore, two other starters — freshman midfielder Tom Schreiber and junior defender Jonathan Meyers — are also coming off of injuries. They played last week against Yale, but Tiger fans may need to worry about their ability to perform, considering that the team has been forced to sit out many of its players this year.

Bates said that the team is still eager to play, despite these troubles. “This is a team that wants to compete and show that it’s a Division I lacrosse team,” he said. “We haven’t had that feeling in a while, so we need that positive momentum. We are playing with adversity, and we have to learn how to do so.”

The Tigers’ only victory this season was an upset over No. 6 Johns Hopkins on the road earlier this month. Bates expressed his hope to revive the same excitement in the team after facing Brown.

“I’m looking forward to being in the locker room after 60 minutes of good hard lacrosse with a win,” Bates said.

Brown is coming off a clear 12-7 defeat against No. 3 Duke in which the team was overrun on offense and outshot by a staggering 18 attempts.

If Princeton is able to obtain and maintain possessions, they will still face a challenge in Brown goaltender Matt Chriss, who ranks second in the Ivy League with a save percentage of .614. Chriss is a single notch above Princeton’s junior goalie Tyler Fiorito, who has stopped 58.5 percent of the shots he has faced.

Princeton should expect to have some success winning faceoffs, an area in which it has struggled mightily this season. The Tigers rank last in the league with a faceoff percentage of .376, but Brown has had only marginally better success, winning 44.8 percent of faceoffs.

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The Tigers will have to stop Brown attackman Andrew Feinberg, who leads the Ivy League with 2.71 goals per game and ranks second with 3.86 points per game. They can tame the Brown offense and find the win they are desperately seeking if they stop Feinberg, as the Bears have seen few strong offensive contributions from other players.

Princeton will host the Bears at Class of 1952 Stadium starting at 1 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on Verizon FiOS.