Syracuse men’s lacrosse: NCAA Tournament Quarterfinal vs. Princeton preview and game thread

The postseason rivalry renews with a spot in the Final Four on the line.

Welcome to NCAA Quarterfinal weekend!

The 6-seed Syracuse Orange have returned to Long Island to face the 3-seed Princeton Tigers in the second quarterfinal of the day at Hofstra University at 2:30 PM on ESPN U. Cornell and Richmond clash in the first game at noon.

The game doubles as a renewal of one of the great postseason rivalries of the 1990’s and early 2000’s, when the Orange and Tigers met in May 10 times from 1992-2003, including seven Final Four meetings and three straight title games from 2000-2002.

This is their first postseason meeting since the 2003 NCAA Tournament, when they also met in the quarterfinal round, a 15-5 ‘Cuse win.

• All-time series: 31st meeting; Syracuse leads, 21-9 overall; 6-4 in NCAA Tournament
• Last meeting: Syracuse W, 16-13, on April 8, 2023
• Syracuse this season: 12-5 overall, 2-2 ACC
• Princeton this season: 13-3 overall, 5-1 Ivy

Unlike Syracuse, Princeton is coming off an absolute demolition of their first round opponent in their 22-12 takedown of Towson. The Tigers had an unbelievable offensive day, finishing with 22 goals, 15 assists, a ridiculous 52.4 shooting percentage (22-of-42) and a 59 percent game on face-offs (23-of-39).

While they had a good game last weekend, their face-off unit is below-average on the season, ranking 55th nationally with a 45.9 percent success rate. Johnny Mullen and the ‘Cuse FO unit have been on fire all season, but especially recently, and they need to keep that going against a Princeton unit that has only finished above 50 percent in five of their 16 games this year. Both these offenses have the ability to light up the scoreboard, and Mullen and co. have the chance to give SU a leg up on that with a good performance today.

Their offense, ranked 11th nationally at 13.5 goals per game, is led by one of the most dangerous attacks in the country with Tewaaraton finalist Coulter Mackesy (41G, 19A), Nate Kabiri (31G, 27A) and Colin Burns (28G, 16A).

They’ve got great depth at the midfield, too, with Chad Palumbo (22G, 17A), Tucker Wade (26G, 8A), Peter Buonanno (15G, 8A) and Sean Cameron (13G). The whole offense has a wide variety of skill sets and guys who can make plays all over the field that will make SU’s defensive job a tricky one.

Defensively, Colin Mulshine is a lockdown defender who has done that very job on CJ Kirst in recent years. He’ll likely draw Joey Spallina, and the Orange may do well to employ something akin to the Shawn Lyght strategy for Joey in this one, because beating Mulshine will be a very tall task. The Tigers also like to go zone a lot and keep to their assignments, so quick, unselfish passing needs to be in order.

Goalie Ryan Croddick is an excellent backstop, saving 57.9 percent of his shots faced with a 10.52 GAA on the season.