NCAA Men's Lacrosse Preview: Pressure's a Privilege for No. 3 Princeton

USA Lacrosse Magazine is beginning its countdown to Feb. 1 — the first day of the 2025 men's lacrosse season — by releasing one team preview per day beginning on Monday, Jan. 13.

We continue the countdown with No. 3 Princeton, a team embracing preseason expectations because of the history of the Orange and Black.

A preseason No. 3 ranking is potentially a rather large target on the back of Princeton. Matt Madalon is proud of the ranking but gives it little credence.

It’s something largely based on last year’s work and someone else’s expectations, he opined. Expectations, though, are exactly what Princeton has entering 2025. For as many graduate transfers they lost to the portal, the Tigers return a smattering of top-tier talent that have them squarely in the conversation for Ivy League favorites.

“I think the expectations for our guys, they don’t feel that,” Madalon said. “Pressure’s a privilege. You want the expectations. You want the standards. That’s always been part of the Orange and Black, championship weekend.”

But at the same time, Madalon called his group humble. They’re a “tough, get-after-it” type of team that relishes the hard days of practice.

“I don’t think this is a group that’s expecting a cakewalk anywhere,” Madalon said. “They’re expecting just the opposite.”

Indeed, Princeton’s schedule is rigorous. The Tigers open with five non-conference games against traditional powerhouses — at Penn State (Feb. 15), Maryland (Feb. 22), at Duke (Feb. 28), at North Carolina (March 2), Rutgers (March 8). That’s before jumping into Ivy League play and mixing in contests against 2024 Patriot League champion Lehigh and 2024 America East runner up Vermont.

“We play as hard of a schedule as possible,” Madalon said.

That’s easy to attack head on when you return as much as Princeton does. Coulter Mackesy and Nate Kabiri form as formidable a 1-2 punch as there is in the Ivy League — and maybe the nation. Ditto for defensive 1-2 punch Colin Mulshine and Michael Bath.

Still, with some new players in new roles at the onset of spring, Madalon and his staff will lean on traditional schemes while adapting to fit the strengths of the players.

“Coach [Jim] Mitchell, he’s in our sixth year as our offensive coordinator, and Coach [Jeremy] Hirsch is in his eighth as defensive coordinator, so having that consistency in the verbiage and the technique allows you to really shift your systems quickly,” Madalon said.

TOP RETURNERS

Coulter Mackesy, A, Sr. (40G, 24A)
Nate Kabiri, A, So. (35G, 25A)
Andrew McMeekin, FO, Jr. (.551FO%, 132GB)
Colin Mulshine, D, Sr. (23GB, 13CT)
Michael Bath, LSM, Sr. (39GB, 26CT)

This section was intended to highlight just three players, but when you return as much as Princeton does, you bend the rules. Mackesy and Kabiri are the lethal 1-2 punch on attack, with their efforts made possible by the work of McMeekin as an improving faceoff ace. And few teams will boast a pair of returners on defense quite like Mulshine and Bath, who Madalon calls “an old-school takeaway guy.”

KEY ADDITIONS

Jake Vana, M, Fr. (St. John’s Prep, Mass.)
Isaac Cruz, M, Fr. (St. Joseph Regional High School, N.J.)
Finn Fox, D, Fr. (Belmont Hill, Mass.)
Peter Buonanno, A, Fr. (Moses Brown, R.I.)

Last year, Princeton started two freshmen attackmen. That’s rare for the Tigers, and Madalon was thrilled with their output, but don’t expect that same level of impact from freshmen this season.

“It’s a good group [of freshmen],” he said. “They get to learn from a lot of guys that played a lot of minutes for us. They’ll come in and fill more support roles.”

NOTABLE DEPARTURES

Graduations: Tommy Barnds, M; Marquez White, SSDM
Transfers: Pace Billings, LSM (Michigan); Michael Gianforcaro, G (North Carolina); Joe Juengerkes, SSDM (Rutgers); Tyler Sandoval, FO (Villanova); Paul Weathington, M (Duke); Lukas Stanat, A (Michigan)

X-FACTOR

Ryan Croddick, G, Jr. (4SV, 50.0%)
Carter Johnson, G, Fr. (Jackson Hole Community, Wyo.)
Colin Vickrey, G, So. (Culver Academy, Ind.)

Princeton has three goalies on its roster totaling just a tick over 24 minutes of in-game NCAA action (and Croddick owns all of that time). He stopped 50-percent of shots in that limited sample (four saves) and enters the spring atop the depth chart.

“We’ll have a new goalie in place this year, but with the experience around him, hopefully we’ll hit the ground running,” Madalon said. “They’re three awesome goalies, all different talents.”

THE NARRATIVE

Madalon attributes Princeton’s No. 3 preseason ranking to the roster turnover across the country. He wants to put the bed the narrative that he didn’t lose a ton himself. Princeton lost quite a bit, albeit graduate players that would have been ineligible to return for a fifth year anyway.

“A lot of teams have turned over, but a lot of teams got stronger in the offseason,” he said. “We had a lot of guys go elsewhere that we would have been thrilled to keep in our program for one more year.”

Most notable among them are sturdy goalie Michael Gianforcaro (North Carolina) and reliable long pole Pace Billings (Michigan), who will most assuredly make their new teams better.

Could Princeton live up to the preseason billing? For sure. Few would be surprised. But it won’t be because of what others lost. It’ll be because the Tigers put it all together.