Junior helps Tigers back to men’s lacrosse Final Four
By: Bob Nuse
As far back as September, Bill Tierney knew this would be a different kind of season for the Princeton University men’s lacrosse team.
With seven starters and several other key players lost to graduation, the Tigers were going to need to rely on more young and inexperienced players than ever before. It was a coaching job that was going to be tough for Tierney and his staff, but one that was made a whole lot easier thanks to the presence of Jason Doneger.
"What he did was take the older guys and convince them to be willing to bring along the younger guys, which is what they have done," said Tierney, whose sixth-seeded Tigers will play second-seeded Navy in the NCAA tournament semifinals on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. "But he also convinced the younger guys to listen. He’s really help to mold it together. Jason has been there right in the middle of everything and he’s a guy that can do that because he commands so much respect from everyone.
"He is a great player, but as a person no one is more respected than Jason. With the younger guys, he is so upbeat that he has really picked those guys up and helped bring them along this first year. It’s been pretty amazing to see the way this team has come together."
Doneger, a junior, leads the Tigers in goals with 36 and also has a pair of assists. But just as important as what he has done on the field has been what he has done off the field. Tierney gives the co-captain much of the credit for bringing the team together over the course of the season. And it’s a role Doneger felt simply went with the territory.
"Being a captain is something I looked forward to," said Doneger, who was part of Princeton’s national championship team as a freshman in 2001, then took the 2002 season off to study abroad. "I saw it as an opportunity, as a junior and not a senior, to befriend the freshmen and sort of take them under my wing. In a way I guess I helped to bridge the gap between the freshmen and the seniors.
"It has been a lot more than just my doing. A lot of the seniors have done a lot to take the freshmen on over the course of the season. Ryan Boyle has probably taught these guys more about lacrosse in the last eight or nine months than they had learned their whole lives. A lot of the older guys have been fabulous with the younger guys this year."
And that has helped turn the Tigers from a team with holes to fill into one making its 10th Final Four appearance since 1992. A freshman, Peter Trombino, is second on the team in goals scored and had the winning tally in Saturday’s overtime win over Maryland. Two other freshmen, Whitney Hayes and Scot Sowanick, are among the top six on the team in scoring.
"This year it is not about coaching," Tierney said. "It’s about the kids buying into what we try to do and being able to get the job done. It’s about guys like Tim Sullivan, who after two years on the bench comes in and starts as a junior. It’s about guys like Oliver Barry, who has developed into one of the best defensive players in the country. Those are the guys who have stepped up and gotten it done. Guys like John Robinson, who after three-and-a-half years is now part of the second midfield. It’s pretty amazing to see it happen.
"We have a senior group with the three guys Ryan Boyle, Drew Casino and Ricky Shultz who have been starters and key players and it was going to be tough for them to change. So I was happy to have a junior captain like Jason, who has been the bridge. He’s one of my five all-time favorite players ever. He’s been instrumental in what we’ve been able to accomplish this season."
Doneger came into the season knowing that for Princeton to be successful, the freshmen had to be contributors. After a bit of a rocky start, the group has settled in and exceeded any expectations the Tigers could have had for them. In fact, during overtime last Saturday at Maryland, four freshmen were on the field when Trombino scored the winning goal.
"We knew that if the freshmen were all on the same page, that was going to make a big difference for us this season," Doneger said. "I looked at this freshman class as make or break for us this season. If they produced, we were going to be able to have the kind of season we thought we were capable of having. I give them a lot of credit. They came in as college freshman with bright eyes and they didn’t really get it. But then as we went on they understood what it was all about and they learned.
"Not only did we have a lot of freshmen who were going to have to contribute, but we also had inexperienced guys stepping into key positions like Tim Sullivan on defense and John Robinson in the midfield. I think by this point of the season, when you’re playing in the Final Four, they’re not really freshmen anymore."
For Doneger, this will be a second trip to the national semifinals. The Tigers won the championship when he was a freshman, but he missed the trip to the finals the next year while studying in Spain for a year. Last year, the Tigers lost to Syracuse in the quarterfinals.
"It’s funny, because originally I was in this senior class but then I went abroad for a year, so essentially I dropped down a class," Doneger said. "It was a great opportunity to travel and study in a foreign country. I spent a semester in Spain and it was an unbelievable experience. At the same time, I missed playing and being around the team. But I came back and found that I was hungrier for the game and for the competition."
And the games don’t get any more competitive than they did last week, when Princeton got two goals from Ryan Boyle in the last two minutes to tie the game, then won it on a goal in overtime.
"That was a crazy game," Doneger said. "It was back and forth and no team ever had the lead by more than two goals. Thanks to Ryan Boyle, we’re playing again this weekend. But I think it was really a team effort that got us to this point. And we know that this week against Navy, everybody is going to have to perform. We need production from guys like Whitney Hayes and Peter Trombino for us to be successful. Navy is a deep team and we know we need to play well in order to beat them."
Based on how he has seen the team grow this season, Doneger is confident the Tigers will be ready for the challenge that awaits them in Baltimore.
"This year our team is so tight from top to bottom; from senior to freshman and top players to bottom players," Doneger said. "It hasn’t always been like that and it has helped make this a special season for us."