PU men’s lacrosse gets needed win

Tigers top Penn in overtime

By: Justin Feil
   One. Four. Eleven.
   It sounds like a combination, and in some regard it is.
   It tells a little of how the Princeton University men’s lacrosse team can still unlock the door to the NCAA Tournament for a 16th straight season.
   Winless after its first five games, the Tigers took care of the first number, one, by notching their first win of the season, 6-5, at Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Princeton will play at Rutgers 1 p.m. Saturday, but its real focus is on winning its remaining games in the Ivy League. There are four of them. To do so would give them at least a share of an Ivy championship, for an 11th straight year, and give them a chance at the Ivy’s automatic NCAA berth, the real prize to the combination.
   "That is the only thing we’re thinking about," said Jason Doneger, who scored the game-winner with 1:43 to play in the second overtime Tuesday. "I’d love to beat Rutgers on Saturday. Hopefully then we’ll feel pretty good about ourselves going into Harvard the next week. It’s a cliché, but we’re really taking it one game at a time. For all intents and purposes, playoffs have started. All the Ivy games are important. All the teams have gotten better. All the rest of the teams we have won’t roll over for us.
   "Due to the tough schedule we play early on, there’s always a chance this is going to happen. We entered the Yale game 0-4, and guys just thought, ‘Now we’ll turn it on.’ I think we just expected it. It was a wake-up call for a lot of guys. Just because you put on the Princeton uniform on doesn’t mean you’re going to win. We had a good few days the last couple days. For a 1-5 team, guys are still putting time in and working for the common cause. I’m hoping that practice translates to games."
   The strange thing for the Tigers is they might have played one of their weakest games of the season Tuesday, yet came out with their first win. The win snapped a six-game losing streak that stretched from last year’s NCAA semifinals loss to Navy to last weekend’s loss to Yale. Princeton looked in control against Penn with a 5-3 lead in the third quarter, but then the offense couldn’t score again until overtime.
   "We played well against Hopkins and Virginia," Doneger said. "They were just better than us. Unfortunately we lost. Even against Hofstra, I don’t think we played that badly. The last few games, when the going got tough, in close games we haven’t figured a way to score a goal. We’ve found ourselves down one or two. Against Penn, we were up, 5-3, and had chance to score the next goal. Instead, we turned it over and they went down and scored two goals to tie it up."
   It took Doneger’s overtime heroics to give the Tigers their first win of the season. For Doneger, the game-winner helped him snap a personal slump. After leading the Ivy League in goals in each of the past two seasons, Tuesday’s goal was his first of this season.
   "It’s just been tough," said Doneger, who scored just the fifth goal of the year by a junior or senior Tiger player. "Teams have devised schemes which have included not letting me get the ball for the most part. It’s been tougher. The bottom line is the midfield has to start scoring goals to open up down low. It’s difficult to score 10-11-12 goals as opposed to the 5-6-7 we are otherwise. As soon as that happens, it will open up opportunities down low. It’s a matter of when all that comes together."
   With each game, the younger Tigers are gaining experience and the team can’t really afford to waste any more opportunities if it is to maintain the program’s high standards and NCAA pedigree. Doneger is hoping that Tuesday’s win will generate the sort of attitude the team needs.
   "One of the biggest things is, we’re very young offensively and that’s shown game in and game out. Secondly, guys aren’t playing with the confidence we need them to, myself included. Hopefully the Penn win will provide us with the necessary momentum.
   "Guys have been playing tentatively, playing to not lose rather than to win. We have talented guys. We’re waiting for guys to play more assertively, to play more aggressively not by book. We have to make improvements."
   Princeton would like to be able to call on the experience of its 2002 squad that reached the NCAA final after starting the season 2-4, including a loss to Yale. The make-up of that squad was not the same.
   "The difference is this team is less experienced," said Doneger, who happened to be sitting out the year in 2002. "This team is a lot younger. Those guys were experienced and I think they took for granted that if they played up to their level, they’d win. I don’t think at this point the guys are as confident that that will just happen. Guys have to grow up quickly. There are guys that are sophomore that have to be leaders. I’m pretty confident (Scott) Sowanick and (Peter) Trombino can assume that role. If they do, and young guys buy into that, I don’t see why we can’t be successful in the next week.
   "I talk a lot to the guys, as do the other older leaders on the team. After a while, talk is kind of cheap. If they don’t buy in, it’s not going to happen. I think guys should be motivated enough to want to turn this thing around. As a leader, as a captain, I try to instill the values of Princeton lacrosse. I try to tell them what it’s like to be on successful teams, what it is to work hard. They have to want to do it themselves."
   There isn’t much left to talk about for the Tigers. Their only option for making the NCAA tournament field lies before them. Penn was the first step.
   "It’s one of those things," Doneger said. "It’s a slippery slope. When you lose your first five games, you realize you have to win five of your last seven games. The thought is you get that first win and you can start rolling after that. Realistically, you really have to just keep on. Every game is crucial."
   Especially when the Tiger men’s lacrosse team is trying to come up with the combination to another NCAA Tournament berth. There’s still a long way to go, and no one’s making Memorial Day plans yet.
   "If we go 1-11, it’s not going to be because we quit," Doneger said. "It might be because we’re not good enough. It won’t be because we quit."