PRINCETON: PU men, Barnes storm out of gates

Junior lifts lacrosse to 2-0 start

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   The Princeton University men’s lacrosse team has gotten big contributions from its freshmen to go 2-0, and some even bigger help from a junior in his first significant playing time.
   Paul Barnes came to the Tigers after helping Haverford High win the Pennsylvania state championship. The high school All-American was expected to help Princeton in the midfield, and after two years waiting in the wings, he has burst onto the scene.
   ”Paul hasn’t played at all for us in the regular season before,” said PU head coach Bill Tierney. “He’s been on the third midfield. Towards the end of last year, he was taking some faceoffs. He’s developed under our new coach, Kevin Unterstein. He’s become more focused. Paul was a big-time recruit and he wanted to have impact as junior, and he’s finally doing it.”
   But none of the Tigers saw this amount of success coming. In addition to winning almost 55 percent of the faceoffs he has taken, he also was a perfect 2-for-2 shooting the ball in the Tigers’ 14-8 win over Johns Hopkins last Saturday. He became the first PU player to win a faceoff and score in five years.
   ”If we can get the faceoff results,” Tierney said, “even without the goals, in every game, I’ll be thrilled.”
   Barnes is hoping to do his part to help Princeton continue its fast start as the Tigers return to Baltimore tonight to take on UMBC, another top-10 opponent. UMBC comes off a 14-11 loss to Johns Hopkins on Tuesday.
   ”It’s been a great start,” Barnes said. “Last Saturday was amazing. Everyone, including myself, is playing with a lot of confidence. That’s helped a lot. We’ve been focusing on ourselves and playing hard.”
   Barnes’ faceoff percentage is just ahead of Alex Berg’s 52 percent rate of a year ago. With Berg’s graduation, Barnes seized the opportunity to take the majority of faceoffs when Tierney approached him about it in the fall.
   ”I was fortunate enough to be able to fill that role,” Barnes said. “Our new offensive coach has been working with me a lot on learning some new faceoff moves. It’s a great way for me to get on the field and get some ground balls and get us some possessions. It’s an important part of the game, so it’s a nice role to play.”
   Waiting two years to do so only made him hungrier to contribute. Barnes took nine faceoffs all of last season and won three of them.
   ”Sometimes you don’t always play as much as you’re used to,” he said. “I’m fine with it. You have to work hard to play on this team. We always have talented players. My time has come. I’m happy to get on the field.”
   Added Tierney: “He’s always been decent. We had Berg, and Paul wasn’t as focused in the past two years as he is now. He’s decided he wanted to become an integral part.”
   Princeton has seen early success in a number of new contributors. Freshmen defenders Chad Wiedmaier, the most recent Ivy League Rookie of the Week, and John Cunningham has been solid defensively, as has freshman goalie Tyler Fiorito, who made 11 saves in his first full game Saturday. Jonathan Meyers has added depth in the midfield, and can take faceoffs if Barnes needs a break.
   ”They don’t play like they’re freshmen,” Barnes said. “They’re all big and physical. They’re confident. Coach is confident in them. I think they’ve been a great surprise for us. They all play really hard and play within the system. It’s nice to be able to have that youth. It makes us all-around a lot deeper. There are so many guys that can step in and play. I think that’s a benefit to us.”
   The biggest surprise to outside viewers is the Tigers new approach on offense. Princeton is peppering opponents with shots. Their 111 shots through two games is 61 more than their opponents’ thus far.
   ”We’ve been shooting the ball a lot more than people think Princeton’s offense has done in the past,” Barnes said. “We’ve gotten a lot of shots on cage, definitely made it hard on other teams’ goalies. We’re playing a lot looser. We’re comfortable with more guys taking some shots.”
   It’s not reinventing the wheel, says Tierney, though he hasn’t been this proficient on offense in a long time. Scoring at least 14 goals in back-to-back games had not happened for the Tigers since 2002.
   ”We have some people, especially with our first six guys, we present some pretty good matchup problems and we have some guys that can let it go,” Tierney said. “We think these kids have adapted more to a less stringent offense. It is something that we’ve kind of evolved into.
   ”It’s more of this not over-coaching in any part. A year ago, we thought we made them worry about too much. I think what happened the other day is they played with some confidence. They scored on first couple shots and that always helps.”
   Princeton will need similar success to counter UMBC’s strong offense tonight. The Tigers defense will be tested, and Paul Barnes can make it easier on Princeton by winning faceoffs. Any scoring he does will be a bonus, but he’s looking to help the Tigers and way he can in his first significant action.
   ”UMBC is a talented team,” Barnes said. “It’s still early, and we have a lot to prove.”