Sowanick, Tigers happy to return to tournament
By: Justin Feil
The Princeton University men’s lacrosse team didn’t come away feeling good about a 6-5 victory against Brown in its regular-season finale.
In fact, it reminded them of some earlier losses, and that is bad news for the University of Maryland-Baltimore County team that will visit Class of 1952 Stadium noon Saturday for the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers have made a habit of bouncing back big this season from disappointment. A 7-5 midseason loss to Syracuse was followed three days later by a 16-7 pounding of the University of Pennsylvania. The frustration of a 4-3 loss to Cornell was diminished three days later in an 11-5 win over Rutgers.
"I know for the Penn game after the Syracuse game, we were completely blown away by how we played against Syracuse," said PU junior Scott Sowanick. "To hold Syracuse to seven and only score five puts the onus on the offense. There was some weight on our shoulders when we played Penn. We were excited to play Penn on that Tuesday and we got to show we can compete.
"With Coach (Bill Tierney), the defense has been amazing all year. All the close defensemen, short-stick middies, long poles and Alex (Hewitt, the goalie), they’ve been great. We’ve been up and down on offense. We’ve shown we can be on at times. I think what we’re looking for, it’s great it’s a playoff game and everyone is so excited. We need to come together and play as one cohesive unit on offense and defense. There’s no better time than a first-round playoff game."
The seventh-seeded Tigers will be hosting a UMBC team that has an identical 10-4 record, has won its last six games and averages double-digit scoring per game. UMBC qualified by winning the America East Conference.
"They have a great attack," Tierney said. "They have three very good attackmen who can score. Their first six are all good. They have a real tough attack. We have to find a way to hold their offense down. They have a good defense and a good goalie too. They have a real solid team. It reminds me of Hofstra, which is very good.
"We have to continue to do what we’ve been doing at the defensive end. On offense, we have to do what we’ve done a couple times this year. We need to play loose and not be looking for that perfect shot. That’s when we get into trouble."
On offense is where Sowanick comes into play. He is the Tigers’ second leading scorer and much of Princeton’s ability to advance to face the Maryland-Denver winner could be dictated by he and leading scorer Peter Trombino’s play.
"Scott and Peter are our leaders on offense with midfielder Mark Kovler," Tierney noted. "Scott and Peter, when they play well, they both seem to play well. When one of them doesn’t, they both don’t. So Scott has been instrumental in our success. When he’s played well, we’ve played well."
Said Sowanick, "I never enter a game feeling personal weight. Peter is one of my best friends and he probably doesn’t feel it that way either. We do play a role. If we lose a game by one, and either he or I didn’t play great we take it personally that we could have made a difference. If you’re not going out and playing to your potential, you feel terrible."
Sowanick hasn’t had many days like that. He also knows that it won’t just be one or two players that give the Tigers a win, even if he and Trombino can’t help but feel some of the pressure.
"The both of us understand it’s our responsibility to set the tone," Sowanick said. "That’s the way it’s been all season."
The Princeton defense has been consistent all season in surrendering only 6.14 goals per game. That gives the Tiger offense a lot of help when they score more than six goals. They are unbeaten in those instances this year. They have not won scoring less than six goals.
"It’s pretty telling," Sowanick said. "If we don’t score more than six goals, we lose. That’s a reflection of our offense not necessarily doing the job we can do. With the schedule we play, you can’t go out and score six goals and expect to win. Our defense has done the job. They’ve held the goals to seven or eight per game. Lacrosse is a relatively high-scoring game. That’s on the offense to get the job done."
Added Tierney, "You never can predict how it’s going to turn out. If we score six, that certainly is the line of demarcation. We’ve had quarters where we score six."
Princeton is approaching the high-scoring UMBC game with the idea that it will need to score a few more goals than its 9.29 goals per game average to feel confident. The Tigers gained plenty of big-game experience this season against a schedule that was stacked with NCAA Tournament teams. The Ivy League will send four from its conference, and Princeton also played Syracuse, Hofstra, Johns Hopkins and Virginia.
"We play by far the best schedule in the league," Tierney said. "That makes us better, playing all those tough teams. We played some great teams like Hofstra, who had a great year. We hope when it comes time to compete with the best teams in the country, we can call on those memories and that experience to play well with all the ramifications of a tournament game."
Princeton did not make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 15 years last season, but they’ve put that behind them. Just as significantly for them during this season has been the ability to put bad games behind them. The Tigers will be trying to do so again Saturday.
"The games we played the best were games right after losses," Sowanick said. "Playing a first-round playoff game is the same in a way. Your back is against the wall. You have to show some resiliency. To go into game, you know if you lose your season is over. It gets us more excited, more prepared and fired up before the game."
It’s not exactly what UMBC was hoping to hear.