Less Than A Month

Here's a true statement to start your Thursday: There's less than a month until opening day for Princeton lacrosse.

The one-month mark was yesterday, actually. The 15th of the month.

Princeton opens its men's and women's lacrosse seasons on February 15th, with the men at home against Monmouth and the women at Temple.

They will have wildly different starts to their season in terms of playing on Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium. The men follow the opener at home against Monmouth with a game that Tuesday against Colgate, also at home, which means the men will play more home games in four days than the women will in the first 40 days.

The Princeton men play five of their first six games at home and eight of their 13 total at home. The women play six of their first seven games on the road and then six of the last eight at home.

Both teams will feature history-making offensive players.

Kyla Sears is the only player in Princeton women's lacrosse history with two seasons of at least 80 points. Keep in mind that she's entering her junior season.

Sears has 178 career points; should she match that in the next two years, that would give her 356, bettering the current career record of 285, set by Olivia Hompe, who graduated in 2017.

Joining Sears is senior Tess D'Orsi, who is already 10th all-time in career scoring at Princeton with 187 points. D'Orsi scored 64 goals last year, which is tied for the second-best single-season total in program history - with Sears. Only Hompe with 75 in 2017 has scored more.

The big storyline for the women is the fact the Tigers return a 95-point scorer (Sears) and an 80-point scorer (D'Orsi) and then no player who had more than 10 a year ago (sophomore Maria Pansini).

As for the men, they return Michal Sowers, who will rebreak the school career record every time he gets a point, since he is already the record-holder with 255. He enters his senior season with 105 goals and 150 assists, and his 6.07 points per game are fifth in Division I history and the most in the last 38 years.

Think about that. No player who has played in the last 38 years has as many points per game as Sowers does. That includes the Gait brothers, all of the Thompsons, the great Pat Spencer - everyone.

You can also think about this: Sowers ranks fourth in Division I history with 3.67 assists per game. Should he play in all 13 regular-season games this year and NOT record a single assists, his per game total would drop to 2.73 - which would leave him in 22nd place all-time.

Sowers does not currently hold the career records for goals in a career (Jesse Hubbard with 163) or assists (Kevin Lowe with 174). His career numbers suggest that he has a better shot at the assists than goals; his last game of last year suggests he could get both (seven goals, one assist against Cornell).

As for the single-season record, yes, he holds that. And second. And third. In his first three seasons. He is the only player in program history with at least 80 points in a season, and he's done that three times, including a 90-point junior year that saw him become a Tewaaraton Award finalist.

In its preseason Player of the Year watchlist earlier this week, Inside Lacrosse had him ranked second, behind Penn State's Grant Ament. TigerBlog and Grant go back to when Grant was in fifth grade, and TB has always liked Grant a lot. He would take Sowers over him in an instant. 

There is much more to both of the two teams other than their top scorers obviously. For now, one day less than one month away, they're a good starting point.

If you think winter has barely started, consider that Colgate and Jacksonville men scrimmaged earlier this week. The first actual live Division I men's games are Feb. 1, when there will be 12 games.

You can buy tickets to the men's home games HERE. There is no admission charge for regular season women's games.