Everything Under The Sun — Except The Sun

TigerBlog was in the press box at Scully-Fahey Field prior to the men's lacrosse game between Princeton and Dartmouth Saturday afternoon. 

A little more than 300 miles to the southwest, it was 80 degrees and sunny. Even further to the south, it felt like August. 

In Hanover, N.H.? Uh, no. 

At the other end of the small press box, Dartmouth broadcasters Matt Corsetti and Andrew Sood were pre-recording their intro. Their first take was just about flawless — except that they said that Princeton had won its Ivy League opener one week earlier against Harvard. 

This put TigerBlog in a tough spot. He knew that Princeton had actually played two Ivy League games already. Should he tell them? Who would notice? 

Well, TB erred on the side of accuracy, and he's glad he did. When he pointed out the small error, Corsetti and Sood decided to do a second take. And because of that, Corsetti ad-libbed a great line when he said that Scully-Fahey Field had "Snow. Sleet. Hail. Freezing Rain. There's everything under the sun — except the sun."

Brilliant stuff. 

Yes, the final weekend of March brought all of that to Dartmouth. As it turned out, there was mostly rain by the second half, after the forecast called for as many as six inches of snow, which is the amount that fell 25 miles north of Hanover. 

The weather ended up not being the main story of the game. The goalie play was.

Dartmouth's Mason Morel made 21 saves. Princeton's Ryan Croddick made 13. That was 34 saves against 19 goals, 11 of which came from Princeton. That's 11-8 Tigers, if you didn't want to do the math. 

Dartmouth cut it to one late in the fourth quarter but never tied it. The Tigers were up 10-8 with just under a minute to play when Croddick picked up a loose ball, turned it over to create a one-on-one situation and then made an amazing save to keep it at two. 

It's a final in Hanover: No. 4 Princeton 11, No. 18 Dartmouth 8.

And check out this save from Ryan Croddick #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/jLM6tQkhev

— Princeton Men's Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) March 29, 2025

The win improved Princeton to 6-2 overall. Incredibly, seven of Princeton's first eight opponents are in the top 14 of the current RPI, and the Tigers are 5-2 in those games. The other game was against Rutgers, who has been in and out of the top 20 and is now 22. 

Princeton has wins over No. 4 North Carolina, No. 5 Harvard, No. 6 Penn State, No. 10 Duke and No. 14 Dartmouth in addition to Rutgers, with losses to No. 2 Maryland and No. 8 Cornell. 

The Tigers have a No. 1 ranking in the RPI and a No. 1 ranking in strength of schedule. It's been a remarkable start to the season. 

The Tigers will now finish the regular season with five straight games against teams not in the top 20, with four of those at home, including tonight at 7 on Sherrerd Field against Lehigh. The teams played a Tuesday game a year ago as well, and the Tigers won 12-10. 

What makes this Princeton team special is that it is, in every sense of the word, a team. As its head coach, Matt Madalon, likes to say to his group: "Everything we achieve, we achieve together."

Just look at some of the remarkable numbers that this team has produced:

* against Dartmouth, Princeton had 12 caused turnovers — and 12 different players had one each. TB has never heard of such a thing before.

* in its win against Harvard two Saturdays ago, Princeton got nine goals from offensive midfielders and four from its attack Against Dartmouth, Princeton got eight goals from its attack and one from its offensive midfielders. 

* Princeton has regularly played eight longsticks and six shortstick midfielders. That's depth.

* Princeton has only committed seven penalties all season. 

The game tonight is followed by one Saturday at noon at home against Vermont. After that are three Ivy games on three Saturdays: home against Brown, at Penn, home against Yale. 

Madalon always talks about having two ways to get into the NCAA tournament, via the automatic bid or by an at-large. Princeton has been to the NCAA tournament for three straight years, in 2022 (reaching the Final Four) as an at-large and then the last two years by winning the Ivy tournament. 

This year's team is well-positioned for an at-large bid with the wins it already has on its resume. There's a long way to go, though — and every game brings its own challenge. 

Tonight will be no different — though at least the weather looks like it's cooperating.