NEW YORK, N.Y. – Back on Mar. 25, Coulter Mackesy scored eight goals to lead Princeton to a regular season win over Yale on a rainy day in New Jersey. In the rematch in the championship game of the Ivy League Tournament, the Bulldogs held Mackesy, a first team All-Ivy selection, in check, limiting him to two goals. Unfortunately for Yale, Jake Stevens picked up the slack for the Tigers, scoring six goals as Princeton earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a 19-10 victory on a gorgeous afternoon at Columbia's Lawrence A. Wien Stadium.
Yale now must wait until 9:30 p.m. on Sunday night when the NCAA selections are announced on ESPNU to learn if its season continues. The Bulldogs (9-5) have a strong case for an at-large bid. They entered the weekend No. 9 in the NCAA RPI rankings and knocked off No. 7 Cornell 22-15 on Friday night in the Ivy semifinals. Yale also has wins over No. 11 Denver and No. 12 Villanova on its resume.
Similar to the regular season game, a slow start hurt the Bulldogs against Princeton as Alex Slusher scored just six seconds in for the Tigers.
Jack Stuzin answered for Yale 15 seconds later, but Princeton ran off the next six goals and had an 8-2 lead after 15 minutes.
Princeton then scored the first six goals of the second quarter to seize control. The Tigers had a 13-3 halftime lead.
"We couldn't get a stop and couldn't generate substantive offense," said
Andy Shay, The Forst Family Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "We got down quick and give credit to Princeton. They smelled blood, and they took it to us. They played faster than us."
Stuzin finished with a hat trick to lead the Yale offense.
Chris Lyons scored twice, while
Leo Johnson, Matt Brandau, Nicholas Ramsey, Thomas Bragg and
Carson Kuhl each had one goal. Lyons added two assists.
Stuzin, a long stick midfielder who finished with four goals in the tournament, Lyons and Brandau were named to the all-tournament team for Yale. Lyons and Brandau combined for 17 points in Friday's semifinal victory over Cornell.
Goalie Michael Gianforcaro, who was strong in the Tigers' 9-8 semifinal win over Penn and had 17 saves in the championship game, was selected as the tournament's most outstanding player.
Yale and Princeton were playing in the championship game for the fourth time. The Bulldogs had won the previous three in 2015, 2013 and 2012.
Yale, the only school to have qualified for every Ivy Tournament, was appearing in the championship game for the seventh straight season.
