No. 15/16 Men’s Lacrosse Plays No. 3 Princeton Saturday for the Meistrell Cup

Saturday, March 7

Princeton, N.J,

12:00 PM

Rutgers University

Princeton

No. 15/16 Men’s Lacrosse Plays No. 3 Princeton Saturday for the Meistrell Cup

Mar 04 | Men's Lacrosse

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Road Game Saturday at Noon

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 15/16 Rutgers men's lacrosse has an in-state rivalry matchup this Saturday. The game is played for the Meistrell Cup Trophy. This year's game begins at noon, with a live stream on ESPN+. Cody Chrusciel and Dave Giancola will be on the call.

About Rutgers

Rutgers enters the game at 5-1 overall. The Scarlet Knights' lone loss came to Army, a top-10 team in this week's polls. RU has wins over Jacksonville, Stony Brook, Villanova, LIU and Hofstra by a margin of 57-41.

Rutgers' offense is led by Colin Kurdyla and Greyson Vorgang. Each have 14 goals to share the team lead, taking two different paths to this point as team goal leaders.

Kurdyla, a junior, was an All-American and all-Big Ten last season, and was RU's leading returning scorer. He has started 33 of his 36 career games as a Scarlet Knight and is approaching 100 career points (with 93 entering the Princeton game).

Vorgang is a redshirt sophomore. A native of Niskayuna, N.Y., he spent his first season at Denver, redshirting, then transferring back East to RU. In his first season at RU last season, he played in 11 games with four goals, seeing time as a man-up specialist and fourth attackman. This season, he didn't start the first two games, but moved into the starting attack role mid-game during the second game of the season against Army and broke out. Vorgang has five straight multi-goal games, include three games with hat tricks and two games with five points.

Rutgers has outscored opponents 45-28 in the first half this season. RU has scored at least seven goals in the opening half in every game this season, scoring seven four times, eight once and nine once.

After halftime, RU has been outscored 23-21 by foes. RU has scored five goals after halftime just twice. In two of the last three games, RU held its opponent to just one goal (Villanova and Hofstra).

Cardin Stoller is top-15 nationally in save percentage (57.9%) and goals-against-average (8.76). Rutgers is 11^th nationally in man-down defense (84.6%).

Joe Juengerkes previously played at Princeton from 2022 to 2024, seeing game action in 31 games. The team's top short-stick defensive midfielder is a two-time team captain and was an All-American and all-Big Ten selection last season.

About Princeton

Princeton is ranked third in both the Coaches and Media Poll. Princeton, who earned four first places votes from the media, has been ranked in every matchup between the teams dating back to 2020.

The Tigers enter the matchup at 3-1 on the year. Princeton entered the season ranked third, then fell 13-7 to Big Ten foe Penn State in the opener, as the Nittany Lions built a 7-1 lead in the first quarter. The Tigers rallied from that defeat with three straight impressive wins, taking down then-No. 2 Maryland (13-12) and then winning a pair of games against ranked ACC foes last weekend, No. 6 Syracuse (11-7) and No. 1 UNC (11-9).

Goalkeeper Ryan Croddick is fifth nationally in saves per game after notching 39 saves across two games last weekend, including a staggering 25 stops against the Tar Heels to earn national Player of the Week recognition.

Nate Kabiri was the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week after five goals and four assists last weekend. He shares the team lead in goals with Colin Burns (seven) and leads the team with 13 points.

Andrew McMeekin is at 41.8% on faceoffs this season. An All-Ivy pick last year, he's 450-of-870 for his career at Princeton (51.7%). He is 10-of-31 in his career facing off against Rutgers (32.2%).

Princeton assistant coach Jim Mitchell previously spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Rutgers.

About the Series

This will be the 102^nd edition of the Meistrell Cup, the eighth most played series in Division I men's lacrosse. Rutgers has three wins since 2017 (2017, 2019 and 2023). The last road win for RU against Princeton came in 1989. Princeton leads the all-time series 66-32-3.

The series returns to the Class of 1952 Stadium in Princeton for the second straight year. Last season, Princeton claimed an 11-5 win over the Scarlet Knights. Croddick had 24 saves in that contest, with Kabiri scoring three goals.

Rutgers' last win in the series came in overtime. On March 11, 2023, Rutgers won 14-13 in SHI Stadium. Dante Kulas had four goals in that game, including the overtime winner.

With a Win

Rutgers is looking for its first ranked win of the season. The Scarlet Knights had four ranked wins last season, including a victory over No. 2 Maryland. A win over No. 3 Princeton would mark the second straight season with a top-3 win and RU's third top-3 win over the past five seasons, also defeating No. 3 Penn in 2022 to advance to the Final Four. It would be RU's sixth top-five win under head coach Brian Brecht.

Up Next

A midweek game at St. John's is on tap this Tuesday. That is followed by RU hosting Bellarmine in the final home non-conference game in the LaCROSSE Out Cancer game. Supporters can donate to the cause to support the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation by visiting here.