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Twenty-Five Years
I want you to think about what you were doing in 2001.
Maybe you were in middle school. Maybe you hadn’t picked up a stick yet. Maybe Princeton lacrosse was just a name on a bracket you didn’t pay much attention to.
That was the last time the Tigers won a national championship. Twenty-five years. And on Monday afternoon at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville — on Memorial Day, in 90-degree Virginia heat, in front of a crowd that stayed loud from first whistle to last — Princeton ended the drought.
Final: Princeton 16, Notre Dame 9. It wasn’t close.
Down 3-0 Before Anyone Could Blink
Notre Dame came out guns blazing. Will Maheras scored first. Josh Yago — a second lieutenant in the U.S. Space Force who plays lacrosse on the weekends, which is the most Notre Dame thing I’ve ever heard — made it 2-0. Matt Jeffery buried one to make it 3-0 before five minutes had gone by.
Princeton coach Matt Madalon called timeout.
Whatever he said in that huddle, it worked. The Tigers scored three straight to tie it before the first quarter ended. Then the second quarter happened.
Eight. Unanswered. Goals.
Princeton went on an 11-0 run to close the half — from 3-0 down to 11-3 up — while Notre Dame went 26 straight minutes without putting one in the cage. Chad Palumbo had four goals by halftime, including a man-up finish that sent Kevin Corrigan burning his second timeout before intermission. John Dunphey, who has been on an absolute tear all tournament, put one home to make it seven straight. Princeton was outshooting Notre Dame 33-15.
Halftime. It was over.
Ryan Croddick Was the Difference
When you hold the No. 2 overall seed to nine goals, it starts with your goalie.
Ryan Croddick was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after combining for 33 saves across two games this weekend — Duke in the semis, Notre Dame in the final. When the Irish did find their rhythm in the third quarter (they outscored Princeton 4-2 and actually looked dangerous for about twelve minutes), Croddick was there. Notre Dame threw 22 shots on goal at him. He made it look manageable.
He’ll probably do the same in an “Incoming Investment Banking Analyst”. Yes, he’s on LinkedIn.
Thomas Ricciardelli faced 36. That’s what an 8-0 second quarter does to your goalie’s afternoon.
This Princeton Roster Was Special
I keep going back to the numbers on this team and just shaking my head.
Nate Kabiri: 38 goals, 45 assists this season. 83 points. He’s the kind of passer-first playmaker who doesn’t always make the highlights but makes everyone around him better every single possession. Chad Palumbo — 44 goals, PLL Draft pick No. 7 overall to the Carolina Chaos — ends his career as a champion. Tucker Wade. Colin Burns. Parker Reynolds. Six All-Ivy selections on one roster.
And then there’s Palumbo’s line with Kabiri — that two-man game they ran from X and behind the cage all year. When it’s clicking, it’s unguardable. On Monday it was clicking from the moment Madalon called that first timeout and never stopped.
Notre Dame had players too — Will Donovan (PLL pick No. 15, Boston Cannons) was everything advertised on defense. Yago gave everything. Will Angrick broke the 26-minute scoring drought on the first possession of the second half and Notre Dame actually made it interesting for a quarter. But Princeton’s zone — the same zone that held Duke to seven in the semis — just had answers for everything the Irish tried.
What This Means
Kevin Corrigan tried to win a third title in four years. He came up short. The three-peat is one of the rarest things in this sport — Syracuse pulled it off with the Gait brothers in the late 80s, and nobody’s done it in men’s lacrosse since. Corrigan will be back. Notre Dame will be back. That program doesn’t rebuild, it reloads.
But the day belonged to Princeton. To Madalon. To a senior class that was one year removed from watching Cornell hoist the trophy and said — our turn.
“It’s now a forever team,” Madalon said on ESPN after the final whistle.
Yeah. It is.
Twenty-five years is a long time to wait.
The 2026 Tigers made it worth it.