Tigers

These teams rank second and third in Division I in national championships with Johns Hopkins winning nine and Princeton six. The Blue Jays have dominated this series, winning 55 of 82 contests. Prior to Johns Hopkins' 10-8 win last year, however, the Tigers had won three consecutive games. No. 14 Princeton opened the season last Saturday with a 10-7 victory over Hofstra that featured the debut of four freshmen in the starting lineup. The offense is headlined by junior midfielder Tom Schreiber and senior attackman Jeff Froccaro.

Towson plays its final basketball games Saturday at the Towson Center, its home for 37 years. And then? Lights out. Court adjourned. Next year, the Tigers graduate to the Tiger Arena, a glitzy $72 million, 5,200-seat venue being built adjacent to the present facility. But not before the school pays homage to the Towson Center with a men's-women's doubleheader. At halftime of the men's game against Hofstra, more than two dozen former players and coaches will be introduced, including most of the 1976-77 team that christened the building and went 27-3 - Towson's best mark ever.

Homefield advantage is not what it used to be in the rivalry between the Johns Hopkins and Princeton men's lacrosse teams. The No. 5 Blue Jays dropped an 11-8 decision to the No. 14 Tigers before an announced 2,352 at Homewood Field on Friday night. Neither side has won a game in this series at home since 2004. When Johns Hopkins reviews this latest setback, the Blue Jays won't like what they see. Careless turnovers and porous defense in the fourth quarter contributed to the loss -- two factors that won't please coach Dave Pietramala.

Junior attackman Thomas DeNapoli's fourth goal of the game with 64 seconds left in overtime propelled Towson to a 9-8 decision over Mercer last Sunday - an outcome that netted the team its first win of the season. But the Tigers (1-3) didn't get much aid from their faceoff specialists. Freshmen Conor Pequigney and Zack Gregory and junior Austin Lyons combined to win just 8-of-20 draws. Pequigney's 1-of-3 outing was especially surprising considering his 10-of-23 effort in a 14-9 loss to then-No.

When Princeton opened the season with a 10-7 victory over Hofstra last Saturday, a few familiar names dotted the box score. Senior attackman Jeff Froccaro and junior midfielder Tom Schreiber each recorded two goals and one assist, sophomore attackman Mike MacDonald scored three goals against the Pride for the second straight year, and senior Bobby Lucas won six of eight faceoffs. There were also some fresh(man) faces. Attackman Ryan Ambler posted four points on one goal and three assists, goalkeeper Matt O'Connor made six saves, and midfielder Jake Froccaro and defenseman Mark Strabo also started.

For three weeks in June 2009, Tom Schreiber was in a bit of limbo about his status as Princeton's most prized men's lacrosse recruit. Bill Tierney had just resigned as coach after 22 seasons, and Schreiber, a midfielder, was growing worried. Then the university named Chris Bates from Drexel as Tierney's successor. Bates dispelled Schreiber's anxiety quickly, driving to the family home in East Meadow, N.Y., the day after he was hired to meet with Doug and Liz Schreiber, and then spend a few hours with their son. "I kind of had a unique recruiting experience," Tom Schreiber recalled.

When the Providence coaching staff decided last spring that Bilal Dixon didn't fit into its plans for the 2012-13 season, the 6-foot-9, 245-pound center quickly thought of one guy he'd like to play for in his last year of eligibility. "[Pat] Skerry was my man," Dixon said of Towson's second-year coach, a former Friars assistant. "My freshman year I redshirted [at Providence], and Skerry was the head coach of the redshirting squad. He let me play my game. We used to go at it. " Never mind that Dixon fielded inquiries from several high-major schools interested in adding a battle-tested Big East veteran at the 5. Never mind that Dixon had never heard of Towson before Skerry got the coaching job there one year before.

Towson women's lacrosse coach Sonia LaMonica was hoping to get more production from attack this season to take some pressure off the defense, which helped the Tigers win eight of nine one-goal games last season. However, the loss of the Tigers' top two scorers to injuries put a damper on those plans. In Wednesday's game against UMBC, No. 16 Towson again dominated the defensive end and this time found a spark with Kelly Custer and Olivia Turner, who combined for seven goals in an 11-8 victory.

- Towson has seen the end of many streaks during its renaissance basketball season. It finished off another one Tuesday night at George Mason. Jerrelle Benimon scored a career-high 31 points, including 22 in the first half, as the Tigers halted a 20-game losing streak to the Patriots with an 85-81 overtime triumph. Marcus Damas (23 points) made a pair of game-clinching free throws with 7.6 seconds left in the extra period for Towson (17-13, 12-5 Colonial Athletic Association)