PISCATAWAY, N.J. Rutgers men's lacrosse will face an in-state rival this weekend on the road, as the Scarlet Knights will match up against third-ranked Princeton in the annual battle for the 'Tots Meistrell Cup'. The longest-running rivalry in Rutgers lacrosse history will be contested for the 98^th time.

Saturday's game begins at 1 p.m.  A live stream will be available through ESPN+ with Cody Chrusciel and Dave Giancola on the call.
 

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Rutgers, who opened the year with resounding victories over Quinnipiac (20-9) and St. John's (17-10) is looking to halt a losing streak that has included two road matchups against ranked teams. The Scarlet Knights rank in the top-10 nationally in turnovers (13.6 per game) and man-down defense (.867), pacing the Big Ten in both categories. RU is also second in the league in caused turnovers (7.6
Last weekend against Stony Brook, Adam Charalambides led the Scarlet Knights offense with four goals, and surpassed 100 goals for his career, moving into 10^th place all-time in Rutgers' history. Kieran Mullins has his set on the same milestone, as he enters the weekend with 96 career goals. Mullins also has 175 career points, 10^th all-time at RU, and with four points he can pass John Danowski and Greg Rinaldi to move into 8^th on Rutgers' leaderboard.

Goalkeeper Stephen Russo made 15 saves last time out. He has recorded double-digit saves in four of his five starts this season, include two consecutive performances of 15+ saves. He sits in third place in the conference with a save percentage of .530 for the season.

Rutgers is seeking its sixth lifetime top-five win in this matchup. A victory over the No. 3 Tigers would represent a tie for the highest ever ranked win for RU (previously: 2003 vs. No. 3 UMass and 2017 vs. No. 3 Ohio State) and would be the highest ranked win on the road in program history. 

Princeton, unranked in the preseason polls, has risen to third in the nation via four wins to open the year, three of them at home, in defeating Monmouth, Colgate, Virginia and Johns Hopkins. PU is one of six remaining unbeaten teams, which includes RU's next opponent, Syracuse.

The Tigers are led offensively by Michael Sowers (13 goals, 29 assists), who leads the nation in assists and points. Facing off, Tyler Sandoval is 50% (22-of-44). In the goal, Erik Peters has a 5.28 save percentage and 10.87 goals-against-average.

Princeton has the second-best scoring offense in the nation at 18.5 goals per game. The team is also 7^th in ground balls (38.5) and ninth in caused turnovers (10.25). Princeton assistant coach Jim Mitchell, in his first season coordinating the Tigers' offense, spent 2016-2018 as an assistant coach on the Rutgers staff.

The seventh longest running rivalry in the nation will be played Saturday for the 98^th time, with Princeton holding a 93-31-3 lead in the all-time series that dates back to 1922. The squads play for the Meistrell Cup, named in honor of U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Famer Harland (Tots) Meistrell, who restarted the lacrosse programs at both schools in the early 1920s.

Last season, Rutgers claimed a thrilling 9-8 victory. In Piscataway in front of a crowd of 2,296 fans, the largest attendance in the rivalry in 15 years, Max Edelmann made 18 saves, including a stop with six seconds remaining to preserve the one-goal victory. Charalambides and Tommy Coyne each tallied twice for RU. The Scarlet Knights have won two of the past three matchups in the series, also claiming a home win in 2017 by a 16-11 final score. Kieran Mullins led RU in that contest with four goals, and has scored 10 goals in his three games lifetime against the Tigers.

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