No. 1 Princeton Tops Duke in NCAA Semifinals

Saturday, May 23

Charlottesville, Va.

12 p.m.

Duke University

11-5, 1-3

Princeton

16-2, 5-1

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Duke	2	2	2	1	7
Princeton	3	3	5	3	14

The Duke men's lacrosse team faced No. 1 Princeton in the 2026 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Final Four.

Photo by: Nat LeDonne / Duke Athletics

No. 1 Princeton Tops Duke in NCAA Semifinals

5/23/2026 2:13:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Duke junior Benn Johnston registered a hat trick, but a 5-2 third quarter in Princeton's favor pushed the top-seeded Tigers to a 14-7 victory in the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Semifinals Saturday afternoon at Scott Stadium.

Princeton goaltender Ryan Croddick had 20 saves to lead the Tigers to victory. Johnston paced all Duke (11-5) scorers with three points. Cal Girard went 12-of-18 at the faceoff dot.

How it Happened

Defense was the story in the opening minutes with both teams combining for five turnovers. Princeton took advantage of a couple of the unsettled situations in the first seven minutes to grab a 2-0 lead.
A save from Duke goalie Buck Cunningham allowed the Blue Devils to get out in transition. Aidan Maguire ran the length of the field and found Johnston for the stinger to make it 2-1 with 7:12 left in the opening quarter.
Johnston got his second of the day five minutes later to tie the game at 2-2.
After Princeton (16-2) scored in the final 30 seconds of the first quarter, the Blue Devils charged to the 4-3 lead with goals from Mac Christmas and Girard eight seconds apart to begin the second.
The Tigers registered the final three tallies of the half to take a 6-4 lead into the locker room. Duke hit two crossbars and a third went off the pipe in the opening 30 minutes.
Princeton outscored Duke, 5-2, in the third quarter to surge to an 11-6 lead after three. Michael Ortlieb and Johnston had Duke's two goals as the Tigers scored five goals on 15 shots in the frame. Cunningham had five saves for the Blue Devils while Croddick had four for the Tigers during the third quarter.
After Princeton went up six, Duke attackman Kyle Colsey made it a five-goal game with 10 minutes to play. The Tigers added two goals in the last 3:06 remaining for the 14-7 final.

Team Notes

Duke concludes the season with an 11-5 overall record.
The Blue Devils fall to 0-3 against Princeton in NCAA Tournament games.
The Blue Devils are 46-25 all-time in NCAA postseason games and 7-8 in NCAA semifinals.
The Blue Devils are 37-15 in the NCAA Tournament under John Danowski.
John Danowski has 41 NCAA Championship wins (4 at Hofstra, 37 at Duke) to lead all active Division I coaches and rank second all-time behind Bill Tierney's 44 as the DI leader.

Player Notes

Junior Benn Johnston extended his goal scoring streak to 19 games with three goals against Princeton.
Charlie Johnson helped hold Princeton attackman Chad Palumbo to two points on three shots. Palumbo entered the game averaging 4.2 points per game and 7.4 shots per game.
Sophomore Nikolas Menendez matched his career high with four caused turnovers. He finished his second season with a team-high 20 caused turnovers and 30 ground balls.
Cal Girard went 12-of-18 (.667) from the dot for his 11th game with double-digit faceoff wins. He also picked up eight ground balls – the 12th time this season he's had at least five.
Girard's 67-percent success rate marked the best by a single specialist against Princeton this season. Duke finished the game winning 14-of-24 for 58 percent – the second best by a Tiger opponent in 2026.