Coming off a tough 10-8 loss to Brown, the Princeton University men’s lacrosse team seemed to be back on the winning track in the early stages of its game at Stony Brook last Saturday.

“We came out and the energy level was good early,” said Princeton head coach Chris Bates, whose team jumped out to a 4-1 lead after the first quarter.

“We were ready to go, we won some face-offs early. We were dominating possession, that gave us some good looks. Kip (Orban) had two goals for us, he has been playing so well.”

But in the second quarter, Stony Brook generated a lot of good looks, outscoring Prince-ton 6-2, converting on six of its 11 shots in the period.

“We showed a little bit of inexperience on defense and they made us pay,” said Bates, reflecting on the second quarter.

“We knew going in that they are unselfish on the offensive end. They move the ball well and have a lot of assisted goals. They were able to get some high percentage opportunities.”

With Princeton down only 7-6 at half, there was no reason to push the panic button.

“Schematically, there was not a whole lot to adjust,” said Bates. “We were coming off a bad quarter. We won the first quarter, they won the second. It was go forward and take care of business.”

Starting the third quarter with a 2-1 run to tie the contest, Princeton failed to take care of business after that.

“When it got to 8-8, we had mental lapses on the next two goals,” said Bates. “They scored twice on off ball plays. We played too much defense and our inexperience showed. To give them credit, they took advantage of opportunities.”

Bates acknowledged that his team, now ranked 18th nationally, didn’t maximize its opportunities at the offensive end as it fell to 6-3 overall while No. 14 Stony Brook improved to 9-2.

“We didn’t execute well on offense; it was not a crisp day,” said Bates, who got five goals from senior star and captain Orban on the day with Mike MacDonald chipping in three goals. “We didn’t get into a rhythm or get in synch. They did what they needed to do to win.”

Although the defeat gave Princeton its first two-game losing streak of the season, Bates doesn’t expect his players to hang their heads.

“They got away from it for a day, I am confident they will come back with the same character, work ethic, and competitiveness,” said Bates.

The Tigers will be able to get right back into the fray as they are slated to play at Lehigh on April 7 and at Dartmouth on April 11.

“I think having a full week to think about it might not be good,” said Bates. “I think that just competing and playing will be good, hopefully it will get us on the right track. Hopefully our best lax is ahead of us.”

The Tigers do need to come up with some better lax defensively. “We are concerned, we don’t have a lot of depth there,” said Bates, whose team is currently without the services of star defenders Will Reynolds and Mark Strabo due to injury.

“We have to live and die with what we have. They need to grow as a unit, individually guys are playing hard. They just need to play better together as a unit.”

With Princeton in the thick of the Ivy League race, tied for second with Brown at 2-1 in league play and Cornell in first at 3-1, the Tigers are primed to play hard down the stretch.

“We need to end strongly, all the teams are in the same boat,” said Bates. “It is easy to get excited; it is all Ivy games from here on out.”