The Princeton University men’s lacrosse team knew it was going to get a home in its NCAA Tournament opener even though it came up short in the Ivy League Tournament final.

Now Matt Madalon and his Tigers know the opponent.

Princeton (12-3) has been drawn against Towson (11-5) in a second-round game to be played on Saturday afternoon at Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium.

The Tigers are the No. 3 overall seed and making their fourth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The storied program with the fourth-most national titles actually had a long drought between appearances — 10 years — before Madalon got things back on track just before the Covid pause.

Since then all the former Roanoke College goalkeeper has done is lead Princeton to a national semifinal in 2022 and a 42-19 overall record. His team, however, has been bounced in its NCAA opener in each of the last two seasons (by Penn State in 2023 and Maryland in 2024).

Maryland has been the Tigers’ nemesis of late, with six straight wins in the series, including that 2022 national semifinal, the NCAA Tournament last season and 13-9 victory this season in February on Old Nassau. If form holds then those two will meet again in the Final Four, which is slated for May 24 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

If fact, Princeton’s three losses this season are against the tournament’s top two seeds in Cornell (twice) and Maryland. The Big Red are the top overall seed after a huge second-half rally — a 10-0 run — to tame the Tigers in the Ivy final.

Before any talk of revenge against either Cornell or Maryland, Princeton must first be top cats in an opener against Towson. The black and gold Tigers, who are coached by former Princeton assistant Shawn Nadelen, won the CAA championship with a 13-10 win over Drexel and are riding a 10-game winning streak, the longest in the program’s Division I era.

This will be the first matchup of the Tigers since 2001 when they met in the NCAA semifinal round in Piscataway. Princeton came away with a 12-11 victory on its way to the national championship. All-time, these two programs have only met in the NCAA Tournament, with then-Towson State defeating Princeton, 14-13, in the 1991 quarterfinal and Princeton taking a 22-6 victory in the 1996 quarterfinal.

Princeton senior Coulter Mackesy needs one goal to move ahead of Jesse Hubbard’s program record of 163 goals in a career.

The winner advances to a quarterfinal at Shuart Stadium at Hofstra University next weekend against the winner of the second-round game between sixth-seeded Syracuse and Harvard.

Princeton (14-3) will hit the road for its first-round matchup against Massachusetts (15-3) in a game to be played at Johns Hopkins’ Homewood Stadium in Baltimore.

The Tigers won the Ivy League regular-season title, but were blown out by Yale in the ILT final, which likely cost them a chance to host the first two rounds (Yale ended up with the No. 7 overall seed and is hosting). Instead, they get a date with the Atlantic 10 champion Minutewomen, who are making their 16th overall appearance and have won 13 straight games.

Princeton senior McKenzie Blake’s 73 goals ranks sixth nationally.

The winner faces either Liberty (12-7) or host Johns Hopkins (12-7) in the second round. North Carolina, Boston College and Northwestern are the top three overall seeds and received byes directly to the second round.

In Division III, fresh off its 14th straight NJAC title, TCNJ (14-4) has a first-round bye and awaits the winner of the game between Stevens (15-4) and George Fox (13-4). The Lions will host that game on May 11 at 1 p.m.

Lions senior Ally Tobler ranks eighth nationally with 78 goals.