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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Pennsylvania
Negron Leads No. 12 Princeton Past Penn 4-1, Continues To Rewrite Women's Soccer Record Book
November 06, 2004 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 6, 2004
Final Stats
Esmeralda Negron set one school record, tied another, just missed two others and led her team to two of its own. As senior nights go, it wasn't too bad.
Negron scored three goals and added an assist - all in the first half - to lead 12th-ranked Princeton to a 4-1 win over Penn in the final game of the regular season. The Tigers, who had already clinched the Ivy League championship and NCAA bid, improved to 15-2 overall and 7-0-0 in the league. Penn finished its season at 9-6-2, 4-2-1 in the league.
Princeton will find out its NCAA tournament draw Monday afternoon (4:30, ESPNews). The Tigers will be making their sixth straight NCAA appearance.
"It was a great night," said Negron. "It was just a wonderful game. It couldn't have gone any better." Negron's big night helped Princeton set the school record for wins in a season with 15, breaking the record first set in 1980 - the first year of varsity women's soccer at Princeton - and equalled in 2001. The 2004 Tigers also became the first team in program history to have a perfect record in the league and the fourth in Ivy history to go 7-0-0.
Negron had her second three-goal game in eight days after going for three against Cornell in Ithaca on Oct. 29 in the game that clinched the Ivy title for the Tigers. Her two three-goal games came after no Princeton women's soccer player had scored three times in one game since 1989.
The game against Cornell gave Negron the school records for goals in a season, points in a season and points in a career and left her tied for the school record in goals in a career. Against Penn she wasted little time in securing the career goals record for herself.
Her first goal came 14 minutes into the game after she converted a long feed from Romy Trigg-Smith, and that goal was the 42nd of her career, bettering the women's record of 41 held by Linda DeBoer '85 and the men's record of 41 held by Steven Davidson '69.
Trigg-Smith then made it 2-0 13 minutes later after an assist from Negron, which tied the school single-season assist record at nine. It was the first career goal for Trigg-Smith, a defender who has started every game the last two years. Trigg-Smith had come into the game as one of 12 players in Division I who had played every minute of every game this season, but that streak came to an end as Tiger coach Julie Shackford substituted freely.
Negron broke the game wide open with a goal 1:07 after Trigg-Smith's and another goal 13 minutes later, making it a 4-0 Tiger lead with four minutes left in the first half. Negron's three goals brought her within one of the school record for a game, and her seven points brought her within two of that record. She also finished the game with 44 career goals, 103 career points, 17 goals on the season and 43 points on the season, all school records.
Penn was able to get on the board when Rachelle Snyder scored after a long feed from Devon Sibole with 26:30 remaining.
Princeton outshot Penn 20-6.
Princeton extended its school-record home winning streak to 14 straight.