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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton Women's Soccer Team Announces 2004 Schedule, New Recruits
June 02, 2004 | Women's Soccer
June 2, 2004
The Princeton women's soccer team will open its quest for a sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance on Friday night, Sept. 3, when it hosts Texas A&M, a Sweet 16 team from a year ago.
Princeton will play four teams from the 2003 NCAA tournament in its first five games, including a rematch with Villanova, who defeated Princeton 2-1 in the opening round a year ago. Villanova, like Texas A&M, was a Sweet 16 team in 2003. Princeton also faces NCAA teams UNC Greensboro and Wake Forest on an early-season trip to North Carolina before heading into the Ivy League schedule at Yale Sept. 24.
The game against Villanova will be part of a rotating event that is held at Penn this year; Princeton's other game in the tournament will be against Vanderbilt of the Southeastern Conference.
In all Princeton will face six teams that played in the 2003 NCAA tournament, including back-to-back early October games at home against Dartmouth and Rutgers.
Princeton will have eight freshman in 2004, including Diana Matheson, who deferred a year to play with the Canadian national team in the World Cup. Joining Matheson, a midfielder, will be: * Ashley Beyers, a midfielder from Danville, Calif.
* Lisa Chinn, a midfielder/back from East Brunswick
* Maren Dale, a goalkeeper that plays from Plantation, Fla.
* Melissa Whitley, a forward from Silver Spring, Md.
* Alyssa Salvo, a defender from East Islip, N.Y.
* Aubrey Wagenseller , a midfielder from Louisville
* Meredith Wall, midfielder/back from Cedar Park, Texas
Princeton returns nine starters from a year ago, when the Tigers went 11-3-3 and spent much of the year ranked in the Top 25. Liz Bell, who started more games than any other player in school history, and Theresa Sherry, the ninth-leading scorer in program history, are the only two players lost to graduation.
Heading the list of returnees is Esmeralda Negron, the 2003 Ivy League Player of the Year and a third-team All-America who enters her senior year second all-time in goals at Princeton with 27, 14 away from the school record.
Joining Negron are fellow first-team All-Ivy League selections Emily Behncke and Rochelle Willis and second-team selections Janine Willis and Maura Gallagher. The defense will feature the two Willis sisters and Brea Griffiths, all of whom will be starting for their fourth year.
Tiger head coach Julie Shackford enters her 10th season at Princeton with a record of 98-49-10 and a 14-year record as a head coach of 140-70-16, including her time at Carnegie-Mellon. She has won more games than any other women's soccer coach in Princeton history and more than any Princeton men's coach other than Jimmy Reed, who won 136 games between 1938 and 1966.