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Princeton University Athletics
Women's Soccer Team Leaves For Preseason Tour Of Germany
August 13, 2004 | Women's Soccer
Aug. 13, 2004
The Princeton women's soccer team leaves Friday evening for an 11-day preseason tour of Germany. The Tigers will play four games on their trip and will also participate in a wide-range of cultural and educational activities. Princeton will play two games in Franfurt and one each in Hamburg and Munich. In addition, the team will do a clinic for the children of American servicemen stationed in Germany, attend an opera, tour the Dachau concentration camp and visit historic castles, among other events planned. Princeton, one of 19 teams to compete in the NCAA women's soccer tournament each of the last five years, returns nine starters and 19 letterwinners from last year's team, which went 11-3-3 and finished 23rd in the final RPI rankings. Esmeralda Negron, the 2003 Ivy League Player of the Year, will be making her second trip to Europe in two weeks after competing in Iceland as a member of the victorious United States Under-21 national team at the Nordic Cup, the Under-21 World Championships. Negron and the other returning players will all make the trip to Germany. Princeton's recruiting class will go eight deep and includes Diana Matheson, who deferred admission last year to compete with the Canadian national team at the Women's World Cup. Matheson was recently named the third-best incoming player in college women's soccer by Soccer America. Princeton returns from Germany Aug. 24 and will begin official preseason practice shortly after that. The Tigers open their season at home Sept. 3 against Texas A&M, a Sweet 16 team of a year ago with the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. Julie Shackford enters her 10th season as Princeton head coach with a record of 98-49-10. Her 98 wins are the most by any coach in Princeton women's soccer history.