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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Visit from Columbia Ahead in Crucial Ivy Game for Women's Soccer
October 15, 2009 | Women's Soccer
PRINCETON -- Points are always at a premium in the seven-game Ivy League women's soccer season, and Saturday's game fits the bill as Princeton looks to stay in the Ivy race against Columbia at Roberts Stadium.
Princeton (5-6-2, 1-2-0) vs. Columbia (6-5-2, 2-1-0)
Saturday, Oct. 17 at 1 p.m. at Roberts Stadium
Live stats | Live video | Columbia page
Ivy race: Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth and Columbia are all tied atop the league standings with six points, but the ancient rivals from New Haven and Cambridge have a game in hand on the rest thanks to a lightning postponement to Tuesday, Oct. 20. Princeton, Penn and Brown are all at three points with Cornell still seeking its first point.
The road ahead: Princeton will play only league games from here on out, each of the next four Saturdays. The Tigers have one long trip left, to Harvard next weekend, before adding some Red to their Halloween with Cornell at Roberts Stadium and making the short trip to Penn the following Saturday.
Common foes: Princeton and Columbia have three common non-league opponents this season, with Hofstra, St. John's and Lehigh. Columbia went 0-1-2 against the trio, losing at home to St. John's, while Princeton went 1-1-1. The Tigers beat St. John's and lost to Hofstra, both at Roberts, and just tied Lehigh Wednesday on the road.
Against the Ivy: Columbia's 2-1 record in the league has come with wins at Cornell and home against Penn with a home loss to Brown. The Tigers have yet to face Cornell and Penn and defeated Brown in overtime on the road last weekend. Princeton lost its first two Ivy games to Yale and Dartmouth, two teams ahead on Columbia's schedule.
Unbeaten streaks collide: Both Princeton and Columbia are enjoying three-match unbeaten streaks heading into the weekend showdown. Columbia tied Lehigh and beat Penn and Marist, while Princeton beat American and Brown and tied Lehigh.
Shutout: Princeton hasn't allowed a goal since the OT winner at Dartmouth Oct. 3. Since then, opponents have been blanked for 272:08 minutes. On the season, Princeton has completed five shutouts, all in the last seven games.
Streak-snappers: Last season, Princeton took a seven-match shutout streak into its game at Columbia before the Lions stropped the run at 702 minutes. Princeton won the game 2-1 in overtime, benefiting from an early own goal and Sarah Peteraf getting the game-winner three minutes before the teams would have had to settle for a tie.
Under a buck: With the team's third straight shutout, goalkeeper Alyssa Pont dropped her goals-against average under a goal a game to 0.96. Her save percentage went up to .794 with an even 50 saves after five against Lehigh.
The series: Princeton leads the all-time series 18-4-2, having won the last two meetings overall and the last six in Princeton. The Lions have not won on Princeton's campus since head coach Julie Shackford's first season of 1995.
Spreading the offense: Princeton's 11 goals this season have come from nine players, with Lauren Whatley and Jen Hoy scoring two apiece.
On Columbia: While Princeton's games have tended to be low-scoring on both ends, the opposite has tended to be true for Columbia. The Lions have scored twice as many goals as Princeton, 22 to 11, while also allowing 1.49 goals a game to Princeton's 0.96. That has translated to just one game difference in the records in favor of Columbia, but three potentially big points in the Ivy standings.
More Columbia: Sophomore Ashlin Yahr leads the team with eight goals, two ahead of Sophie Reiser, who tied with Sarah Peteraf for the league lead of 12 last season and won a close race for Ivy League Player of the Year. In net, sophomore Lillian Klein has logged about two-thirds of the minutes over junior Lindsay Danielson. Both have similar GAAs around 1.50, while Klein has saved 75% of shots to Danielson's 65%.