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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Women's Soccer Heads North Looking to Hold Harvard
October 22, 2009 | Women's Soccer
PRINCETON -- With its win over Yale during the week, Harvard took control of the Ivy League women's soccer race. To stay a part of that race, Princeton needs a win Saturday in Cambridge.
Princeton (5-6-3, 1-2-1) at Harvard (7-5-1, 4-0)
Saturday, Oct. 24 at 11 a.m.
Live stats | Harvard page
The Ivy situation: With Harvard's 3-2 win over Yale in a rescheduled game during the week, every team is on equal footing in number of games played. Harvard leads with 12 points, ahead of Yale with nine, Columbia with seven, Penn and Dartmouth with six each, and Princeton with four. Those are the only teams still mathematically alive to win the Ivy's automatic bid. Only a Princeton win at Harvard would keep the Tigers in the mix.
Defense: Princeton will take its shutout streak of 382:08 to Harvard, trying to extend the run to a fifth straight blanking. During the string, goalkeeper Alyssa Pont has lowered her goals-against average from 1.25 to 0.88. Over the last seven games, she has raised her save percentage from .694 to .814.
Series vs. Harvard: The Crimson leads the all-time series 20-8-1. Harvard has won the last two, including last year's 2-1 Princeton loss in a rainstorm at Roberts Stadium. The Tigers defeated Harvard 5-0 in 2006 at Lourie-Love Field behind four goals from current senior Vicki Anagnostopoulos and had their last win in Cambridge in 2005, a double-overtime winner scored by Emily Behncke '06 with 14 seconds left.
Traveling: Princeton has had its three longest bus trips of the season in a span of a week, to Dartmouth (Oct. 3), to Brown (Oct. 10) and now to Harvard (Oct. 24). The miles will decrease quite a bit after this weekend, when the Tigers host Cornell (Oct. 31) and make the short trip to Penn (Nov. 7).
Common foes: Princeton and Harvard have two common non-league opponents this season, with Hofstra and Fairfield. Both teams defated Fairfield, Harvard at home and Princeton on the road, and lost to Hofstra, Harvard on the road and Princeton at home.
Unbeaten streaks collide: Princeton hasn't lost in its last four matches, with two wins and two ties. Harvard hasn't lost in more than a month, winning six straight. That turned around a 1-5-1 start for the Crimson.
Spreading the offense: Princeton's 11 goals this season have come from nine players, with Lauren Whatley and Jen Hoy scoring two apiece.
On Harvard: Nine players have scored the team's 21 goals with junior Katherine Sheeleigh as the team leader with six. Senior Lauren Mann has handled almost all the minutes in net, carrying a 1.45 GAA and .721 save percentage.