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Princeton University Athletics
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Princeton, Penn Meet Saturday to Decide Ivy Women's Soccer Title
November 03, 2010 | Women's Soccer
PRINCETON -- It's Game Seven of the Ivy season for the Penn and Princeton women's soccer teams, and even though Saturday's 4 p.m. match on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium will be the first time they've met this season, it has all the features of a championship final.
Penn (9-6-1, 4-1-1 Ivy) at Princeton (9-6-0, 4-2-0)
Saturday, Nov. 6 at 4 p.m.
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Admission to Saturday's game is free.
A win by either team will send it to the NCAA tournament and give it the outright Ivy League championship. A tie favors Penn. The Quakers lead Princeton 13-12 in the Ivy League standings with Saturday's game as the regular-season finale. Since Princeton and Penn are head-to-head and the next-closest teams (Columbia and Dartmouth) have 10 points, no other school can win the title since the champion will have no fewer than 14 points.
Aside from being geographic rivals, the women's soccer teams from Princeton and Penn have faced each other in Princeton's final Ivy League game in 14 of the last 17 seasons.
All-time, the Tigers have a 16-7-1 lead in the series. Since Penn's program turned varsity in 1991, the series stands 11-7-1 for Princeton. The Tigers have won five straight against Penn in Princeton and have an 8-1 record at home against a varsity Penn team, with the only loss coming in 1998.
In the series overall, the home team has won the last four games, including a double-overtime victory for Princeton in 2008 in Penn's first visit to Roberts Stadium that gave the Tigers a share of the Ivy title.
Both Princeton and Penn enter the game with positive momentum, though the Quakers have been picking up steam for a bit longer than the Tigers. Princeton ended a two-game Ivy League losing streak with Kalie Bartholomew's OT winner at Cornell last weekend, while Penn is unbeaten in five straight games after starting the season at 5-6-0 overall.
The 3-2 win over Brown last weekend ended a four-match shutout streak for the Quakers. Marin McDermott, who had two of the three goals, won the Ivy League Player of the Week honor for her efforts, and Kerry Scalora was named the Ivy Rookie of the Week for notching two assists in that game. Ursula Lopez-Palm matched McDermott and Scalora for the team lead with five goals when she scored the OT winner against the Bears.
Penn's Sarah Friedman leads the Ivy in assists per game at 0.50, eight total, while Princeton's Caitlin Blosser is second at 0.47, with seven assists. The schools reverse in game-winning goals, where Jen Hoy's four game-winners are a league best, and Lopez-Palm and Blosser are among four players tied for second with three game-winners.
In goal, each team figures to have its keeper chosen, as Penn's Caroline Williams has played more than 98% of the minutes with a goals-against average of 0.94 goals per game. Princeton's Kristin Watson has played in the last 15 games while accruing a GAA of 1.09.
Whichever team advances to the NCAA tournament will not be doing so for the first time, nor will it be breaking an extended drought. Princeton has been to nine NCAA tournaments, last in 2008, and Penn has been to three, last in 2007.
Regional and national rankings mirror how close the teams are in the Ivy standings. Princeton leads the Ivy in the latest national RPI released Tuesday at No. 60, while Penn is third among Ivies at No. 78. Columbia is second at No. 69. In Tuesday's NSCAA Mid-Atlantic poll, Princeton is sixth and Penn seventh.