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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Home Schedule to Begin Sunday for Women's Soccer
September 04, 2010 | Women's Soccer
PRINCETON -- Sunday will mark the beginning of the Princeton women's soccer team's busiest home schedule in nearly a decade when the Tigers host Seton Hall in a 1 p.m. start.
GoPrincetonTigers.com will have live stats and live video available for the team's 18th contest in the three-year-old Roberts facility, where the Tigers have an 11-4-2 record since the stadium's Sept. 2, 2008 opening.
Both teams suffered setbacks in their openers, with Seton Hall's first game coming two weeks before Princeton's. The Pirates opened with a 1-0 loss to Fordham on Aug. 22 before rebounding a week later with a 3-0 win over Fairleigh Dickinson. Five days later, Princeton started its season with Friday night's 2-0 loss at 24th-ranked Rutgers.
The Tigers (0-1) and Pirates (1-1) haven't met since 2002, though the teams had what was nearly an annual series prior to that since 1994. Princeton leads the all-time series 7-1 overall and 3-1 in Princeton, with five of those Tiger victories coming by shutout. Eight years later, the series has little bearing on the renewal, with only three of those who will be at field level Sunday having also been there in 2002. Other than Princeton head coach Julie Shackford and assistant coach Ron Celestin, current Seton Hall assistant coach Esmeralda Negron scored Princeton's first goal in a 2-1 win to start Negron's sophomore season. From there, Negron would become Princeton's all-time leading scorer and drive the team to the NCAA College Cup semifinal in 2004.
Both teams enter 2010 looking to improve from a year ago. Seton Hall finished 5-12-1, eighth in the Big East's National division, while the Tigers were 7-7-3 overall and 3-3-1 in the Ivy to finish in the middle of the league. Each team returns its starting goalkeeper from a year ago, senior Alyssa Pont for Princeton and sophomore Jennifer Pettigrew for Seton Hall. At the other end, the Pirates lost their leading scorer from a year ago, Danielle Schulmann, who had six of the team's 19 goals overall and four of the eight in Big East play. Princeton returns nine of its 13 overall goals from 2009, led by sophomore Jen Hoy's three.
The game marks the second half of the first of three straight Friday-Sunday weekends for the Tigers as they prepare for the Ivy League season to begin at the end of the month. A year ago, the Tigers were able to bounce back from a season-opening Friday loss to Hofstra by defeating another Big East school, St. John's, on a Sunday afternoon in Princeton.
Next week, the Tigers will be at home Friday against James Madison before heading to Hartford Sunday.