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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Ivy Opener Set for Saturday as Women's Soccer Heads to Yale
September 24, 2014 | Women's Soccer
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Game 7: Princeton at Yale |
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| 1-3-2 | Team Record | 5-2-0 |
| 1.09 | Goals Per Game | 1.97 |
| 2.33 | Goals Against Average | 0.85 |
| 22 | All-Time Series Wins (2 ties) | 12 |
For Openers: After three weekends of pre-conference games, the Ivy League schedule will be here Saturday for the Princeton women's soccer team. It'll arrive one night earlier for Cornell and Columbia in Manhattan and a day later for Brown and Dartmouth in Hanover, with Harvard and Penn playing Saturday night in Philadelphia.
More Openers: Yale has become a regular Ivy-opening foe for Princeton, which didn't open the league slate with the Bulldogs before 2000 but has in 12 of the last 15 seasons counting this one. Since 2003, only once, in 2007 (Dartmouth), has Princeton not opened the Ivy schedule with Yale.
The Series: Though Princeton leads the all-time series with Yale 22-12-2, it's been a balanced rivalry since Princeton opened the series with nine straight wins in the 1980s. From 1987 on, Princeton leads the series just 13-12-2.
Last Meeting: Princeton and Yale went to overtime for the second straight year in 2013, and Yale returned the favor for an own goal that cost the Bulldogs the 2012 meeting in New Haven. Paula Hagopian scored in the 99th minute to deliver Yale a 3-2 win despite the Tigers outshooting Yale 22-16 overall and 10-8 on goal. All five goal scorers are back this season, including Jesse McDonough and Haley Chow for the Tigers and Hagopian, Meredith Speck and Melissa Gavin for Yale.
One More Time: Princeton head coach Julie Shackford announced that the 2014 season, her 20th leading the team, will be her final one. With the win over Villanova, Shackford is now three wins away from her 200th victory with Princeton, already having outpaced any other soccer coach in Princeton men's or women's program history. Shackford has led the team to six Ivy League championships and an Ivy-record eight NCAA tournament appearances, highlighted by the team's run to the 2004 NCAA College Cup semifinals.
The Coaches: Princeton head coach Julie Shackford and Yale head coach Rudy Meredith are two of the three longest-tenured active coaches in the Ivy League, both in their 20th season. Coupled with Brown's Phil Pincince (38th season) and Penn's Darren Ambrose (15th season), half of this year's Ivy coaches have been in their post for more than a decade. Both Shackford and Meredith have led their teams to multiple wins in the NCAA tournament as well, Shackford taking her team to the 2004 national semifinal and Meredith leading Yale to the Round of 16 in 2005.
Rookies: With keeper Gudrun Jonsdottir making her debut late in the Richmond game, all seven Princeton freshmen have now played in a game this season. Six of those, including every field player, have already started games this season, including three (Natalie Larkin, Alessia Azermadhi, Katie Pratt-Thompson) who have started all five games. In the 2013 opener, Princeton started just one freshman, Nicole Loncar.
On Equal Footing: While Princeton and the rest of the Ivy have had to play catch-up with their pre-conference opponents, most of whom had been playing regular-season games for two weeks by the time Princeton had its opener, all of the Ivy will have played either six or seven games by the time Columbia and Cornell start the Ivy season Friday night. Yale has played seven and Princeton six.
On the Bulldogs: Just one of Yale's seven games so far this season has been decided by more than one goal, a 5-1 win over Saint Peter's last week. Both the team's losses, 2-1 to Manhattan in overtime and 1-0 to New Hampshire last weekend, were by the slimmest of margins and both were on Yale's home field, which has seen plenty of action so far. Six of the team's first eight games, ending with the Princeton match Saturday were or will be at home for Yale, which will head out on the road for the following four contests. Only once has Yale allowed more than one goal in a game this season, in the 2-1 loss to Manhattan, and seven players have split the team's 14 goals. Frannie Coxe, Geneva Decker and
4 for 4?: Lauren Lazo would become the first Tiger since Diana Matheson '08 to earn All-Ivy honors in all four years if she is so recognized this season. Lazo was an honorable mention as a freshman, first-team all-league as a sophomore and second-team all-league as a junior. Heading into the Yale game, Lazo is leading the team with four goals and three assists for 11 total points.
Encore?: Last Friday night in the final minute against Richmond, Tyler Lussi scored her first goal of the season and 11th of her career. Her 10 goals last season were the most for a Princeton freshman since 1982, when Linda DeBoer '86 had 12. Jen Hoy '13, who led Princeton in goals in all four of her seasons, was the last Tiger freshman to pace the team in goals scored, doing so in 2009.
Between the Posts: Senior Darcy Hargadon and freshman Gudrun Jonsdottir have split time in goal this season, Hargadon starting the first five games and Jonsdottir entering late last Friday night at Richmond and playing the full 90 Sunday at William & Mary. WIth Jonsdottir having made her debut, all four keepers on the roster, including senior MicKenzie Roberts-Lahti and sophomore Hannah Winner, have seen game action in their careers.
Up Next: Princeton will be without a midweek game next week heading into the Ivy home opener against Dartmouth. The game will be the second half of a men's-women's doubleheader with the Big Green and has a scheduled start time of 7 p.m. Dartmouth is 3-2-1 heading into Sunday's Ivy opener against Brown and will also travel to Sacred Heart on Sept. 30 before coming to Princeton.