.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Rutgers on ESPNU, Duquesne to Visit Women's Soccer on Season's 2nd Weekend
September 01, 2015 | Women's Soccer
 |
Princeton vs. (22) Rutgers Thu., Sept. 3 • 5 p.m. • ESPNU Princeton vs. Duquesne Sun., Sept. 6 • 1 p.m. |
 |
 |
| 2-0, 0-0 Ivy | Record | 4-0, 0-0 Big Ten | 2-1, 0-0 Atlantic 10 |
| 4.00 | Goals Per Game | 1.25 | 1.67 |
| 0.50 | Goals Against Per Game | 0.00 | 1.67 |
| Reg. Season, 3rd Ivy | 2014 Season Finish | NCAA Round of 32, 4th Big Ten | Reg. Season, 12th A-10 |
| 10 vs. Rutgers First Meeting vs. Duquesne |
Series Wins | 16 | First Meeting vs. Princeton |
| 2007 vs. Rutgers First Meeting vs. Duquesne |
Last Series Win | 2014 | First Meeting vs. Princeton |
Thursday
Video: ESPNU/ESPN3.com | Live Stats | Twitter @putigers_ live | Fan Information | Free Admission
Sunday
Video: Ivy League Digital Network | Live Stats | Twitter @putigers_live | Fan Information | Free Admission
• Princeton has started the season 2-0 for the second time in three years, but a big challenge awaits over Labor Day Weekend with visits from Rutgers and Duquesne to Roberts Stadium. A win Thursday would give Princeton its first 3-0 start since 2004. The Scarlet Knights are ranked 22nd in the nation in the latest NSCAA poll, released Tuesday.
• The last time Princeton defeated an NCAA-ranked team was Nov. 10, 2012 in the first round of the NCAA tournament when the Tigers upset No. 21 West Virginia 2-1. The next game, against No. 12 Marquette at BYU, was the last time Princeton played a ranked team. Wake Forest, ranked No. 15 on Aug. 31, 2012, was the last ranked team to play at Roberts Stadium. A 3-1 win over No. 15 Washington in the 2004 NCAA quarterfinals was the last time Princeton beat a ranked team in Princeton.
• Princeton's eight goals over its first two games are its most since 2001, when the Tigers opened that campaign with 11 against Iowa State and Lehigh. It's only the fourth time Princeton has scored eight goals over the first two games, joining 2001, 1982 (10) and 1980 (eight).
• Princeton's Thursday game against Rutgers will be televised on ESPNU. Last season, the Tigers pulled out a 2-1 win over Villanova on ESPNU with an 88th-minute goal by Lauren Lazo '15, who scored both goals on the game.
• Princeton and Rutgers have met 29 times with Princeton winning 10. The Scarlet Knights have won four in a row since Princeton's last win in 2007, with Rutgers winning at Roberts Stadium in 2009, at Rutgers in 2010 and 2013, and back in Princeton a year ago.
• While the Scarlet Knights have put up five goals in each of the last two games against Princeton, only three of those goals return, with Torie Ahde, Rachel Cole and Madison Tiernan getting one apiece. Stefanie Scholz, who scored six goals between the two games, wrapped up her career last year. Between the posts, Casey Murphy, who authored the first 87-plus minutes of last year's shutout, returns, as does Alana Jimenez, who finished out the match.
• Sean Driscoll, who enjoyed a perfect weekend to debut his Princeton head coaching career, is just the third coach in program history to start 2-0, joining Bob Malekoff (1980) and Dodie Colavecchio (1994). Only Malekoff, who won his first 14 games with the team back in 1980, started 3-0. Driscoll brought his former goalkeeper at Fairfield, Kelly Boudreau, with him to Princeton, while Mike Poller and 21-season assistant coach Ron Celestin remain from the previous staff. This role is his second head coaching position at the collegiate level, as Driscoll skippered Manhattan from 2005-09 before becoming the associate head coach at Fairfield for the last five seasons.
• Princeton's scoring has certainly been balanced over the first two games. Eight players have scored the team's eight goals, a stat that comes a season after seven players scored Princeton's 35 goals in all of 2014.
• Princeton has never faced Duquesne, but the Tigers will be looking to defeat an Atlantic 10 opponent for the second straight Sunday along with the 2-1 win at Fordham last weekend.
• Princeton's 6-0 win over Howard last Friday was its largest margin of victory since 2011 against Francis Marion, which was also the last time six players scored in a game. The Tigers' win Sunday at Fordham came in the team's first visit to the Rams' home field and it broke a three-game winless streak against the Atlantic 10.
• After scoring a goal and adding three assists over the weekend, sophomore midfielder Vanessa Gregoire earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career. She led the Ivy League with five points on the weekend.
• The win over Fordham saw two seniors - Emily Sura and Stephanie Paloscio - score their first career goals. While Sura has been on the team from the start, Paloscio, who also plays lacrosse for Princeton, joined last season. The first-time goals from the seniors came a game after freshman Mimi Asom and sophomore and 2014 second-team All-Ivy Leaguer Natalie Larkin scored their first career goals against Howard.
• Princeton's starting lineup over the first two games has featured two freshmen (Asom, Leah Becker) and just five players who started last year's opener, which came against Rutgers. The five returning starters are Gregoire, Larkin, Tyler Lussi, Katie Pratt-Thompson and Alessia Azermadhi. Sura, Haley Chow, Mikaela Symanovich and goalkeeper Hannah Winner are the other new starters along with the two rookies.
• Though Princeton graduated Lauren Lazo '15 and her eight goals from last year, the Tigers return six of the seven players who scored in 2014, led by 18 goals from the Ivy's reining Offensive Player of the Year, junior Tyler Lussi. Eleven Tigers had assists a year ago and nine of those are back, led by seven assists from 2014 honorable mention All-Ivy Leaguer Vanessa Gregoire.
• In goal, Princeton has three keepers on the roster and the group played just short of 500 minutes with the program entering the 2015 campaign. Junior Hannah Winner had 386 of those minutes and sophomore Gudrun Valdis Jonsdottir played 108 minutes as a rookie last season. Freshman Noelani Kong-Johnson joins the group this year. It's the first season since 2011 in which Princeton doesn't have a senior goalkeeper on the roster.
• Over the first two games, Hannah Winner has played three of the four halves between the posts, giving up just one goal to Fordham. Jonsdottir closed out the Howard win with a shutout second half.
• Princeton's roster is a young one, with just three seniors. Of the 10 returners who scored a point last year, nine are sophomores or juniors this year. Among those are sophomores Beth Stella (2g, 6a), Vanessa Gregoire (1g, 7a), Natalie Larkin (6a), Mikaela Symanovich (1g, 3a) and Alessia Azermadhi (1a), and juniors Tyler Lussi (18g, 3a), Haley Chow (3g, 1a), Nicole Loncar (2g) and Jesse McDonough (4a). Senior Catherine Hartigan had two assists last year.
• Rutgers is in its second season in the Big Ten and finished fourth in the conference before losing in the conference tournament quarterfinals to Iowa. Brianne Reed, now a senior, was a first-team All-Big Ten defender while senior midfielder Hayley Katkowski and senior defender Erica Skroski were second-teamers. Half of Rutgers' 28 goals from last season return, led by Tiernan's six in 2014. Murphy, who started all 20 games in goal, is back for her sophomore
• The Scarlet Knights have also seen all of their goals come from different players, scoring five over their first four games. While Rutgers has yet to score more than two goals in a game, that's been enough as Casey Murphy has authored four shutouts in four tries.
• Princeton has never defeated a team in the Big Ten at the time of the game, but the Tigers haven't had too many opportunities. Prior to the 5-0 loss to Rutgers in the Scarlet Knights' inaugural season in the conference, Princeton lost to Wisconsin 1-0 in double overtime in the first round of the 2000 NCAA tournament and Penn State 2-0 in the first round of the 2002 NCAAs.
• Through Duquesne's first weekend of the season, the Dukes hadn't allowed a goal, blanking Robert Morris 2-0 and Saint Francis (Pa.) 3-0. Then, West Virginia turned the tables on Duquesne, winning 5-0 last Sunday. Duquesne almost has the perfectly balanced scoring that Princeton and Rutgers have had entering the weekend, with four players splitting the team's five goals. Freshman Kristen Kotsopoulos has scored a pair, while rookie Kyra Murphy (1-0, 0.67 GAA) and junior Vanessa Perdomo (1-1, 2.67) have evenly split the goalkeeping duties.
• Duquesne returns 12 of its 14 goals from last season, led by five from junior Maddie Layman, while Perdomo started two games last season and is the only returning returner. Devon Tabata, who started 16 games in 2014, wrapped up her career last season.