No. 15 Princeton Set to Host Cornell, Senior Day Saturday

Saturday, October 28

Princeton, N.J.

2:30 PM

Princeton University

Cornell

The Princeton women's soccer Class of 2018.

No. 15 Princeton Set to Host Cornell, Senior Day Saturday

October 23, 2017 | Women's Soccer

The final two weekends of the Ivy League season are here, and Princeton stands three points back of Columbia as the Tigers get set to honor their seniors prior to Saturday's 2:30 p.m. game against Cornell at Roberts Stadium.

#15 Princeton (12-2, 4-1 Ivy) vs. Cornell (2-7-3, 0-3-2), Sat., Oct. 28, 2:30 p.m. | Video (Ivy League Network) | Live Stats

The Ivy League race has come down to this: One Columbia win in either of the Lions' final two games (home vs. Yale, home vs. Harvard) will wrap up at least a share of the Ivy League title as well as confirm the NCAA automatic bid for Columbia. If Princeton can grab one more win than Columbia over these last two games, the Tigers can get a share of the title, but the automatic NCAA bid will require the Lions to go tie-tie, loss-loss, or one of each over the final two, while Princeton will need to roll up enough points to finish at least one in front of Columbia since the Lions have the head-to-head tiebreaker for the automatic bid because of the Lions' 2-0 win at Princeton two weekends ago. The teams would still share the Ivy title if they finished tied.

Rankings
Princeton is in the United Soccer Coaches poll for the seventh straight week, finding itself at No. 15, Princeton was ranked 20th, 16th, 14th, 11th, 11th and 17th in the previous six weeks' polls. The Tigers maintained their seventh spot in the RPI, jumped four spots to 16th in the TopDrawerSoccer poll and rose two spots to 20th in the SoccerAmerica poll.

The Seniors
Princeton's seven-member senior class of Alessia Azermadhi, Vanessa Gregoire, Gudrun Valdis Jonsdottir, Natalie Larkin, Katie Pratt-Thompson, Beth Stella and Mikaela Symanovich has been a part of 43 wins overall, 15 in Ivy League play, seven All-Ivy League honors, and a 2015 Ivy League title that preceded a win in the first-ever NCAA tournament game at Roberts Stadium.

Ivy Weekly Honors
Princeton players have been named Ivy League Player of the Week five times this season with three sophomores taking the honors. Courtney O'Brien and Abby Givens have won twice each with Natalie Grossi winning once. Eve Hewins was named Ivy Rookie of the Week for the first time after scoring her first career goal over the weekend at Harvard.

Records
The Tigers are already climbing up program record lists this season. Princeton's nine shutouts are the sixth-most in a season in program history and most since 2008. The 2000 team posted 13 shutouts with the 2004 team posting 12 and the 1981, 1985 and 2008 teams turning in 10 clean sheets apiece.

Junior Mimi Asom enters the weekend with 28 goals and 61 points for her career, tied for the sixth-most career goals in program history with Lauren Lazo '15 and standing with the eighth-most points. The top five players all have at least 36 goals, and Diana Matheson '08 has the seventh-most points with 78. Asom's former teammate, Tyler Lussi '17, reset the program scoring record last season, concluding her career with 53 goals and 122 points.

Senior Gregoire has 24 career assists, third-most in program history and just two behind Lazo and fellow Canadian Matheson (26) for the record.

The Coach
Sean Driscoll has the highest winning percentage in program history, standing at .760. At 36-10-4, he is now tied for the third-winningest coach in program history, even with the program's second coach Tom Griffith and standing only behind predecessor Julie Shackford (203) and the program's first coach Bob Malekoff (52).

The Series
Princeton leads the series with Cornell 26-7-4 and has won 21 games in a row since the Big Red beat Princeton on Lourie-Love Field in 1995. The Tigers won 6-1 last year with Asom getting her first career hat trick and Grossi leaving in the 62nd minute with a 4-1 lead before Noelani Kong-Johnson took over. Tomi Kennedy and Gregoire also scored for the Tigers, and Paige DeLoach had Cornell's goal after Princeton got out to a 4-0 lead. The Tigers have given up no more than one goal in a game to the Big Red since a 5-0 loss in 1994.

Stat Rankings
Princeton entered the week ranked 10th in the nation in GAA (0.429), save percentage (.878) and winning percentage (.857), 13th in shutout percentage (.643), 15th in points per game (6.79) and 23rd in assists per game (2.07). Grossi was 12th in GAA (.462), 17th in save percentage (.872) and 19th in shutouts (eight). Givens was ninth in points per game (1.85).

Best Records
Princeton's 12-2 record is its best through 14 games since 2004, when the Tigers were 13-1. The Tigers were also 12-2 or better through 14 games in 2002 (12-2), 2001 (12-1-1), 1989 (12-2), 1982 (11-2-1), 1981 (12-2) and 1980 (14-0).

On Cornell
Paige DeLoach has scored two of the Big Red's five goals on the season. Meghan Kennedy has played 908 of the team's 1,142 minutes in goal with a 1.49 GAA and has helped Cornell stand eighth in the nation in saves per game (7.33) while standing 20th individually (6.40).

Ivy Leaders
Princeton leads the Ivy in points (95), goals allowed (six), GAA (0.43) and shutouts (nine). Givens leads the league in total points (24), assists per game (0.46), points per game (1.85), and co-leads in goals with teammate O'Brien and Columbia's Natalie Neshat (nine), and goals per game with Neshat (0.69), and assists with Brown's Star White (six). Grossi leads the Ivy in GAA (0.46), shutouts (eight) and shutouts per game (0.62).

The Goal Scorers
Nine Tigers have scored this season, combining for 33 goals. All but four of those goals have come from players able to return next year, with a trio of non-forwards in Symanovich (two), Gregoire and Larkin (one each) accounting for the Class of 2018's goals. Four of the nine have scored their first career goals this season, including sophomore O'Brien (nine) and rookies Olivia Kane (two), Carolyne Davidson and Hewins (one each). Sophomores Givens and O'Brien lead the team with nine each while junior Asom has seven.

Score Early, Not Often
Princeton has given up six goals this season while scoring 33. All but two of those six goals allowed have come in the game's first 20 minutes with one more, last weekend against Harvard, coming in the 31st. West Virginia scored in the 19th minute on Sept. 15, Brown scored in the 10th minute on Oct. 7, and Columbia scored in the 10th and 11th minutes on Oct. 14.