Ivy Title at Stake for No. 13 Princeton Saturday at Penn

Saturday, November 4

Philadelphia, Pa.

4:00 PM

Princeton University

Penn

Vanessa Gregoire and the Tigers will head to Penn Saturday.

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Ivy Title at Stake for No. 13 Princeton Saturday at Penn

October 31, 2017 | Women's Soccer

An Ivy League title, and depending on other results, an NCAA automatic berth is at stake for the 13th-ranked Princeton women's soccer team when it heads to Penn Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Ivy finale.

#13 Princeton (13-2, 5-1 Ivy) at Penn (5-7-3, 3-2-1), Saturday, Nov. 4, 4 p.m.: Video (Ivy League Network) | Live Stats

Three of the four games Saturday have Ivy title implications: Princeton at Penn, Harvard at Columbia (5 p.m.), and Brown at Yale (4 p.m.). Here are the scenarios:

Princeton wins: Princeton gets at least a share of the Ivy title, regardless of other outcomes. A Columbia loss or tie would give Princeton the outright Ivy title and the NCAA automatic berth. A Columbia win would give the Lions a share of the Ivy title and the NCAA berth as Columbia holds the tiebreaker due to a 2-0 win at Princeton on Oct. 14.

Princeton ties: A Columbia win would give the Lions the outright Ivy title and NCAA berth. A Columbia tie would share the title with Princeton and give the Lions the NCAA berth due to the tiebreaker. A Columbia loss would give Princeton the outright Ivy title and NCAA berth.

Princeton loses: A Columbia win or tie gives the Lions the outright title and NCAA berth. A Columbia loss would give the Tigers a share of the Ivy title but keep the NCAA berth for Columbia because of the head-to-head tiebreaker. A loss by both Princeton and Columbia would give Brown a share of the Ivy title if the Bears win, but Columbia would have the NCAA berth because of a head-to-head win over each. The scenario where both Princeton and Columbia loses is the only one in which the Brown game would have title implications.

Regardless of Saturday's outcomes, the Tigers are still in play for an NCAA at-large berth. If the Tigers go the at-large route, it'd be the Ivy's first at-large bid since 2008, when Princeton got in at-large and Harvard got the automatic berth. The Ivy previously qualified multiple teams annually from 1982-84, in 1994, 1996 and 1998, and annually from 1999-2005.

Rankings
Princeton is in the United Soccer Coaches poll for the eighth straight week, finding itself at No. 13. Princeton was ranked 20th, 16th, 14th, 11th, 11th, 17th, and 15th in the previous seven weeks' polls. The Tigers' RPI slipped one spot to eighth, while Princeton jumped four spots to 12th in the TopDrawerSoccer poll and rose four spots to 16th in the SoccerAmerica poll.

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 Oct. 21 at Harvard.

Records
The Tigers are climbing up program record lists this season. Princeton's 10 shutouts are tied for the third-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. One more win would tie this year's team for the second-most in program history with 1980, 2001, 2012 and 2015 and behind only the 19 wins from the 2004 team.

Junior Mimi Asom enters the weekend with 29 goals and 64 points for her career, the sixth-most career goals in program history and the eighth-most points. The top five goal scorers 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 .765. At 37-10-4, he is now the third-winningest coach in program history, passing the program's second coach Tom Griffith (36) with last weekend's win over Cornell and standing only behind predecessor Julie Shackford (203) and the program's first coach Bob Malekoff (52).

The Series
All time, Princeton leads the series 17-10-4, but Penn is 2-0-2 against Princeton since the Tigers' last win in the series in 2012. At Rhodes Field, Penn is 4-0-1 against the Tigers since Princeton's last win there in 2005. One current player from each team has scored against the other, with senior Beth Stella scoring for Princeton in a 3-2 Penn win in 2014, and Quaker sophomore Emily Sands scoring in last year's 1-1 tie. This weekend's game figures to be a rematch of last year's between the posts, with Tiger sophomore Grossi and Penn sophomore Kitty Qu going the distance. Haley Chow '17 had the Tiger goal in the ninth minute before Sands tied it in the 27th.

Princeton's last visit to Rhodes Field, in 2015, saw the Tigers enter ranked 24th in the nation, winners of 11 in a row and at 6-0 in the Ivy, looking for the team's first 7-0-0 Ivy season since 2012. Penn forced a 0-0 draw, and though the Tigers fell out of the NSCAA rankings, Princeton gained an NCAA home game when the draw was announced two days later. The Tigers went on to beat Boston College in that NCAA game the following weekend.

Stat Rankings
Princeton entered the week ranked sixth in winning percentage (.867), seventh in goals-against average (0.40), eighth in shutout percentage (.667), ninth in save percentage (.885), 12th in goals per game (2.33), and 15th in points per game (6.67). Grossi was ninth in GAA (0.429), 13th in save percentage (.880), and 20th in shutouts (nine). Givens was ninth in points per game (1.85).

Best Records
Princeton's 13-2 record is its best through 15 games since 2004, when the Tigers were 14-1. The Tigers were also 12-2 or better through 15 games in 2002 (13-2) and 1980 (14-1).

On Penn
Senior Erica Higa has three of the Quakers' 10 goals this season and sophomore Qu has played 1,211 of the team's 1,436 minutes in goal with an 0.59 GAA and a 4-5-3 record. All 15 of Penn's games, including three ties, have been decided by two or fewer goals, and 12 of the 15 were ties or decided by a single goal. Penn entered the week 17th in the nation in save percentage (.861) with Qu ranked eighth in the stat (.890) and 28th in GAA (0.595). Qu also leads the Ivy in save percentage.

Ivy Leaders
Princeton leads the Ivy in points (100), goals (35), goals per game (2.33), fewest goals allowed (six), GAA (0.40), and shutouts (10). Givens leads the league in points (24), points per game (1.85), goals per game (0.69), and assists per game (0.46). Givens and O'Brien co-lead with Columbia's Natalie Neshat with nine goals each, and Givens co-leads with a pair of Brown players in Mikela Waldman and Star White with six assists. Grossi leads with an 0.43 GAA, nine shutouts and 0.64 shutouts per game.

The Goal Scorers
Nine Tigers have scored this season, combining for 35 goals. All but five of those goals have come from players able to return next year, with a trio of non-forwards in Symanovich (two), Gregoire (two) and Larkin (one) 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 eight.

Score Early, Not Often
Princeton has given up six goals this season while scoring 35. All but two of those six goals allowed have come in the game's first 20 minutes with one more, Oct. 21 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.