No. 11 Princeton Set to Conclude Road Swing at Brown Saturday

Five straight home contests have preceded three in a row on the road for the 11th-ranked Princeton women's soccer team, the last of which will be Saturday at Brown for a 3:30 p.m. start.

#11 Princeton (10-1, 2-0) at Brown (8-3, 1-1), Sat., Oct. 7, 3:30 p.m.: Video (Ivy League Network) | Live Stats

Rankings
Princeton is in the United Soccer Coaches poll for the fourth straight week, finding itself at No. 11, its highest rank since ending the 2004 season at No. 4. Princeton was ranked 20th, 16th and 14th in the previous three weeks' polls. The Tigers have risen to sixth in the NCAA RPI, No. 14 in the latest SoccerAmerica poll and No. 11 in the latest TopDrawerSoccer poll.

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's goal at Bucknell Tuesday night lifted her to 26 goals and 57 points for her career, tied for the seventh-most career goals in program history with Amelia Reyes '01 and Diana Matheson '08. Three more goals will put her alone in sixth place, ahead of Lauren Lazo '15 (28), with the top five players all with at least 36 goals. Asom's former teammate, Tyler Lussi '17, reset the program scoring record last season, concluding her career with 53 goals.

Asom's 57 points are tied with Reyes for the 10th-most in a career in program history, and three more will put her past Nancy Foot '92 and Dana DeCore '00 for eighth place. Lussi reset the program's career points record last year at 122.

Senior Vanessa 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, upping it to .766 after Tuesday night's win at Bucknell. At 34-9-4, he is close to becoming the third-winningest coach in program history, behind predecessor Julie Shackford (203), the program's first coach Bob Malekoff (52) and the program's third coach Tom Griffith (36).

The Series
Brown leads the all-time series with Princeton 18-17-4 with the Bears re-taking the series lead in last year's 2-1 win in Princeton. Even with that, the current Tiger seniors have seen Princeton outscore Brown 10-2 in the last three meetings.

Saturday's game figures to be a keeper matchup of last year, with sophomore Natalie Grossi for Princeton and junior Christine Etzel for Brown. Etzel has started each of the last two games against Princeton, with the Tigers scoring three goals against her in the 2015 game and one against senior Rylee Shumway, who entered in relief in 2014 as well. Both of Brown's goal scorers from last year, juniors Celia Story and Jennifer Caruso, are back as the only two active Bears to have scored against Princeton. Asom has a goal in each of the last two games against Brown and Gregoire and senior Alessia Azermadhi each had a goal in 2015's 4-0 win.

Stat Rankings
Princeton will have to be strong defending set pieces, as Brown is sixth in the country in corner kicks per game through Tuesday's games, averaging eight. If the Tigers can fend those off as well as tries in the run of play, it'll help keep Princeton near the top of the nation in defending, as the Tigers rank second in Division I in goals-against average (0.182), third in save percentage (.931), and fourth in shutout percentage (.818). With that, Grossi ranks second nationally in GAA (0.200), third in save percentage (.929), and fourth in shutouts (eight). The Tigers' .909 winning percentage is fifth in the nation, and sophomore Abby Givens ranks fifth nationally in goals per game (0.90), eighth in points per game (2.10), ninth in total goals (nine) and 14th in total points (21).

Best Starts
Princeton is 10-1 for the fifth time in program history, joining 1980 (11-0), 1981 (10-1), 2002 (11-0) and 2004 (10-1). A win at Brown would put Princeton among the top four starts in program history, alongside 1980 (12-0), 2002 (12-0) and 2004 (11-1).

On Brown
The Bears are 8-3 with eight of their 11 games decided by one goal apiece, including the last four with last week's 1-0 overtime loss at Columbia the latest. Etzel has played all but six of the team's minutes in goal this season, accruing a 1.06 GAA, while senior Mikaela Waldman leads the team with seven goals and Story and rookie Star White with four apiece among the eight Bears to score this season.

Ivy Leaders
The Brown game will be a matchup of two of the league's top four scorers, with Givens bringing an Ivy-best nine goals into the weekend and Waldman tied for third in the league with seven. Princeton will see the other two players who enter the weekend in the top four - Columbia's Emma Anderson and Natalie Neshat - next weekend at Roberts Stadium.

The Goal Scorers
Seven Tigers have scored this season, combining for 25 goals. All but three of those goals have come from players able to return next year, with a pair of non-fowards in Mikaela Symanovich (two) and Natalie Larkin (one) accounting for the Class of 2018's goals. Three of the seven have scored their first career goals this season, with sophomore Courtney O'Brien scoring five to stand alongside Asom and behind Givens in the team's top three in scoring, while rookie Olivia Kane scored her second goal of the season Tuesday night at Bucknell and classmate Carolyne Davidson scoring against New Hampshire on Sept. 10 to add her name to the list.

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