Newly Ranked, No. 20 Princeton Set to Host No. 6 West Virginia Friday on ESPNU

Friday, September 15

Princeton, N.J.

4:00 PM

Princeton University

West Virginia

Senior co-captain Vanessa Gregoire and the 20th-ranked Tigers will host No. 6 West Virginia Friday on ESPNU and Delaware Sunday.

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Newly Ranked, No. 20 Princeton Set to Host No. 6 West Virginia Friday on ESPNU

September 12, 2017 | Women's Soccer

For the first time since the end of the 2004 season, the Princeton women's soccer team finds itself in the national top 20. For the second straight year, they're 6-0 with the seventh game against a top-10 opponent. It happens to be the same opponent, West Virginia, with the site now their own Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium.

No. 6 West Virginia and No. 20 Princeton is set for a 4 p.m. start Friday on ESPNU with the Tigers then turning right around to face Delaware Sunday at 4 p.m., again at Roberts.

Admission is free to both games.

Friday, Sept. 15, 4 p.m. vs. (6) West Virginia | Video | Live Stats
Sunday, Sept. 17, 4 p.m. vs. Delaware | Video | Live Stats

All-Time Series
Princeton is 1-2 all-time against WVU. The teams met in the first rounds of the 2008 (2-1 WVU at Virginia) and 2012 (2-1 Princeton at WVU) NCAA tournaments before a 2016 regular-season game at WVU that the Mountaineers won 3-0. The 2012 game marked Princeton's first NCAA tournament win since its College Cup semifinal run in 2004 and last year's game was also the seventh contest of the season for the Tigers, ending a perfect 6-0 start. The 2012 game was the last time Princeton had defeated a top-20 team until earlier this season when the Tigers got two such wins on the road at then-No. 20 N.C. State and then-No. 18 Wake Forest.

Princeton is 3-2 all-time against Delaware with three of those games coming in the 1990s before two the last two seasons. In 2015, current Blue Hen keeper Kailyn Rekos shut out the Tigers 1-0 behind a goal from the now-graduated and native of nearby Hillsborough, N.J., Michelle McEnroe. In 2016, Princeton went to Delaware and returned the favor in a game in which all three goals were scored from the 85th minute on. Current Blue Hen senior Krista Trinidad had the first goal before Tiger senior Vanessa Gregoire answered with just five seconds to play and the now-graduated Tyler Lussi, the leading scorer in program history, scored the 2-1 winner in the 103rd minute. Both Rekos and Princeton sophomore Natalie Grossi were in goal for last season's game.

On West Virginia (5-2)
WVU will be playing away from Morgantown for just the second time this season and first since the season opener Aug. 18 at then-No. 5 Georgetown, a 1-0 win. The Mountaineers have already faced four top-10 teams, also beating then-No. 1 Penn State 2-1 on Sept. 2. WVU lost to then-No. 10 Virginia 2-1 in double OT on Aug. 24 and to then-No. 6 Duke 4-0 on Sept. 8. WVU rebounded from that Duke loss with a 3-0 win over Richmond Sunday in which the Mountaineers outshot the Spiders 34-3 overall. Junior Sh'Nia Gordon and senior Michaela Abam co-lead WVU with two goals apiece while eight more players have added one goal apiece, and sophomore Rylee Foster has played every minute in goal with an 0.98 GAA.

On Delaware (2-3-2)
The Blue Hens will play two Ivy opponents in a week while also hosting La Salle Friday night. Delaware, which fell at Penn 1-0 Monday night, has seen all seven of its games either end in ties or be decided by one goal, and five of those seven have gone to overtime. Among the non-OT games was a visit from then-No. 11 Georgetown on Aug. 24, a 1-0 Hoya win. junior Hannah Specht and freshman Olivia Schuck have scored twice each to co-lead the team, while senior Rekos has a 1.08 GAA in playing six of the first seven games.

Doubleheader
Princeton will host a 1 p.m. game Sunday between La Salle and West Virginia before its game against Delaware. The game will be streamed on the Ivy League Network with live stats available here.

Rankings
Princeton was last in the United Soccer Coaches (formerly NSCAA) rankings on Nov. 3, 2015, ranked 24th. Princeton was last ranked in the top 20 when it was No. 4 in the final coaches poll of 2004 after its run to the College Cup semifinals. The Tigers haven't faced any team ranked as high as No. 6 West Virginia at Roberts Stadium since it opened in 2008, with No. 16 Rutgers (2009) and No. 15 Wake Forest (2012) as the closest.

Stat Rankings
Through Monday's games, Princeton was tied for fifth in the nation with a 0.167 GAA, giving up a goal for the first time this season only on Sunday against New Hampshire. Princeton's .933 save percentage and shutout percentage were both eighth, and Princeton was one of just seven teams in the nation to have won all of its games, along with Murray State, Texas, Tennessee, UCLA, Radford and LSU. Natalie Grossi's 0.200 GAA was seventh in the nation.

West Virginia's 19.86 shots per game was ranked 10th. Princeton isn't too far behind that, averaging 15.17 shots per game. WVU's Michaela Abam was sixth at 6.14 shots per game, and no Tiger averages more than junior Mimi Asom's 3.6 per game.

Win Streaks
Should the Tigers get to 7-0 or 8-0, it'd mark their best start to a season since 2002, when the team started 12-0.

Breakout Starts
The Tigers graduated Tyler Lussi, the program's all-time leading scorer in goals (53) and points (122). She had 10 of Princeton's 30 goals last season, but other players have stepped up this season. Sophomore Abby Givens won the league's first Ivy Player of the Week award after scoring three goals of her four this season on the first weekend, and classmate Courtney O'Brien scored four times in Princeton's last two games against Rider and New Hampshire to earn the most recent Ivy Player of the Week award. The goals were the first of O'Brien's career, and Givens has already surpassed her freshman total, scoring three last season. Junior Mimi Asom, who had 21 goals over her first two seasons, is back at it this year with three in five games played.

Head Coach Sean Driscoll
Sean Driscoll is in his third season leading the Tigers and has a record of 30-8-4 since taking over the team for the 2015 season. In his first year, Princeton won the Ivy League and beat Boston College in the first NCAA women's soccer tournament game played at Roberts Stadium before falling to USC in the second round. Driscoll was the 2015 Ivy League Coach of the Year, had the Offensive Player of the Year that year in Tyler Lussi '17, the Rookie of the Year that season in current junior Mimi Asom, and has had 12 All-Ivy League selections in his first two seasons. Driscoll came to Princeton from Fairfield, where he was the associate head coach for five seasons after serving as Manhattan's head coach for five seasons.

Honors
On this year's squad, Princeton has the 2015 Ivy League Rookie of the Year in Mimi Asom, a three-time All-Ivy League honoree in midfielder Vanessa Gregoire (honorable mention 2014, 2016, first team 2015), a three-time All-Ivy honoree in midfielder/defender Natalie Larkin (second team 2014-16), two-time All-Ivy honoree forward Mimi Asom (second team 2015-16), 2015 honorable mention defender Mikaela Symanovich and 2016 honorable mention forward Abby Givens.