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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Texas Tech
Ivy Champs, No. 21 Princeton Set to Open NCAA Tournament Friday at Texas Tech
November 07, 2018 | Women's Soccer
(21) Princeton at Texas Tech, Friday, Nov. 9, 6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET
NCAA First Round
Video | Live Stats
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Adding to history: Princeton is in the NCAAs for the 13th time and earned its 10th Ivy League title this year.Â
The 2017 run: Princeton had its second-deepest run of the 64-team tournament era last seeason, defeating Monmouth 4-0 at home, getting past N.C. State in penalties after a 1-1 game, stunning No. 2 North Carolina 2-1 in overtime on a goal from North Carolina native Abby Givens, with both games against the N.C. teams in Cary, N.C., and making it to UCLA where the eventual national runners-up won 3-1. Princeton came up just one game short of its 2004 NCAA semifinals run.
Path to the NCAAs: Princeton stood 1-1-1 in the Ivy after three games and faced a steep climb up the Ivy standings. The Tigers did just that, winning four in a row over Columbia, Harvard, Cornell and Penn, all by shutout. In the final game against Penn, Nov. 3 in Princeton, Penn needed a tie or a win to win the Ivy outright and get to the NCAAs. Instead, Mimi Asom scored in the 31st minute and that was it in Princeton's 1-0 win to win the Ivy's AQ.
Mimi Asom: Scorer of 43 goals and 95 points, Mimi Asom stands third in both career categories in Princeton history. With 12 goals this year, she's one of only two players in program history to have at least three 10-goal seasons, along with former teammate Tyler Lussi '17.
Tigers in the NWSL: Princeton had three alumnae in the NWSL this past season, with Jen Hoy playing for Sky Blue FC, Diana Matheson playing for the Utah Royals and Tyler Lussi playing for the Portland Thorns.
Sean Driscoll: At 51-14-7, Sean Driscoll, a three-time Ivy League Coach of the Year, is a win away from matching the program's first coach, Bob Malekoff (1980-84), as the program's second-winningest coach all-time, behind predecessor Julie Shackford (203 wins, 1995-2014). At .757, his winning percentage is the best for any Tiger coach's career, and he is the only coach in program history to win the Ivy League title in at least three of his/her first four seasons and the only coach to make the NCAAs at least three times over his/her first four seasons.
O Canada: A couple of the most accomplished alums of the Texas Tech and Princeton programs have also played big roles for Team Canada. Janine Beckie, who played for Texas Tech from 2012-15, and Diana Matheson, who played at Princeton from 2004-07, helped Canada earn a bronze at the Rio Olympics in 2016.Â
Texas Tech in the NCAA tournament: The Red Raiders are returning to the NCAA tournament after missing it last year. Texas Tech made the NCAAs every year from 2012-16 and made its furthest advance in 2014, making the round of 16. Texas Tech hosted the first round annually from 2012-15.
Princeton vs. the Big 12: Princeton has played only five games against Big 12 teams at the time of the game. The Tigers beat Iowa State 5-0 in 2001 and Texas A&M 2-1 in 2004, both in Princeton, and have played West Virginia three times since then, defeating the Mountaineers 2-1 in the first round of the 2012 NCAA tournament in Morgantown before losing 3-0 to WVU in Morgantown in 2016 and 1-0 in Princeton in 2017.
Shutouts: Natalie Grossi's 10 shutouts are one short of tying her own program record for shutouts in a season, set last year with 11. She enters the NCAA tournament with 25 career shutouts, already a program record and only four short of an 18-year-old Ivy League record.Â
Ivy and the NCAA: Princeton now has four of the Ivy's last five NCAA tournament wins since Yale was the last Ivy team to win multiple tournament games in 2005, making the round of 16. Princeton is the only Ivy team to make the quarterfinals since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 2001, doing so this year as well as in 2004.
The 2004 run: The 2004 team, the seventh overall seed that year, beat Central Connecticut State, Villanova, Boston College and Washington at home to make the NCAA College Cup semifinals before a 2-0 loss to 14th-seeded UCLA. Princeton was able to host the round of 16 and quarterfinals after the No. 2 seed, Penn State, lost in the second round to Maryland. The 2004 Tigers were the first - and still only - Ivy League team to make the national semifinals in a 64-team tournament in any sport.
Stat rankings: Entering the tournament, Princeton is ranked in the top 10 percent nationally as a team with an 0.546 GAA (18th) and an 0.857 save percentage (18th). Mimi Asom ranked 33rd in points per game (1.56), 12th in goals per game (0.75), 28th in total goals (12), 64th in total points (25), 35th in shots per game (3.94) and 59th in shots on goal per game (1.75), Natalie Grossi ranked 11th in GAA (0.49), 13th in save percentage (.873), and eighth in shutouts (10).
Texas Tech ranked 23rd in GAA (0.586) and 12th in shutout percentage (0.6). Marissa Zucchetto ranked 24th in GAA (0.587) and third in shutouts (12). Â
Texas Tech against the Ivy: The Red Raiders have never faced an Ivy League team.
Princeton in Texas: The Tigers have made one trip to Texas in their history. Princeton had a two-game swing through the Metroplex in 1990, winning 3-1 at TCU before a 3-1 loss at SMU.
Texan Tigers: Mimi Asom and Ilana Perkins are both Dallas natives who went to Dallas' Hockaday School.Â
National rankings: Princeton debuted in the United Soccer Coaches rankings as the preseason-No. 13 team and remained in the rankings until after a 3-0 win at Yale on Sept. 22. The Tigers came back into the rankings at No. 24 after a 2-0 win over Harvard on Oct. 20 and moved up to No. 21 heading into the tournament.
The RPI: Princeton's enters the NCAA tournament with an RPI of 24, the highest in the Ivy by 45 spots over Penn. Texas Tech is 34th, 10 spots back of Princeton.
Who's back, who's not: Princeton graduated midfielder and Ivy League Co-Offensive Player of the Year Vanessa Gregoire from last year's team, as well as All-Ivy defenders Katie Pratt-Thompson, Natalie Larkin and Mikaela Symanovich. Princeton return the scorers of 38 of its 44 goals from last season, led by Abby Givens (12), Mimi Asom (10) and Courtney O'Brien (nine). The Tigers also returned Natalie Grossi, who this year became Princeton's career shutout leader still with the NCAA tournament and her senior year to go.
All-Ivy 2018: Princeton had eight All-Ivy League honorees a year after earning a program-record nine, this time led by first-teamers Mimi Asom and Lucy Rickerson. Asom was named the Ivy's Offensive Player of the Year a year after former teammate Vanessa Gregoire '18 won the honor, making it the 12th time a Princeton player has won an Ivy League Player of the Year award and 10th time in the last 18 years. Asom, the 2015 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, is the 12th player in league history to win both an Ivy Rookie and Ivy Player of the Year honor. Sean Driscoll won the Ivy League Coach of the Year award for the third time in his four years and the third time in the five-year history of the award, and his players have won 30 All-Ivy placements in his four seasons.
Courtney O'Brien, Eve Hewins and Natalie Grossi were second-team honorees, and Emma Davis, Tomi Kennedy and Olivia Sheppard won honorable mention.
