Ivy Play to Begin Saturday at Yale: Five Things to Know

The Ivy League season will get underway Saturday for the Princeton women's soccer team at Yale. Here are five things to know:

at Yale (3-4-1), Saturday, 7 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats

1. Familiar path: Every season since 2008, the Ivy League schedule for Princeton has started against Yale. In that span, Princeton is 8-4-1 against the Bulldogs. As the 2020 visit to Yale was lost to the pandemic with that season canceled, Princeton's trip to New Haven will be its first since 2018. Since its last loss at Yale in 2006, Princeton is 5-0-1 in New Haven. The Tiger streak in the series stands at just one, though, as Yale won the last pre-pandemic meeting in 2019. The 2021 meeting at Sherrerd Field saw Princeton win 4-0 with three returners among Princeton's goal scorers in Jen Estes, Lexi Hiltunen and Ellla Midura. Yale keeper Annie Welch, who made six saves in the 2021 game, returns for the Bulldogs this season, but Maya Bellomo has played every minute in goal for the Bulldogs so far in 2022.

2. Nutmeg Stater: Princeton head coach Sean Driscoll is a Connecticut native, graduating from Greens Farms Academy in Westport, Conn., before coaching there after college at Denison University in Ohio. Driscoll later coached at Western Connecticut State and Fairfield and co-founded the Connecticut Football Club youth organization before coming to Princeton in 2015.

3. The road here: Princeton (5-3) enters the Ivy League slate on an upswing, winning the pre-conference finale against Delaware 1-0 Sunday night. Princeton outshot the Blue Hens 27-7 overall and 10-2 on goal. The Bulldogs started the season 3-0-1 but will enter the weekend looking to snap a four-game skid, with three of the losses (Kansas State, UConn, Buffalo) coming by two or fewer goals.

4. The scoring leaders: Princeton's Heather MacNab and reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week Pietra Tordin each have four goals and account for eight of the team's 13 on the season, though seven players have scored a goal for Princeton over the team's first eight games. Yale has also seen seven players score a goal this season, with Ellie Rappole leading the Bulldogs with two.

5. Starting early: Both Princeton and Yale have spread the points around so far this season, with Princeton at 11 point-scorers and Yale at 10. Players in their first two years with the program are at the top of both teams' scoring lists, with the top five Bulldogs all rookies or sophomores (Ellie Rappole, Belle Golden, Ashley Kirschner, Laila Booker and Alanna Butcher) and the top four Tigers all in their first two years (Heather MacNab, Pietra Tordin, Kelsee Wozniak and Lily Bryant). That's also true between the posts, with sophomore Maya Bellomo (1.25 GAA) playing every minute so far for Yale and classmate Tyler McCamey (1.23 GAA) playing 585 of the 720 for Princeton.

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