UPDATED: Athletic Year, Women's Soccer Season to Open Friday With Home Weekend Pair

Friday, August 25

Princeton, N.J.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

Monmouth

UPDATED: Athletic Year, Women's Soccer Season to Open Friday With Home Weekend Pair

August 22, 2023 | Women's Soccer

The 2023-24 Princeton Athletics year will begin this weekend when the women's soccer team hosts a pair of games at home, Friday against Monmouth and Sunday against La Salle.

Admission is free to all regular-season home Princeton soccer games.

vs. Monmouth, Fri., 7 p.m. | ESPN+ | Live Stats | Game Program | Fan Information
vs. La Salle, Sun., 12 p.m. | ESPN+ | Live Stats | Game Program | Fan Information
Sunday's game has been moved up to a 12 p.m. start

Who's Back: Nine players scored a goal last season and seven of those are back, with Ivy League Rookie of the Year Pietra Tordin (eight) and Heather MacNab (six) leading the returners. Six Tigers earned All-Ivy League honors last season and five are back, including first-team midfielder Lily Bryant, second-team defender Ryann Brown, second-team forward Tordin, and honorable mentions forward MacNab and midfielder Aria Nagai.

Who's New: The Princeton Class of 2027 has six of its members on the Tiger roster and they're across the field, including goalkeeper Cecilia Cerone, defenders Zoe Markesini and Rebecca Sherry, midfielders Esme Rudell and Kayla Wong, and forward Isabella Garces.

Between the Posts: Tyler McCamey, a junior, is the lone Tiger back with collegiate goalkeeping experience, and she was Princeton's lead netminder last season while accruing a 1.17 GAA over 1,080 minutes. Rookie Cecilia Cerone would become the first Tiger since McCamey in 2021 to see game action.

The Staff: Head coach Sean Driscoll started at Princeton in 2015 and begins his eighth competitive season (excluding 2020) leading the team. In that time, Driscoll has been named Ivy League Coach of the Year three times (2015, 2017, 2018), has led the team to its last three Ivy League titles (2015, 2017, 2018), and has led the team to its last four NCAA tournament bids (2015, 2017, 2018, 2021). His 83 wins are second-most in program history and behind only predecessor Julie Shackford's 203 over 20 seasons (1995-2014). Associate Head Coach Mike Poller has been with Driscoll the entire time, and assistant coach Chris Duggan, who trains the goalkeepers, is in his second year with the program.

The Series vs. Monmouth: Monmouth leads the all-time series with Princeton 9-6.This will be the first meeting since Princeton hosted Monmouth to open the 2017 NCAA tournament at the previous Roberts Stadium for a 4-0 Tiger win. The Hawks won nine of the series' first 10 games, all between 1988 and 1998, before Princeton won in 1999 and again in 2002. The teams didn't play again until 2016, a 2-1 Tiger win on the road, and then Princeton won both the regular-season meeting (3-0) and the NCAA game in 2017. Overall, the Tigers take a five-match series win streak into Friday's series resumption.

On Monmouth: The Hawks were the preseason pick to win the CAA, formerly the Colonial Athletic Association and now the Coastal Athletic Association, in the league's preseason poll with defender Lauren Bruno a preseason all-league pick. The team went 13-2-3 a season ago in the team's first year in the CAA, seeing its season end in the quarterfinal/first round of the CAA tournament, in which it was the top seed, on penalties against eventual champ Hofstra. The season's first weekend saw Monmouth take a 1-0 home loss to Lehigh and beat FDU on the road 4-0 with three players splitting the goals and Liza Suydam getting two. Cassie Coster has played all 180 minutes in goal. Twelve players scored a goal for Monmouth last season with Summer Reimet leading the way with six. Coster, a second-team All-CAA pick in 2022, played nearly all the minutes in goal last season, holding opponents to an 0.61 GAA. Skipper Kylee Flynn was the CAA's co-Coach of the Year last season in her rookie year after taking over for Krissy Turner, who joined the Ivy League in leading Penn.

The Series vs. La Salle: Princeton leads the all-time series with La Salle 7-1-2. The teams met annually from 1987-90, with Princeton winning all four, then not again until 2005, another Princeton win, and then not again until playing every year from 2011-15, with Princeton taking two and tying two and La Salle winning its lone game in the series in 2011. The last meeting, in 2015, was a 4-1 Tiger win in Princeton.

On La Salle: The Explorers were picked eighth of 15 in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll. The team opened the season last weekend with a 2-1 home loss to Towson before a 1-0 win at Albany. Courtney Butlion and Haley Gschrey each had a goal over the first weekend. Between the posts, Gabby Neal played 106 scoreless minutes while Michela Auguadro allowed the two goals in 73 minutes of play. Kelli McGroarty, who since transferred to Iowa, led the eight Explorers to score a goal last season, with six, making Gschrey and Alyssa Gargiulo as the co-leading returners from last season, having scored four each in 2022. Auguadro played nearly all the team's minutes in goal in 2022, with a 1.37 GAA. Paul Royal has been the Explorers' head coach since 2003 and led the team to an 8-8-2 overall record last season, two spots out of the top eight in the A-10 that make the league tournament. Princeton ESPN+ color analyst Renee Washington is a 2014 La Salle alumna and was a four-time All-A-10 honoree, earning second-team honors in 2010 and 2013 and first-team recognition in 2011 and 2012. Washington was the Most Outstanding Player of the 2013 A-10 Tournament, helping La Salle to a win and the league's NCAA auto bid. Monmouth assistant coach Julio Vacacela was on the Princeton staff from 2003-14, helping the team to the 2004 NCAA College Cup semifinals among four NCAA tournament appearances during that span.