Women's Soccer to Visit Virginia to Open NCAA Tournament on Friday

Princeton will make its second straight appearance in the NCAA tournament on Friday, opening the draw with a visit to Virginia.

at Virginia, NCAA First Round, Friday, 7 p.m. | Live Video | Live Stats

NCAA tournament history: Princeton is in the NCAAs for the 16th time, 12th time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 2001, and sixh time in the nine competitive seasons under Sean Driscoll. Princeton has now won a game in eight of its trips to the tournament and five of its last six, including four of its first five trips under Driscoll.

Back again: This will be Princeton's fourth trip to Charlottesville for an NCAA tournament game, but its first for an NCAA tournament game against Virginia. Princeton lost 2-1 to Villanova in the 2003 first round, lost 2-1 to West Virginia in the 2008 first round, and 3-0 to USC in the 2015 second round in Driscoll's first season. Princeton has faced UVA twice, in regular-season games in 1997 and 1998, 3-0 and 2-1 losses in Charlottesville.

NCAA experience: Eleven current Tigers have played in an NCAA tournament game. Senior netminder Tyler McCamey turned in 200 shutout minutes in last year's tournament against Michigan and Texas Tech before TTU advanced on PKs, and Lily Bryant (2021, vs. TCU) is the lone active Tiger to have scored a goal in an NCAA tournament game.

Talkin' about Tordin: Junior Pietra Tordin, the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, has scored nine goals in nine games since returning from helping Team USA to a third-place finish at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia in September. Tordin scored four goals in the tournament, the most for an American at the event since 2012, and had a hat trick in the group-stage finale against Paraguay, the first hat trick for an American at the event since 2018. Tordin was a teammate of Virginia's Yuna McCormack at the event. Tordin has 29 career goals, already the most for any Tiger since Mimi Asom '19 finished her career with 43, and seventh-most in program history. Tordin was one of two Tigers in Colombia, with sophomore backliner Zoe Markesini helping Canada to the knockout round.

On offense: Princeton has scored 39 goals this season, its most since scoring 43 in 2021. Fourteen Tigers have contributed a goal this season, and eight of those scored her first career goal this season. Behind Pietra Tordin's nine goals, rookies Alexandra Barry and Brooke Dawahare have four goals each, as does sophomore Isabella Garces.

Between the posts: Senior Tyler McCamey, a first-team All-Ivy Leaguer this season in receiving her first All-Ivy honors, has a career-high eight shutouts this season and has raised her career total of clean sheets to 18. McCamey has a career-high 12 wins this season and has 31 wins in her career, the most for a Tiger since Natalie Grossi '20 had 39 wins. Grossi had 30 clean-sheets during her career. McCamey has an 0.56 GAA this season, 15th in the nation, while saving 85.9 percent of shots, 12th in the nation.

Stat rankings: Princeton enters the tournament standing ninth in the nation in GAA, at 0.556, 13th in assists per game, at 2.44, 15th in goal differential, at +29, 17th in save percentage, at .853, 18th in total assists, with 44, 19th in winning percentage, at .778, and 20th in points per game, at 6.78. Tyler McCamey is 12th nationally in save percentage (.850) and 15th in GAA (0.563). Heather MacNab is 18th nationally in assists (0.50).

Winning streak: Princeton has won six in a row, the team's longest win streak since a six-gamer in 2021. Another win would give Princeton its longest winning streak since an 11-gamer in 2015, Driscoll's first season.

Coach Driscoll: Sean Driscoll is in his ninth competitive season leading Princeton. A four-time Ivy Coach of the Year (2015, 2017, 2018, 2024), Driscoll has led Princeton to Ivy titles in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2024, NCAA tournament bids in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2023 and 2024, the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2023, and the NCAA quarterfinals in 2017. Driscoll's 107 wins are second-most in program history behind predecessor Julie Shackford, who had 203 wins in 20 seasons from 1995-2014, and are the most among active Ivy League women's soccer coaches at their current post.

Looking ahead: Should Princeton advance, it has history against just one of its two potential second-round opponents. Wisconsin was a 1-0 double-OT winner in the first round of the 2000 NCAAs in Madison. While the Tigers have never faced Maine, head coach Sean Driscoll's wife Heather (Hathorn) is a 2006 Maine women's soccer alumna who was the 2002 America East Rookie of the Year who graduated as the program's all-time leader in career goals (35) and points (84).

Against the ACC: Princeton is 5-2-1 against the ACC under Driscoll, though just one of those games has been in the last four seasons. Princeton opened this season with a 1-0 win over Miami in Princeton.

On Virginia: The Cavaliers missed the NCAA tournament last season for the first time since 1993 but are back this year, earning an at-large bid after a ninth-place ACC finish, missing the six-team ACC tournament. Virginia will have been away from competition for more than two weeks by Friday's game, since the Oct. 31 1-0 win over Virginia Tech in the regular-season finale. It'll be Virginia's first home game since Oct. 25. Virginia has seen 14 players score a goal this season with Maggie Cagle scoring six, Meredith McDermott and Allie Ross five each, and no other player with more than two. Victoria Safradin has played about 92 percent of the minutes in goal this season, holding a 1.09 GAA and a .696 save percentage.

Roster connections: UVA senior Laughlin Ryan shares a high school alma mater, Myers Park in Charlotte, with the goal scorer of one of the biggest goals in Princeton history. Abby Givens '20 had the OT goal to beat No. 2 North Carolina in the 2017 NCAA Round of 16. Virginia junior Helen Symbas and sophomore Allie Ross are both alumnae of The Westminster Schools, which counts Princeton senior keeper Tyler McCamey as an alum. Virginia associate head coach Ron Raab was an assistant to April Heinrichs in 1990 before both went to Maryland. Head coach Steve Swanson led Dartmouth from 1990-95, going 5-1 against Princeton with wins in each of his last five seasons leading the Big Green.

Familiar?: It'll be the second year in a row that the Tigers will open the NCAA tournament with a team coming off a long layoff. Last season, Michigan, which tied for ninth in the Big Ten and missed out on the eight-team conference tournament, had nearly three weeks between its Oct. 22 regular-season finale and its Nov. 10 trip to Princeton to open the NCAAs. Princeton outshot the Wolverines 18-11 overall and 8-6 on goal in a game Princeton won 1-0 on an 80th-minute goal by the now-graduated Lexi Hiltunen '24. This season, Princeton will travel to the team making the return from a layoff, with Virginia having last played on Oct. 31.

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