Women's Soccer Team to Open Season Saturday Hosting Miami

The first of 10 regular-season home games is on Saturday for the Princeton women's soccer team as the Tigers host Miami (Fla.) in a 7 p.m. kick.

vs. Miami, Sat., 7 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Game Program | Free Admission

For the World: Pietra Tordin, a junior who scored a team-high 12 goals last season, and sophomore backliner Zoe Markesini are away with the U.S. and Canadian U-20 teams at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia. Markesini and Canada will start play on Aug. 31 in Medellín against France in the first of three group-stage games, and Tordin and Team USA will do so on Sept. 1 against Spain in Cali. The earliest the two Tigers could meet is in the first knockout round, with Canada in Group B and the U.S. in Group C. The top two teams from each of the six four-team groups will advance, as will four of the six third-place teams. The final is set for Sept. 22, which would take the absence of the two Tigers through the end of the pre-conference schedule, should either or both teams advance that far.

A New Makeup: There will be lots of opportunity for new contributions for the Tigers as the scorers of nine of the team's 33 non-own goals from 2023 will be available on Saturday. The team lost 13 of those 33 goals to graduation, and with Pietra Tordin away at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, that's another 12 of the 33 goals. Aside from Tordin, the leading returning goal scorers are Heather MacNab, Drew Coomans and Kayla Wong, with two each. Princeton graduated Madison Curry, drafted into the NWSL with Angel City FC, and Morgan Wiese from the back line, as well as Aria Nagai, now at North Carolina, and Marissa Hart from the midfield. From the starting lineup against Texas Tech in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year, five Tigers graduated with six, including Tordin and Markesini, returning. All of Princeton's goalkeeping minutes are back in senior Tyler McCamey (10-5-4, 1.17 GAA) and sophomore Cecilia Cerone (42 minutes played, 2.12 GAA). Along with Tordin, a first-teamer, Princeton has two returning 2023 All-Ivy honorees in second-team forward Coomans and honorable mention Lily Bryant. Tordin was the 2022 Ivy Rookie of the Year with Bryant earning first-team honors, defender Ryann Brown as a second-teamer, and forward Heather MacNab as an honorable mention.

The Newcomers: Princeton has a six-member freshman class, with forward Alexandra Barry and midfielder/forward Dylan Jovanovic as four-star recruits by Top Drawer Soccer and midfielder Brooke Dawahare, midfielder Sophia Kurisu, keeper Sydney Romano and midfielder/forward Grace Rossner all as three-star recruits by the website.

Headed for a Milestone: Sean Driscoll has 93 wins at Princeton and is aiming to become just the second coach in program history with 100 wins. Predecessor Julie Shackford had 203 wins over 20 seasons. Only two Princeton men's coaches have reached 100 wins, in Jimmy Reed (136, 1938-66) and current counterpart Jim Barlow (210 wins). Driscoll and Shackford will go head-to-head soon, with Princeton going to William & Mary, where Shackford is the head coach, on Sept. 8. Three seasons after leaving Princeton, Shackford took over at her alma mater ahead of the 2018 season, succeeding John Daly, who was her coach in her final season at William & Mary in 1987.

The 2023 season: Princeton went 10-5-4 in 2023, finishing third in the Ivy at 4-2-1 as the league sent four teams to the NCAA tournament, all of which won their first-round games. Princeton defeated Michigan 1-0 on an 80th-minute goal from now-graduated Lexi Hiltunen '24 in the first round before battling Texas Tech to a 0-0 tie on the road with the Red Raiders advancing on PKs, 4-3. Miami went 3-10-4 in 2023, finishing 12th among the 14 women's soccer-playing schools in the then-15 team ACC (Georgia Tech).

Preseason polls: Princeton was picked third in the media/athletic communications preseason poll, receiving two of the 16 first-place votes. Harvard was picked first with 120 poll points and 10 first-place votes with Brown second at 108 points and four first-place votes. Princeton had 103 poll points with Columbia fourth at 77, 20 more than fifth-place Dartmouth. The top four teams will make the Ivy League Tournament, set to be played at the top seed. In the ACC preseason coaches poll, Miami was picked 16th in the 17-team league with its three new additions in Cal, SMU and Stanford. The top six teams will make the ACC tournament. Florida State received 15 of the 17 first-place votes with Stanford getting the other two.

The Series with Miami: The Tigers and Hurricanes have met just once, on Sept. 4, 2005 at Miami, a 3-0 Hurricanes win in Princeton's second game of the season.

Against the ACC: Princeton's last game against the ACC was in 2019, a 2-1 regular-season home loss to Boston College. The team's last win against an ACC opponent was when the Tigers defeated North Carolina in an NCAA tournament game held at UNC's temporary home field in 2017.

On Miami: The Hurricanes are already a weekend into the season, with a 1-0 home loss on Aug. 15 against North Florida and a 1-1 tie at Florida Atlantic three days later. Giovana Canali had the goal against FAU and Claireese Foley played all 180 minutes in goal, holding a 1.00 GAA.

Jersey and Hurricanes: Though New Jersey often gets remnants of former hurricanes, and sometimes hit by storms that fell below hurricane status, the last storm to make landfall in New Jersey as a hurricane came on Sept. 16, 1903, making that landfall near Atlantic City. It weakened as it passed near Princeton, just a week before the opening exercises for the 1903-04 school year at Old Nassau.

Up Next: The Tigers will host Seton Hall on Aug. 29. The Pirates were 1-1 heading into a Thursday visit from Lehigh and will head to Rider on Sunday.

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