Visit From Top-10 Penn State, First Road Game Ahead for Women's Soccer

A visit from a top-10 opponent and the first road game of the season are ahead this week as the Princeton women's soccer team puts its 2-0 start on the line.

vs. #8 Penn State, Thu., 7 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Game Program
at William & Mary, Sun., 12 p.m. | No Video | Live Stats

New Scorers: With Princeton without Pietra Tordin, a scorer of 12 goals last season, for the pre-conference schedule while at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia, and having graduated the scorers of 13 more goals from last season, other Tigers have stepped up over the first two games. Sophomore Isabella Garces scored against Miami for her first career goal, and rookies Alexandra Barry and Brooke Dawahare scored their first goals against Seton Hall.

#U20WWC: According to Top Drawer Soccer's lists, 34 colleges are represented at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Princeton, with Team USA's Tordin and Canada's Zoe Markesini, is one of eight schools with at least two players at the tournament, along with Cal, Providence, Wisconsin and USC, also with two each, UCLA and Notre Dame, each with three, and Florida State, with five players in Colombia. Princeton has two of the four Ivy Leaguers at the event, with Yale's Alex Chang playing for South Korea and Columbia's Samantha Weiss playing for Argentina. Penn State is Princeton's only non-conference opponent with a player at the event, with netminder Mackenzie Gress playing for Team USA.

Between the Posts: Senior Tyler McCamey has played all 180 minutes in goal so far, winning the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week honor on Aug. 26 and picking up her 20th and 21st career wins and 11th shutout. Her 0.50 GAA on the new season has lowered her career GAA to 1.04.

Against Ranked Opponents: Thursday's game will be the 22nd of the Sean Driscoll era against a top-25 team. Princeton has six wins in those games, most recently against No. 10 Georgetown on Sept. 14, 2023 at Roberts Stadium. A win would be Princeton's highest ranked since the 2-1 overtime win over No. 2 North Carolina in the 2017 NCAA round of 16. This will be Princeton's 13th game against a top-10 opponent in Driscoll's tenure. Princeton has three wins in those games (UNC, No. 9 Rutgers in 2021, No. 10 Georgetown in 2023) and two ties (No. 8 Georgetown in 2021, No. 4 Texas Tech in 2023).

Against Penn State: The Tigers and Nittany Lions have a relatively short history despite being only a few hours apart. Penn State came to Princeton in each of the Tigers' first two varsity seasons in 1980 and 1981, splitting those games. The teams didn't meet again until the 2002 NCAA first round, a game Penn State won 2-0 at Maryland, and they didn't meet again in the regular season until last year, a 3-0 Nittany Lions win in State College.

Against the B1G: Against Big Ten teams at the time of the game, Princeton holds a 2-7-2 record, going 1-0 against Michigan, 1-3-1 against Rutgers, 0-1 each against Maryland and Wisconsin, and 0-2 against Penn State. The games against Michigan (2023) and Wisconsin (2000) and one of the two games against Penn State (2002) were in the NCAA tournament, and the games against Rutgers and Maryland and the other game against Penn State were regular-season games. Princeton's most recent game against a Big Ten team was a win, over Michigan last year in the NCAA tournament, also the last time a Big Ten team came to Princeton. At home, Princeton is 1-2-2 against the Big Ten, including 0-2-2 against Rutgers and 1-0 against Michigan. Under Sean Driscoll, Princeton is 2-5-2 against the conference but 2-2-1 since returning from the pandemic pause.

Against William & Mary: Princeton is 3-6-1 all-time against William & Mary. The first two games, both Tribe wins in 1991 and 1992, came between Shackford's time as a player at William & Mary (1984-87) and her tenure as Princeton coach (1995-2014). Princeton went 1-4-1 against William & Mary with Shackford leading the Tigers. The 2015 game, a Princeton win against a William & Mary team ranked No. 23 in the nation, came before Shackford took over at her alma mater, and the 2019 game, the most recent, came in Shackford's second season leading W&M.

Top Two: William & Mary coach Julie Shackford is the Princeton women's soccer program's all-time winningest coach, rolling up 203 victories with six Ivy championships, eight NCAA tournament appearances, two second-round runs and one trip to the NCAA quarterfinals, in 2004. Sean Driscoll is Princeton's second-winningest coach with 95 wins, three Ivy titles, five NCAA tournament appearances, three runs to the second round and one NCAA quarterfinals run, in 2017.

Against former coaches: In addition to the 2019 game against William & Mary, Princeton has had five other games against teams head coached by a former Princeton head coach. The Tigers went 0-4-1 between 1993 and 1998 against Maryland and then Virginia with April Heinrichs, who coached Princeton in 1990, leading those clubs.

Against the CAA: Princeton has won its last two against the CAA, defeating Monmouth last year and Delaware in 2022. The Delaware win came a game after a loss to Hofstra, Princeton's last loss to a CAA team. Since the resumption from the pandemic pause, Princeton is 3-2 against the CAA, including 2-0 against Delaware, 1-0 against Monmouth and 0-2 against Hofstra.

On Penn State: The Nittany Lions (4-1) are ranked No. 8 in the nation in the Sept. 3 United Soccer Coaches rankings and have won three in a row since their lone loss of the season, to Virginia at home on Aug. 22. Penn State made the NCAA quarterfinals last season and return four of their top six point scorers from last season, led by 2023 leading scorer Kaitlyn MacBean (10 G, 6 A). MacBean is back at it this season with eight of the team's 15 goals. Leading goalkeeper Katherine Asman graduated, and Mackenzie Gress, who played 88 minutes last season, is teammates with Pietra Tordin with Team USA at the U-20 Women's World Cup. Amanda Poorbaugh, the only other keeper who played for the Nittany Lions last season, has a 3-1 record this season with an 0.96 GAA. Poorbaugh and Gress, who played a shutout 76 minutes one game before heading to Colombia with Team USA, have given up a combined four goals across five games this season. Mieke Schiemann, who scored twice against Princeton last season, is back, as is Olivia Borgen, who had the other goal against Princeton last season. Asman made six saves in goal. Penn State was picked second in the 18-team Big Ten by the league's coaches, behind only conference newcomer UCLA.

On William & Mary: At 3-2, William & Mary will host Richmond on Thursday before hosting Princeton on Sunday. Nine players have contributed to the team's 12 goals, with Leah Iglesias, Peyton Costello and Ivey Crain scoring two each. Jazzy Lorenz has a 3-1 record and an 0.86 GAA across 315 minutes in goal with Morgan Wood at 0-1 with a 2.67 GAA across 135 minutes. William & Mary was picked fifth in the 13-team CAA by the league's coaches.

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