Ivy League Play to Open Saturday at Cornell for Women's Soccer Team

Saturday will mark the start of the Ivy League season for all eight schools, with Princeton going to Cornell for a noon start.

at Cornell, Sat., 12 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats

Tordin's Return: After helping Team USA to a third-place finish at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia over the past month, Pietra Tordin figures to make her season debut for the Tigers on Saturday. Tordin led the team with 12 goals last season and has 20 goals through her first two seasons, making her just the fifth Tiger to reach 20 goals by the end of her sophomore year. Tordin is a two-time All-Ivy League honoree, earning second-team honors as a freshman and first-team recognition as a sophomore. At the U-20 WWC, Tordin played in all seven games, getting five starts and scoring four goals, including three in the group-stage final against Paraguay and one in the knockout-stage opener against Mexico. The finish was the Americans' best since winning the tournament in 2012.

More U-20 WWC: Princeton was one of eight schools with at least two players at the tournament. Sophomore backliner Zoe Markesini represented Canada, starting all four games as Canada made the knockout round before a loss to Spain. Markesini scored a goal in the team's opening tie against France. The run to the knockout round was Canada's first at the tournament since hosting it in 2014. Markesini also competed at the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in 2022 in India, when Canada went 0-1-2 in group play and came up short of the knockout round.

On Offense: Princeton has had seven goal scorers this season, five of whom scored their first career goals this fall, including rookies Alexandra Barry and Brooke Dawahare and returners Pia Beaulieu, Isabella Garces and Summer Pierson. Though the Tigers have been on the short side of back-to-back shutouts entering the Cornell game, that's been a rarity in the Sean Driscoll era. Only twice in Driscoll's first eight seasons was Princeton shut out in back-to-back games, once in 2016 and once in 2022. Princeton hasn't been shut out in three straight games since 2013.

In Goal: Senior Tyler McCamey has been between the posts for all 630 minutes this season, bringing an 0.71 GAA into the Ivy slate. McCamey, a two-time Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week this season, has 23 wins and 12 shutouts in her career.

Driscoll's Countdown to 100: Princeton head coach Sean Driscoll is closing in on 100 wins at Princeton, entering the Cornell game with 97 wins since leading the program beginning in 2015. Driscoll, a three-time Ivy League Coach of the Year, would be the second coach in program history to reach 100, after predecessor Julie Shackford won 203 games between 1995 and 2014. Driscoll's teams have won three Ivy titles and made the NCAA tournament five times, advancing to the second round four times, including a run to the quarterfinals in 2017.

Series vs. Cornell: Princeton holds a 31-8-4 all-time series lead against the Big Red. Since the resumption after the pandemic pause, Princeton has won two of the three meetings, both of which came at home, in 2021 and 2023. In 2022, Princeton's last visit to Ithaca, the Big Red snapped a 25-game Princeton winning streak in the series since Cornell's then-most recent win in 1995. Cornell's previous most-recent win over Princeton in Ithaca to 2022 was in 1994.

In recent years: In the 2022 game that Cornell won 2-1 in Ithaca, Pietra Tordin, who figures to make her 2024 Tiger debut on Saturday after returning from the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, had the goal for Princeton while current Cornell senior Laken Gallman had one of the goals for the Big Red. Both goalkeepers from that game are back this season, with Tyler McCamey making two saves for Princeton and Erica Fox making one for Cornell. In Princeton's 4-2 win last season at Roberts Stadium, McCamey had five saves while Natalie Medugno, also back for the Big Red, had seven. All four of Princeton's goals came from last year's senior class while Abigail Bishara returns as the scorer of one of the Big Red goals.

On Cornell: The Big Red enter the weekend at 1-4-4 and with seven of the team's nine games either ties or decided by one goal. The team will look to snap a six-game winless run since defeating Syracuse 2-1 on Sept. 1. While the Tigers were off from competition last weekend, Pepperdine went out to California, losing 1-0 at Long Beach State before heading up the coast to No. 19 Pepperdine for a 3-0 defeat. Six Big Red players have scored goals this season with Laken Gallman leading the way with three of the team's eight goals. Natalie Medugno has played 711 of the team's 810 minutes in goal, holding a 1.77 GAA entering the weekend.

Next up: Princeton will have its first home game since Sept. 15 when it hosts Lafayette on Oct. 1. The Tigers will return to Ivy play next weekend when Brown visits.

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