Women's Soccer to Host Drexel Thursday, Georgetown Sunday

Before a two-week break from home games, Princeton will play its fourth and fifth home games of the season this week, hosting Drexel on Thursday and Georgetown on Sunday.

vs. Drexel, Thursday, 7 p.m. | ESPN+ & NBC Sports Philadelphia | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Game Program | Free Admission
vs. Georgetown, Sunday, 5 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Game Program | Free Admission

New Scorers: With Princeton without Pietra Tordin, a scorer of 12 goals last season, for perhaps all of 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 four games. Sophomore Isabella Garces scored against Miami for her first career goal, rookies Alexandra Barry and Brooke Dawahare scored their first goals against Seton Hall, and junior backliner Pia Beaulieu scored her first goal at William & Mary while Dawahare added her second goal in that game.

Between the Posts: Tyler McCamey has been strong in goal for Princeton in her senior season, accruing an 0.50 GAA while allowing two goals over the first four games, shutting out Miami and William & Mary around allowing a goal apiece to Seton Hall and Penn State. McCamey is up to 22 career wins and 12 shutouts. McCamey has been named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week twice already this season, after the Miami game and this week, after the Penn State and William & Mary games.

Approaching the Century Mark: Princeton coach Sean Driscoll picked up his 96th career win on Sunday at William & Mary, doing so against the winningest head coach in Princeton women's soccer history, Julie Shackford, who won 203 games from 1995 through 2014 before leaving Princeton and taking over at her alma mater a few years later. Driscoll is already the second-winningest coach in program history and would be just the fourth Princeton soccer coach, men's or women's, to win 100 games at the school, along with Shackford, former men's coach Jimmy Reed (136 wins from 1938-66) and current men's coach Jim Barlow (210 wins since 1996). Driscoll is the second-longest active tenured coach in the Ivy League, having coached his first season at Princeton in 2015, one year after Tracey Bartholomew began at Columbia, and is the Ivy League's winningest active women's soccer coach, ahead of Brown's Kia McNeill (80), Harvard's Chris Hamblin (77) and Bartholomew (74).

#U20WWC: Both Zoe Markesini for Canada and Pietra Tordin for Team USA advanced to the knockout round at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia, with Canada falling 2-1 to Spain and the U.S. defeating Mexico 3-2 with Tordin scoring the Americans' first goal. The quarterfinals are set for Sunday with the U.S. taking on either Germany or Argentina. Markesini, a backliner who started all four games for Canada, had a goal in the opening tie against France while Tordin, a forward who has started the last three games for the U.S., had a hat trick in a 7-0 win over Paraguay to close group play before the goal against Mexico. According to Top Drawer Soccer's lists, Princeton is one of eight schools in the nation 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.

Series vs. Drexel: Though Drexel has been competing in women's soccer since the 1990s and doing so just down the road in Philadelphia, the Tigers and Dragons didn't meet until 2018, playing in back-to-back seasons. The teams played to a 0-0 draw on Sept. 16, 2018 at Sherrerd Field, the home of Princeton lacrosse, before the Tigers won 1-0 at the previous Roberts Stadium on Oct. 30, 2019.

On Drexel: Though Drexel stands 1-3-1 entering its visit to Princeton, the Dragons haven't seen a game end with a margin of greater than one goal, with the win coming 2-1 over next-door Penn on Aug. 25 amidst losses of 2-1, 1-0 and 2-1, all on the road and all to A-10 schools in Saint Joseph's, Fordham and George Washington. The tie was 4-4 against Lehigh at home on Sept. 1. Liv Brocious has three of the eight goals, leading five goal scorers, while Sammy Widnick has played most of the minutes in goal, holding a 2.00 GAA.

Series vs. Georgetown: Princeton and Georgetown have played four times, all since 2018, with Georgetown leading the series 2-1-1. Georgetown, ranked No. 10, won 2-1 on an overtime goal at Sherrerd Field in 2018, before winning on another overtime goal, this time 4-3 on its home field in Washington, when it was ranked No. 15. Two years later, after the pandemic pause, the teams tied 1-1 in D.C. when Georgetown was ranked No. 8. Among current Tigers, Lily Bryant, Heather MacNab and Ryann Brown played in that game. Among Hoyas, Eliza Turner, Claire Manning, Erika Harwood, Maja Lardner and goal scorer Cyanne Doyle played in the game. After not meeting in 2022, the series resumed in 2023, with Princeton winning 3-2 over the 10th-ranked Hoyas on Sept. 14 at Roberts. Both goalies, Tyler McCamey for Princeton and Cara Martin for Georgetown, return this year after each made two saves in last season's game. Kaya Hanson and Natalie Means, both back this year for Georgetown, had both Hoya goals, while Princeton took a 2-0 lead on two Georgetown own goals before Hanson and Means tied it in the 50th and 54th minutes. Pietra Tordin then had the game winner in the 77th minute for Princeton.

On Georgetown: The Hoyas were ranked No. 23 in the Sept. 3 United Soccer Coaches rankings and have since taken their first loss of the year to a Pepperdine team that also handed then-No. 3 UCLA its first loss of the year four days earlier and went on to draw at Harvard this past Sunday, the same day as Penn State, which won 1-0 at Princeton last Thursday, played to a 0-0 draw with the Hoyas. In goal, Cara Martin, who played against Princeton last season, has been splitting time almost evenly with Anna Karpenko, a familiar sight for the Tigers after playing three years at Harvard with her freshman year lost to the pandemic. Against Princeton, Karpenko played the second half in a 1-0 Tiger win in 2021, allowing the decisive goal and making one save. In 2022, Karpenko did not play in a 3-2 Harvard win over Princeton, and in 2023, Karpenko made two saves in a 1-1 draw in Cambridge before making one save and allowing both goals in a 4-2 Harvard win in the Ivy semifinal at Brown. Maja Lardner had a team-high four of the team's 14 goals heading into the South Carolina game, leading seven goal scorers. Karpenko held a 2-1 record with an 0.35 GAA while Martin was 1-0-2 with an 0.34 GAA. Maya Wiese, a sophomore midfielder for the Hoyas, is the sister of Morgan Wiese '24, who captained the Tigers as a senior in 2023.

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