Home Opener to Start Season's First Weekend for Women's Soccer

The 2025 curtain-raiser is set for Friday at 5 p.m. at Roberts Stadium as Princeton hosts Rutgers before heading south to take on Loyola (Md.) on Sunday.

vs. Rutgers, Friday, 5 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Team Yearbook | Free Admission
at Loyola, Sunday, 6 p.m. | ESPN+ | Live Stats

On the Tigers: In the second year of the Ivy League Tournament in 2024, Princeton became the first team to win the Ivy League title and the Ivy League Tournament title. Princeton will look for its first back-to-back Ivy titles since 2017 and 2018. The Tigers are forecasted to do just that, according to the Ivy League's preseason poll, with Princeton getting nine of the 16 first-place votes and 118 poll points, ahead of Brown's six first-place votes and 105 poll points. Princeton had seven athletic All-Ivy League honorees last season, but graduation and the pros took five of them. Pietra Tordin, the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year in 2024, opted to forgo her senior year and head to the NWSL's Portland Thorns while fellow first-teamers Lily Bryant, Heather MacNab and Tyler McCamey graduated. From the second team, Ryann Brown and Kate Toomey graduated, leaving Drew Coomans and Zoe Markesini as the Tigers' lone 2024 All-Ivy returners. Despite the losses to graduation and the pros, Princeton still returns nine of the 14 players who scored a goal last season, a group that accounted for 23 of the team's 40 goals, led by Alexandra Barry, Brooke Dawahare and Isabella Garces with four each. With McCamey moving on from between the posts, Cecilia Cerone is one of three keepers on the roster this season. Cerone went 2-0 in 2024, allowing one goal in 180 minutes, while sophomore Sydney Romano is back and rookie Carson Proctor is a new add. From the back line, MacNab, Markesini, Brown and Kiley Hamou were the usual starters, with Markesini the only non-senior in 2024. Princeton outscored opponents 40-12 last season and outshot opponents 293-171 overall and 125-70 on goal. Sean Driscoll, who won his fourth Ivy Coach/Coaching Staff of the Year honor in 2024 (2015, 2017, 2018), is three wins away from his 150th as a head coach between his time at Princeton (107) and Manhattan (40, 2005-09).

Series vs. Rutgers: Rutgers leads the all-time series with Princeton 18-11-5. This will be the teams' first meeting since a 0-0 draw at Roberts in 2023. Rutgers won the meeting before that, 3-0 in 2022 in Piscataway, after Princeton won the 2021 game 4-3 also in Piscataway. In Princeton, Rutgers is 3-0-2 against the Tigers in the last five games and hasn't allowed a goal since Princeton's last home win in the series, in 2007 at Princeton Stadium while the previous Roberts Stadium was under construction. This will be the fifth time Princeton has opened the season against Rutgers and first since 2014. That 2014 game was also the last time Princeton lost its opening game of the season, having won nine straight since. No current player has scored a goal against the other team, and the Scarlet Knights' Olivia Bodmer is the only keeper to have played against the other, making seven saves in the last meeting in 2023 as Princeton outshot Rutgers 17-10 overall and 7-5 on goal in the 0-0 draw.

Home Staters: Princeton has three New Jerseyans on its 2025 roster as it gets set to take on the State University of New Jersey. Junior Kayla Wong is from Manalapan, junior Aditi Singh is from West Windsor, and sophomore Alexandra Barry is from Saddle River. Two Rutgers players prepped in Princeton's home county of Mercer, both at schools down Route 206 from Princeton, with Marcia Ojo having gone to the Lawrenceville School and Olivia Bodmer having gone to Notre Dame High School. While not only outside the state but also north of the international border, a Princeton player and a Rutgers player share a Canadian alma mater, with Princeton junior Zoe Markesini and Rutgers junior Patricia Tsokos both having gone to Bill Crothers Secondary School in Markham, Ont., just outside Toronto.

Series vs. Loyola: Princeton leads the all-time series with the Greyhounds 4-1, but the teams haven't met since 2021 in what was Princeton's first game back after the pandemic pause. None of the current players were involved in that game, held at Princeton's Class of 1952 Stadium. This will be just the Tigers' second visit to Loyola, with Princeton winning at home in 1999, 2001 (NCAA first round), 2006 and 2021 and Loyola winning 1-0 in 2000.

On Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights were picked eighth in the 18-team Big Ten preseason poll. Each team gets three players on the conference's preseason Players to Watch list, with junior keeper Bodmer, junior forward Ashley Baran, and grad student forward Nata Ramirez as Rutgers' three players. Rutgers had one player each on the 2024 first team, second team and all-freshman All-Big Ten teams, but none of those three are back. First-team defender Emily Mason graduated, as did second-team forward Riley Tiernan, who took her team-best 11 assists and 19 points in 2024 to the NWSL and Angel City FC. Midfielder Shaela Bradley was on the all-freshman team but transferred to North Carolina, where she's playing alongside a Tiger grad in backliner Ryann Brown, who is spending a grad year in Chapel Hill after losing the 2023 season due to injury around a pair of second-team All-Ivy seasons. Only four Rutgers goal scorers are back from last season in Baran (six), Allie Post (four), Gabriela Gil (two) and Reilly McGinn (one), with Rutgers returning the scorers of 13 of its 28 goals from 2024. Bodmer had an 0.99 GAA last season in starting all 21 games as the Scarlet Knights went 11-5-5 and made the Big Ten Tournament final before a first-round loss to UConn in Piscataway. After the first weekend of the season, Rutgers is 2-0 with wins over NJIT (3-0) and Fairfield (2-0), with five players splitting the five goals, with Ramirez and Baran among the goal scorers. Bodmer played against Fairfield, stopping all seven shots on goal, after Rachel Quigley didn't need to make a save in getting the shutout against NJIT. After outshooting NJIT 21-3 overall and 10-0 on goal, Rutgers won despite Fairfield outshooting it 16-11 overall and 7-3 on goal.

Crossing the Hudson: A pair of Scarlet Knights are especially familiar faces to the Tigers, with Nata Ramirez and Marcia Ojo each doing a grad year at Rutgers after finishing their undergrad at Columbia. Both players missed the 2022 season with the Lions after playing in 2021 and before finishing their Columbia careers while playing the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Ramirez started against the Tigers in 2021, 2023 and 2024 as Princeton held her scoreless with six total shots and three total shots on goal across the three games. Ramirez and Tordin were two of the three unanimous first-team All-Ivy picks last season, along with Columbia's Courtney Ruedt. Ojo started in all three of those seasons vs. Princeton, playing a total of 256 minutes on the back line. All three of those games were 1-0 finals, with Princeton winning at '52 Stadium in 2021, Columbia winning at Roberts Stadium in 2023, and Princeton winning in Inwood in 2024.

On Loyola: The Greyhounds were picked fifth in the 10-team Patriot League preseason poll. Senior backliner Zoe Willis was among the 11 on the Patriot League's preseason all-conference team. Willis was a first-team All-Patriot Leaguer last season alongside the now-graduated forward Baylee Desmit and second-team midfielder Elizabeth Gallagher. Desmit had 16 of the Greyhounds' 26 goals last season as Loyola returns the scorers of seven of those goals in Asma Merzougui (two), Willis (one), Malia Tarazon (one), Riley Kennel (one) and Nele Raap (one). Keeper Brigid Mulholland is back after holding opponents to a 1.06 GAA last season while playing every minute of every game. The Greyhounds are 1-0-1 through the season's first weekend with a 1-1 tie against Florida Atlantic down in Boca Raton before a 2-0 win over Saint Peter's in Baltimore. Three players, including Kennel, have split the three goals, while Mulholland was in goal for the FAU tie, making two saves, and Hannah Goetzer made two saves to get the shutout against the Peahens. Loyola outshot FAU 13-6 overall and 5-3 on goal in the tie and outshot Saint Peter's 15-7 overall and 4-2 on goal. Loyola will take on the two winningest coaches in Princeton program history in back-to-back games, heading to William & Mary on Thursday where Julie Shackford, who led Princeton to 203 wins from 1995 to 2014, leads the Tribe, before hosting Princeton and Sean Driscoll on Sunday. Driscoll has 107 wins as he heads into his 10th competitive season (not counting 2020) with the Tigers.

Tigers in the NWSL: Princeton has four players currently on NWSL rosters. Entering the week, Pietra Tordin had four goals this season for the Portland Thorns, all in the team's last seven games heading into the Aug. 23 visit from the Kansas City Current. In the Thorns' last game, on Aug. 16 against the North Carolina Courage, Tyler Lussi '17 had the Courage's goal to tie it in the 70th minute on the way to a 1-1 draw. Madison Curry '24 has been a regular on the back line for the Seattle Reign this season, and Aria Nagai '24 has started the last three games for the Utah Royals heading into their next game, Aug. 23 here in New Jersey at Gotham FC.

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