Ohio State, Syracuse to Visit Women's Soccer This Week

The Big Ten and the ACC come to Roberts Stadium this week as the Princeton women's soccer team gets set to host Ohio State on Thursday and Syracuse on Sunday.

vs. Ohio State, Thursday, 7 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Team Yearbook | Free Admission
vs. Syracuse, Sunday, 11 a.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats | Team Yearbook | Free Admission

This week's promotions:
Thursday's game is Jungle Night. Students are encouraged to join the Princeton Jungle and USG for a night at Roberts Stadium.
Sunday's game is Kids Day and High School Day, where all Princeton Kids Club members and high school soccer teams are encouraged to attend join us at Roberts Stadium. There will also be a youth t-shirt giveaway. Sunday's 11 a.m. start is due to the university's Opening Exercises for the Class of 2029, set for 3 p.m.

On the Tigers: Princeton is 0-1-1 after a 1-1 tie against Rutgers at Roberts and a 2-1 loss at Loyola, both last weekend. Princeton has outshot its opponents 45-11 overall so far this season and 18-7 on goal. The Tigers have also drawn 12 corner kicks to five for its opponents. Twenty Tigers have seen game action over the first two games and 14 have made a start. Two of Princeton's three keepers have played, with junior Cecilia Cerone playing 135 of the 180 minutes (1.33 GAA, .600 sv%) and sophomore Sydney Romano making her collegiate debut when playing the second half at Loyola (2.00 GAA, .500 sv%). Junior backliner Zoe Markesini has both Princeton goals on the new season for the first two goals of her Tiger career. All six rookie field players have seen action, including Anna Chau (134 mins), Nina Cantor (115 mins), Julia Johnson (61 mins), Aubrey Crisostomo (56 mins), Maddie Recupero (44 mins) and Sarah Houston (22 mins).

Outshoot 'em: In 166 games under Sean Driscoll, Princeton has outshot its opponent in overall shots 127 times and has equaled its opponent in total shots three times, getting outshot 36 times, or in just more than once every five games (21.7 percent).

Preseason pick: Princeton was the leader in the Ivy League preseason poll, voted on by athletics communications contacts and media members around the league. Princeton received nine of the 16 first-place votes and 118 poll points, with Brown getting six first-place votes and 105 poll points and Harvard getting one first-place vote and 96 poll points. Of the 34 players who earned athletic All-Ivy honors last season, only 12 are back, with four of those at Brown, one at Columbia, one at Cornell, one at Dartmouth, two at Harvard, one at Penn, one at Princeton (Drew Coomans), and one at Yale. Only three 2024 first-team All-Ivy Leaguers are back, with Brown's Joy Okonye, Columbia's Maia Tabion, and Penn's Annabel Austen.

On Ohio State: The Buckeyes, ranked No. 25 in the Aug. 19 United Soccer Coaches poll, are 1-1-1 heading into their trip to Princeton, getting their first win of the season on Sunday with a 1-0 win at UNC Wilmington after a season-opening 1-1 home tie at Clemson and a 1-0 loss at South Carolina. Ohio State was selected fifth in the Big Ten preseason women's soccer poll, three spots above Princeton's first opponent of the season, Rutgers. Each team got three players on the league's preseason Players to Watch list, and Ohio State's are junior forward Amanda Schlueter, junior defender Ava Bramblett, and senior keeper Molly Pritchard. Schlueter has one of Ohio State's two goals this season with Lily Danner getting the other, the most recent one at UNCW. Between the posts, Pritchard has played all 270 minutes, holding an 0.67 GAA and a .714 save percentage. The Buckeyes made the NCAA Round of 16 last season before a loss to Wake Forest, with Schlueter scoring 10 goals and since-graduated Kailyn Dudukovich scoring 19 as the only Buckeyes with more than three goals last season. Both were first-team All-Big Ten honorees last season with Bramblett as a second-teamer, then-senior backliner Sydney Jones as a third-teamer, and forward Jadin Bonham and midfielder Ava Greco as all-freshman honorees. Both Bonham and Greco are back this season.

On Syracuse: The Orange were picked in the final spot in the ACC preseason poll and enter a Thursday trip to Quinnipiac at 3-1, outscoring opponents 13-3 over those first four games with wins over Charleston Southern, Niagara and Holy Cross and a loss to Canisius. The Princeton trip will be Syracuse's southernmost venture so far this season, playing three times at home along with a trip east on I-90 to Worcester, Mass., and then Thursday's run to Hamden, Conn. It'll be almost a month before the Orange go further south still, though it'll be much further west than south when they go to the Bay Area for a visit to the ACC's recent adds in Cal and Stanford. Syracuse won't head further south than Princeton on the East Coast until the Orange go to Miami on Oct. 11. Princeton will head there next weekend. Seven Orange players have split the 13 goals, with Ashley Rauch scoring four. Shea Vanderbosch has played 315 of the team's 360 minutes in goal, holding an 0.86 GAA and a .727 save percentage. Vanderbosch is also the team's most recent All-ACC honoree, having earned all-freshman honors in 2022. Orange junior Vita Naihin shares a hometown with Princeton fellow junior Zoe Markesini, with both from Markham, Ont., just outside Toronto.

Series History: There's not much history between the Tigers and this week's opponents, and no relevant history. Princeton has never faced Ohio State and has met Syracuse just twice, both more than 20 years ago. Princeton and the Orange had a home-and-home in 2003 and 2004, with Princeton winning both games 3-1 each time, hosting the back half of the series.

Against the Big Ten and the ACC: Princeton has wins against both the Big Ten and the ACC in recent seasons, with the Tigers knocking Michigan out of the first round of the 2023 NCAA tournament at Roberts Stadium and opening the 2024 season with a win over Miami, also at Roberts. The other conferences have defeated the Tigers since, however. Following the Michigan game, Penn State defeated Princeton at Roberts last season and the Tigers and Rutgers tied at Roberts just last week. The only game against an ACC opponent since the Miami game early last season was the 2024 finale, a 2-1 loss at Virginia to open the NCAA tournament. Under Sean Driscoll, Princeton is 2-4-3 against teams in the Big Ten at the time of the game, including 1-2-3 against Rutgers, 0-2 against Penn State, and 1-0 against Michigan. Against the ACC, Princeton is 5-3-1, going 1-1-1 against N.C. State, 1-1 against Boston College, 1-0 each against Wake Forest, North Carolina and Miami, and 0-1 against Virginia.

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 eight games entering the week.Tyler Lussi '17 has scored her first two goals of the season in each of the North Carolina Courage's last two games, ties against Tordin's Thorns (Aug. 16) and the Chicago Red Stars (Aug. 23). Aria Nagai '24 has started each of the Utah Royals' last four games, and Madison Curry '24 has started the last nine games for the Seattle Reign.

Up Next: It'll be back-to-back ACC games for the Tigers, who will play at Miami on Sept. 4. Princeton will be back home to take on Big East opponent Villanova in its next game after Miami, on Sept. 11.

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