Thursday Night Kick at Miami Ahead for Women's Soccer

In a return game from last season, the Princeton women's soccer team will head south to the University of Miami for a Thursday night kick.

at Miami, Thursday, 7 p.m. | ESPN+ | Live Stats

On Princeton: The Tigers are 0-2-2 through their first two weekends of play despite outshooting their opponents 92-41 overall and 29-18 on goal. Princeton returned those who played just 50.8 percent of minutes last season with graduation and the pros taking a bite out of the 2024 Ivy League champions. Princeton graduated seven seniors from last season, including defender Ryann Brown, who is using a graduate year at North Carolina, defender Heather MacNab, who earned a spot on the roster of the NWSL's North Carolina Courage, Kate Toomey, a second-team All-Ivy midfielder in 2024, Lily Bryant, a first-team All-Ivy midfielder last season, Kiley Hamou, a regular starter on the back line, and keeper Tyler McCamey, who had a spot on the roster of the NWSL's Gotham FC. Pietra Tordin, a would-be senior this season who was the 2024 Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, turned pro and, through last weekend, stood second on the NWSL's Portland Thorns with four goals this season. Sixteen Tigers have played at least 100 minutes over the first four games this season, and of Princeton's six field-player rookies, five are in that 100-minute group.

Junior backliner Zoe Markesini has two of Princeton's three goals this season, the first two goals of her Tiger career, with sophomore forward Alexandra Barry netting the other as Princeton's most recent goal last Thursday against Ohio State. Markesini played for Canada in the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, scoring a goal and starting all four of the team's games during the tournament. Junior Cecilia Cerone (0-1-2) has started all four games in goal, playing 315 minutes with a 1.71 GAA. Sophomore Sydney Romano (0-1-0) made her collegiate debut in relief against Loyola, allowing one goal in playing the second half.

Outshoot 'em: In 168 games under Sean Driscoll, Princeton has outshot its opponent in overall shots 128 times and has equaled its opponent in total shots three times, getting outshot 37 times, or in just more than once every five games (22 percent).

On Miami: The Hurricanes are 4-1 heading into Thursday's game with wins over UNC Asheville, Florida Atlantic, Jacksonville and Lipscomb and a loss to Appalachian State. Miami has outscored its opponents 9-3 and has outshot its opponents 68-24 overall and 29-11 on goal so far this season. Brie Severns has three of the nine goals with six teammates splitting the other six goals. Emily Bredek (2-0) has started all five games in goal this season and has an 0.80 GAA with a .714 save percentage over 225 minutes while Atlee Olofson (2-1) has played in all five games with an 0.41 GAA and an .800 save percentage over 218 minutes. Miami was picked 15th of 17 in the ACC preseason poll, and forward Giovana Canali returns after earning third-team All-ACC and all-freshman honors last season.

Series history: Princeton and Miami have played twice, once back in 2005, a 3-0 Miami win in Coral Gables, and in Princeton's first game of last season, a 1-0 Tiger win on a 64th-minute Isabella Garces goal. Garces, now a junior, has yet to play this season due to injury. Miami outshot Princeton 12-10 overall in that game while Princeton outshot Miami on goal 6-5. Neither keeper is back this season, with the Tigers' Tyler McCamey having graduated and Miami's Claireese Foley having returned to her home state of Texas to play at TCU. It'll be Princeton's second straight game against an ACC opponent, having hosted Syracuse on Sunday for a 0-0 tie. The Tigers bookended last season with games against ACC opponents, starting with the 1-0 win over Miami and ending with a 2-1 NCAA first-round loss at Virginia. Against the ACC under Sean Driscoll, Princeton is 5-3-2, going 1-1-1 against N.C. State, 1-1 against Boston College, 1-0 each against Wake Forest, North Carolina and Miami, 0-1 against Virginia and 0-0-1 against Syracuse.

The staff: Head coach Sean Driscoll is in his 11th year with Princeton and 10th competitive season (team did not compete in 2020), and has the most Ivy League Coach/Coaching Staff of the Year honors since the award began in 2014, with four (2015, 2017, 2018, 2024). He's Princeton's second-winningest coach, with 107 wins, and with his 40 wins at Manhattan (2005-09) added in, he's just three wins from his 150th career victory. He's Princeton's second-winningest coach in program history, with predecessor Julie Shackford having won 203 games from 1995-2014. Associate Head Coach Mike Poller has been with Driscoll for the entire Tiger tenure, and keepers coach Chris Duggan is in his fourth season with the program. Under Driscoll, Princeton has won four Ivy League titles (2015, 2017, 2018, 2024) and has made six NCAA tournaments (2015, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2023, 2024), making the second round in 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2023 and the quarterfinals in 2017. Princeton was the preseason No. 1 pick in the Ivy's poll this season, getting nine of the 16 first-place votes and 118 poll points with runner-up Brown getting six first-place votes and 105 poll points.

Tigers in the NWSL: Princeton has four players currently on NWSL rosters. Along with Tordin, whose four goals this season have come in the Thorns' last nine games through last weekend, Princeton counts Tyler Lussi '17 with the North Carolina Courage, Aria Nagai '24 with the Utah Royals, and Madison Curry '24 with the Seattle Reign. Through last weekend, Lussi had started the Courage's last seven games, scoring goals in back-to-back games against Portland (Aug. 16) and Chicago (Aug. 23). Nagai recently started a four-game stretch for Utah between Aug. 3 and Aug. 23, and Curry, a backliner, had started the Reign's last 10 games through last weekend.

Looking ahead: Princeton will return home to face Villanova on Sept. 11 before heading to Army West Point three days later with the Ivy opener set for Sept. 19 at Penn.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results