Women's soccer faces Cornell with an eye on the postseason

In the heavyweight title fight for the Ivy League women's soccer championship, the bell just rang for the beginning of the third round.

"We kind of see this as phase three of the season — the last third of the regular season," head coach Julie Shackford said.

After wins against major league rivals Dartmouth and Harvard, the Tigers seem to have their conference competition on the ropes.

With three important games in the next two weeks, however, this is not the time for Princeton to start looking past its competition.

"As a head coach, I'm always worried about a letdown after a big game," Shackford said.

The first test of how well the Tigers will perform in the driver's seat comes this Saturday when Cornell (3-5-3 overall, 1-2-1 Ivy League) comes to Lourie-Love Field.

"Cornell will be a tough team — they beat Yale and are much improved," Shackford said.

Improved or not, the Big Red lacks the heavy-hitting offensive muscle of the tougher teams the Tiger defense has contained this season. Cornell has scored only 12 goals in 11 games up to this point in the season.

At this point, Princeton is essentially the Ivan Drago of the Ivy League. No one has beaten them yet, and they continue to impress just about everyone who has seen them play.

Remember though that even Drago was beaten at the end of Rocky IV by a scrappy competitor from Philadelphia.

And it's not hard to think of potential Tiger spoilers from the City of Brotherly Love.

"The Penn-Princeton rivalry is second to none and we will be at their place during Homecoming," Shackford said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"Harvard was a huge win for us, but now we know that every other team that we play are going to want to play the role of spoiler," senior captain and midfielder Linley Gober said. "We have to play every team like it's as big as the Harvard game."

Penn (10-1-2 overall, 3-1 Ivy League) definitely represents the biggest threat to Princeton's ambitions for national recognition. The Quakers' only loss in the league came at the hands of Dartmouth, in a 2-1 overtime loss. The Big Green scored the golden goal on a penalty kick with five minutes left in the extra period.

The Princeton-Penn showdown doesn't take place until Nov. 3, however. In between Ivy opponents, the Tigers will face a Halloween visitor from the nation's capital more frightening than an independent prosecutor's subpoena.

The American Eagles (6-5-2 overall, 3-2 Patriot League) offer the Tigers some respite from their all-important conference matchups. The two teams share no common opponents and obviously play in different leagues, but the game still has considerable importance for Princeton.

"With the NCAA Tournament approaching we realize that we need to keep establishing ourselves as the dominant team in each game so that we can continue to make a name for ourselves nationally," Gober said.

The national tournament is certainly beginning to loom large on Princeton's schedule. When the bell for that fourth round of the season sounds, what is it that the Tigers hope to accomplish? Will a knockout of the Ivy League competition be enough? Or maybe there is a more introspective goal for this team.

"We set a goal in the beginning of the season to constantly improve throughout the season, both individually and as a team," Gober said. "We're really going to continue to focus on that."

"In a nutshell, we have our work cut out for us," Shackford said, "but we look forward to the challenges. This team has a wonderful chemistry and — though young — is finding ways to get it done."