Women's soccer survives late scare to beat Villanova

The cold evening deserved a match that would heat it up. And for that purpose, no game could have been better. Kicks and pushing were the main characteristics of a women's soccer game that ended with another shutout for the Tigers.

Princeton (9-1-1, 3-0 Ivy) defeated Villanova (9-3-3, 2-2-2 Big East), 1-0, in a very close match that almost made the fans come onto the playing field at Lourie-Love. "Come on ref, show some cards," shouted a group of Villanova followers. The exact same words were heard from a group of Princetonian parents who helplessly saw their daughters kicked throughout the game.

However, the aggressive play by both teams didn't prevent it from being a great soccer match. Contrary to other matches in which the guest team has come to play defensively, the Wildcats set up an offensive strategy that was intially withheld by the Tiger defense.

Nevertheless, Villanova began controling the ball. In fact, 26 minutes into the game, Wildcat midfielder Erica Stewart made a shot that barely stayed out of Princeton's goal. Three minutes later, a dangerous free kick by the Wildcats made it seem that a goal was imminent. However, a great save by senior goalie Catherine Glenn revived Princeton.

The Tigers held control of the ball and, at the 35th minute, freshman Janine Willis made a great individual play. She controlled the long ball, dribbled past two defenders to move to the left side of Villanova's end line, and crossed it to junior forward Krista Ariss, who finished with a header.

In the remainder of the first half, it became evident that Villanova's strategy was simply not structured to handle such an offensive team. As a consequence, the Wildcats began to play dirty. For the last ten minutes of the first half, pushing from behind and fouling away from the ball was all they could do.

The first ten minutes of the second half were nearly the same. Nevertheless, Villanova wanted the victory, and coach Ann Clifton decided to send in three forwards onto the field.

Princeton's head coach Julie Shackford was forced to make changes in order to defend the goal. The Tigers drew back and began using long balls as the only offensive weapon. Defenders cleared the ball as soon as they could reach it, handing possession to their opponents every few seconds.

This brought Villanova closer and closer to the tying goal, and, at the 75th minute, a corner kick slipped from Glenn's hands and literally fell on top of Wildcat forward Quinn Sellers, who wasn't able to score the easy header. "We expected this match to be very difficult, especially since Villanova comes from sending Notre Dame to overtime," Shackford said. "They sent three forwards into the game during the second half, putting a lot of pressure on us." But the team responded and was able to maintain the one-goal difference.

On Saturday the Tigers will travel to face Harvard, the only other league opponent that is 3-0 in conference play. Perhaps the test against Villanova will serve as motivation to defeat the Crimson.