Women's soccer falls in final home contest to share Ivy title

In a season fraught with many great memories, women's soccer's 1-0 loss Saturday on Lourie-Love Field to Yale is one that Princeton would like to forget. The Elis, despite being severely outplayed, were able to squeak by the Tigers off a late first half goal and key saves by goaltender Lindsay Sabel late in the game. The defeat to Yale (7-8-2 overall, 2-3-2 Ivy League) gave the Tigers (13-2-2 overall, 5-1-1 Ivy League) their first Ivy League loss of the season, and forced Princeton to share the league title with Penn and Dartmouth.

The Tigers came out of the box flat in the first half. Though able to control the ball and much of the tempo throughout the half, the Tigers were unable to penetrate the strong Yale defense and attack the goal. Princeton registered eight shots in the period, but none posed a serious threat.

Yale's defense controlled the Tigers effectively in the half, but its offense suffered. The Tigers' strong defense kept Yale's leading scorer Ali Cobbett under tight wraps, and made her ineffective throughout the match.

With time winding down in the first half, though, the Yale offense got the better of the Tigers' defense. Taking a free kick off freshman defender Rochelle Willis' foul at midfield, the Elis played a ball just up the center of the field towards the Princeton net. The pass rolled untouched into the box. Princeton's senior keeper Catherine Glenn ran up to the top of the box to save the rolling ball, but was beaten to the ball by Yale's Elizabeth Jarchow, who tipped the ball past Glenn to give Yale a 1-0 lead with just a minute to play in the first.

"Getting scored right before the half was the worst time to get scored on," senior captain Linley Gober said. "It really hurt our morale. It was tough to keep focused during the half."

If the Tigers came out in the first half flat, though, they emerged in the second fiery, with speed and intensity. Like the first half, Princeton controlled the ball throughout the second 45 minutes of the game, but this time the Tigers were also able to test Yale's keeper.

Gober's corner kick 10 minutes into the half was the first of these tests. The pass found the head of defender Janine Willis, whose direction of the ball towards the top right corner of the net seemed destined to knot the game at one. However, Sabel caught the shot just before it entered the net, one of her finest saves of the night, to preserve the lead.

The Tigers continued to pressure. With 16 minutes to go in the game, senior midfielder Liz Patrick played a well-placed lead ball to streaking junior forward Krista Ariss. Ariss fired a quick shot from the left of the box, but Sabel came up once again with a big save, knocking the ball out of bounds. On the ensuing corner kick — a place from which the Tigers have scored directly three times this season — the ball floated through the Yale box and emerged, untouched, on the other side, rolling out of bounds.

It was just this kind of game for the Tigers. Despite being able to dominate Yale, control the ball, and create good scoring opportunities, it just wasn't Princeton's night.

"I don't think it was their defense and goalie," Gober said in reference to the Tigers' being shutout. "We just weren't capitalizing on our chances."

Given the pressure Princeton was applying it seemed as if a few more minutes would have seen the Tigers put one past Sable. But when the 90th minute ticked away, the score was still 1-0, and the Tigers had lost.

Much credit must be given to Sabel, who is second in the Ivy League in goals against average. The Yale junior proved why she ranks among the league's elite — attacked with cross after cross, Sabel gobbled up the passes and made a number of diving saves to preserve Yale's lead.

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In what proved to be the highlight of the evening for the Princeton faithful, the Tigers' four senior players — midfielders Gober, Jess Collins, and Patrick, and Glenn — were honored by their teammates and coaches before the start of the game.

The loss — the Tigers' first Ivy League loss of the season, dealt by a team that won just two Ivy League games this season — drops the Tigers league record to 5-1-1, giving them a share of the Ivy League title. Though the Tigers will gain a berth to the NCAA tournament by virtue of a tiebreaker, the three-way draw atop the standings is one which Princeton had hoped to avoid.