Women's soccer takes on Elis with league title on the line

It's pretty much a done deal for the women's soccer team. Atop the Ivy League with a 5-0-1 record, the team has already clinched at least a share of the Ivy championship and will receive, by virtue of a tiebreaker, the League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. With a win against Yale (6-8-2 overall, 1-3-2 Ivy League) tomorrow night, this year's women's soccer team will be the first in Princeton history to finish with an undefeated league record and to win the Ivy League outright.

"This weekend we're going to be looking to leave the league with no doubt that we deserve the Ivy title," senior captain Linley Gober said. "After sharing the title with Dartmouth last year I don't think that any one of us is going to be satisfied with less than winning it outright."

The Elis, though they have won just one game in the Ivy League and sit near the cellar in seventh place, could stand as a viable threat to Tiger glory — depending on which team the Elis decide to put on the field Saturday night.

Against top-ten ranked Connecticut and Notre Dame, Yale was at the top of its game. Though the Elis lost to UConn, 2-1, and to Notre Dame, 2-0, they still posed serious challenges; to two of the country's strongest teams, remaining in contention throughout.

The fighting bulldog has been elsewhere in Yale's Ivy League matches, however. Although it exploded for five goals in the win against Brown last week, the offense has been rather non-existent in its remaining conference games, scoring one goal in the five other contests.

The key for the Tigers to keep the Elis from producing will be in stopping one player. The Elis feature the Ivy League's top scorer, Ali Cobbett, whose 12 goals and two assists also place her second in points in the league. Against Brown, the junior midfielder notched her second hat trick of the season and her fourth multi-goal game of the year.

Furthermore, despite its medi-ocre record. Yale has done a good job this season of keeping opponents off the scoreboard. Though the Elis posted dismal offensive performances in their Ivy League matches, the defense has kept the team in the game, surrendering just five goals in six games. Yale's goaltender Lindsay Sabel has the second lowest goals-against average in the league. Her 0.54 goals-against average is behind only Princeton's Catherine Glenn, who boasts an impressive 0.47.

"We're going out to win this one," head coach Julie Shackford said. "Knowing what's at stake, we're not going to change very much."

The match is particularly significant for the Tigers, not only because of what a victory might mean to the program but also because the game possibly marks the end of a stellar career at Lourie-Love field for the team's four seniors - Gober, Glenn, midfielder Jess Collins, and defender Liz Patrick.

"All four of the seniors have won the respect of the rest of the team," Shackford said. "None have been consistent starters in their four years, but they understand their roles."

According to Shackford, these "Dark Horses" - the name given to the seniors by their teammates because they weren't a highly-touted recruiting class - might be "the most successful senior class we've ever had."

The leaders of women's soccer's most successful season ever, the senior class - and the whole Tiger team for that matter - still admit that they haven't reached their ultimate goal - getting past the first round of the NCAA tournament. After the Yale game, the team will set its sights on that target.

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"We've accomplished so much already this season and we don't want to have any regrets when it's all over," Gober said.

The team won't know who they play - and whether the seniors will get another chance to play at home - until Monday afternoon, when the NCAA has its Tourney draw.