Unenthusiastic history students are often reminded by their teachers of Santayana's oft-quoted maxim that those who don't know their history are condemned to repeat it.
The women's soccer team probably enjoys studying its recent, successful history. But in this case, being condemned to repeat the past probably would not be such a bad thing for the Tigers. Princeton has defeated Ivy rival Dartmouth three years in a row, and is hoping to do it again tomorrow when the Big Green comes to Lourie-Love Field.
In fact, the Tigers have started off their season in much the same way as they started off the last three seasons — by winning their first three games.
History doesn't just repeat itself on its own, though, and ensuring that this trend continues will require hard work on Princeton's part. The Dartmouth game is arguably the Tigers' steepest challenge yet this season, and one of the most important games in the Tigers' quest for an outright Ivy title.
Dartmouth, along with Penn, shared the title with Princeton last year. The Big Green then went the furthest of any Ivy team in the NCAA tournament — losing in the Round of 16 to eventual champion Santa Clara.
This year, the Tigers have gotten off to a better start than the Big Green. After defeating Lehigh Wednesday the Tigers improved to 3-0 on the season, while the Big Green are 1-2-1.
Dartmouth hosted Iowa in its season opener and lost 3-1, which is ironic since Iowa had scheduled the Big Green as a challenging non-conference opponent. Dartmouth defeated New Hampshire 2-1 two days later, then traveled south to the University of Virginia Tournament, where the Big Green played the University of Richmond to a scoreless tie and then fell to No. 16 Virginia 3-1.
Despite Dartmouth's rough start, however, tomorrow's game will not be an easy battle for No. 23 Princeton. In last year's matchup between the two rivals, the momentum shifted back and forth between the two teams until a goal by then-freshman Kristina Fontanez in the 71st minute secured a 1-0 victory for the Tigers. This year's game could go much the same way, as the two teams facing each other tomorrow are largely the same teams that met a year ago.
Like Princeton, Dartmouth returns most of the players responsible for its successes in 2001, including senior midfielder Mary McVeigh — a unanimous all-Ivy selection last year, who recently moved to the Top 10 on Dartmouth's all-time scoring list.
Although both teams return most of last year's players, there is one key difference between them. Where most of Dartmouth's top returning players are seniors, Princeton is a younger team, with its share of upperclass standouts but also a strong corps of sophomores and freshmen.
The Tigers' new recruits — ranked the No. 16 recruiting class in the nation by SoccerBuzz magazine — have already begun to make an impact. Midfielder Maura Gallagher, named Ivy League Rookie of the Week Monday in the first week of Ivy play, assisted senior forward Krista Ariss on the game-winner in the Tigers' season opener against Seton Hall, and netted a goal off of a corner kick in the second half of the Yale game to break a scoreless tie.
Whether the young Tigers or the veteran Big Green comes out on top, this game has important ramifications in this year's Ivy race.
Although the Tigers are hoping to secure the Ivy title outright this year, if they do have to share, it could very well be with Dartmouth, for a third straight year.
In that case, it would be optimal for the Tigers if they had beaten the Big Green, because they would then get the automatic NCAA tournament bid — though this would not be absolutely essential, since the other team would still most likely receive an at-large bid.
At any rate, Princeton is not going into this game unaware of the challenge that Dartmouth poses.
"It's a huge game for us," head coach Julie Shackford said. "Dartmouth is big and strong and athletic. They've played some tough teams. It's going to be tough."
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