Football, w. soccer keep perfect Ivy marks with wins over Brown

The women's soccer team must really hate losing, because so far it has avoided it like the plague. Or maybe Princeton just loves winning.

The Tigers defeated Brown 2-1 on Saturday, improving their already impeccable record to 12-0-0 overall, 5-0-0 in the Ivy League. Prince-ton is the only undefeated and untied team in Division I women's soccer.

The Tigers were actually behind the Bears for nearly 65 minutes of Saturday's game. Brown took an early lead when it executed a quick counter on Princeton in the seventh minute.

Princeton head coach Julie Shackford did not see this as a bad thing, however. Prior to Saturday's game, the Tigers had trailed fewer than three minutes in the entire season.

"It was good for us to be behind, to see how we'd react," Shackford said.

The Tigers reacted with the intensity and determination that are defining traits of any team that hates the thought of losing as much as Princeton does.

Uncomfortable trailing 1-0 at the start of the second half, the Tigers came out with an urgency to score that could be seen in the way they began to utilize their superior talent in the second half, something they did not do as much in the first.

In particular, freshman midfielder Maija Garnaas immediately elevated the intensity level of her team when she entered the game at the 66 minutes, 26 seconds mark.

It took no more than three minutes for Garnaas to start the play that would equalize the score. She pushed the ball ahead to fellow freshman midfielder Emily Behncke. Garnaas then pursued the ball as it rolled toward the sideline and fed a pass to Behncke, who scored on a handsome left-footed shot at 69:23, bringing the score to 1-1.

"We were getting frustrated," Behncke said. "Coach Shackford told us to stay with it. We were getting our chances."

Behncke's goal was the freshman's fifth of the season.

Thirteen minutes later, sophomore forward Esmeralda Negron dashed the Bears' hopes that they might come away from Lourie-Love Field with a victory against the undefeated Tigers, or at least a tie.

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With about ten minutes remaining in the game, senior defender/midfielder Kelly Sosa pounced on a loose ball in the box and dropped it back to junior midfielder Elizabeth Bell. Bell then sent a low drive to Negron, who redirected the ball into the net, breaking the 1-1 stalemate and clinching the win for the Tigers.

It was not the first time this season that Negron demonstrated intensity under the pressure of a tied score. In no fewer than five games — including the last three — Negron has scored the game-winning goal for Princeton.

She currently holds the team-best number of goals, with eight.

"It wasn't pretty," the sophomore said of her goal. "Someone passed the ball out and someone else kicked it, and it hit off me and went in."

"I think I just have a knack for being at the right place when the game is on the line," she said. "I score a lot of game winners because the pressure and the competitiveness of the game have always made me play better. I thrive on the competition and wining in those tight games. I get excited and pick up my game especially in those moments."

Even though Brown played very aggressively and led for the majority of Saturday's game, the Tigers were the dominant team. They allowed the Bears to take only three shots on goal, while taking 18 themselves.

Brown's goal in the first half was one of the few times the Bears actually made it to Princeton's side of the field.

Meanwhile, Princeton, the only Ivy team without a loss or a tie, can clinch the league title with a win in either of its two remaining Ivy games.

Princeton's first opportunity for that title will be next Saturday at home against Harvard. The Crimson most recently lost to Yale, 3-2, on Saturday, dropping to 6-5-1 overall and 2-1-1 in the Ivy League.

If by chance the Tigers decide they want to see what losing is like against Harvard, their second shot at the title will be Nov. 2 at Cornell. Like the Crimson, the Big Red lost their most recent Ivy League contest, falling to Dartmouth in a tight 1-0 game. Cornell will face Wagner, Brown and Syracuse before they meet the Tigers — who will be either confident with their Ivy League title or ravenous for it.