W. soccer draws no blood in tie with Scarlet Knights

When the fall season is over, the women's soccer team will look back on last night's game as one that got away.

The Tigers (6-1-2 overall, 1-1 Ivy League), despite being outplayed much of the match, went into the locker room with a 2-0 halftime lead. But in a highly emotional and intensely physical contest, Princeton could not hold off a fierce second half charge from host Rutgers, as the Scarlet Knights (7-3-3) battled back for a 2-2 tie.

On a blisteringly chilly night, and just two days removed from the team's first loss of the season to Dartmouth, head coach Julie Shackford asked her squad to come out strong from the opening whistle. They did play hard, but failed to generate any real offensive chances.

After the first few sequences, Rutgers controlled play and possession for the opening 25 minutes of the game.

"I think the beginning of the game was a feeling out period," Shackford said. "I actually thought we played pretty well in the first half, it was the second half when I got nervous."

The play in the first half was physical, but the referee let it go for the most part. After a few sloppy sequences and some careless turnovers, junior midfielder Elizabeth Pillion found herself with the ball on the right flank with less than five minutes to play.

Junior defender Rochelle Willis overlapped Pillion on the outside, and Pillion led her up the line. Willis, with a defender on her hip, took a couple dribbles and centered the ball, leaving the crowd unsure of whether it was a shot or a cross.

"It was definitely a shot," Willis would later say.

It was a good one. Rutgers' keeper Robyn Jones was out of position on the near post and Willis' shot sailed into the back corner of the net. Less than two minutes later, Princeton struck again. Freshman forward Meghan Farrell found sophomore midfielder Emily Behncke all alone 20 yards from the net. Behncke set and fired, squeezing the ball between Jones and the right post.

The 2-0 lead was fortunate to say the least, but it was a lead nonetheless.

"It certainly wasn't comfortable," Shackford said. "A 2-0 lead is never comfortable. But I thought if we could keep possession we would be all right. But Rutgers is a legitimate team. They play a Big East schedule and that's a tough conference."

That toughness came out in the second half. So did Scarlet Knight junior Carli Lloyd. Lloyd, a midfielder, and a gifted one at that, came into the game with eight goals in Rutgers' first twelve games.

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In the 55th minute, she lined up for a free kick just outside the penalty box. Her shot, a bender, soared over the Tigers' four-man wall and found the back of the net.

As the game went on, the night got colder, and play turned from rough to rougher.

"It's always an intense match-up with Rutgers," junior defender and co-captain Brea Griffiths said. "There was a lot of stuff going on behind the referees' backs. When you're up against one girl the whole game, you make sure you will do anything to win the ball."

With ten minutes left in the game, the crowd became restless and tempers flared.

Rutgers got another free kick and sent the ball in. After the ball was cleared, it again came to Lloyd's feet 35 yards out. She hit a perfect ball that just got over sophomore keeper Emily Vogelzang's outstretched arm. Both Rutgers' goals came on set pieces.

"Set pieces are things that you mature with," Shackford said, "and we still have a lot of young players out there."

Princeton dominated most of both overtime periods, but the team was unable to find the back of the net. Sophomore defender Romy Trigg-Smith did her part to preserve the tie, breaking up two potential scoring chances for Rutgers.

"We need to become more aggressive when we have the lead," senior midfielder and co-caption Liz Bell said. "We're sitting back and holding on too much."

After the game, emotions were still high, especially for the seniors.

"Rutgers is our big rival in New Jersey, and we play for the unofficial Jersey Cup," Bell said. "We still remember that they beat us in the NCAAs. It was just a really emotional game."