This Sunday at high noon, the women's soccer team plays Dartmouth in Hanover, N. H. Both teams enter the match with a 1-0 record in the Ivy League, thus both teams have the same goal: stay on their perch atop the league standings.
This goal, however, is where most of the similarity ends. Princeton is competing to hold onto its undefeated status overall, while the Big Green are trying to fight back from an early season losing streak. Dartmouth had five straight loses in September.
Still, head coach Julie Shackford is not taking the Big Green lightly.
"Dartmouth is a very good team and they had a great schedule early on," Shackford noted.
Three of the losses were against nationally ranked squads. And, in the past week, their status has improved.
Wins over New Hampshire (3-1) and Brown (3-1) show that the Big Green have the potential to have a mid-season comeback in the league and overall.
Another difference between the two teams is that Princeton is taking aim for a win against Dartmouth for the fifth-straight year while Dartmouth is attempting to prove itself as something other than ripe Tiger meat.
"No one on this current team has ever lost to Dartmouth," senior midfielder and co-captain Elizabeth Bell said.
Of course, that means that the Big Green are a team with a lot of hunger and a lot of vengeance on its mind.
Tiger dominance
But there is a catch. While the Tigers have won every game against Dartmouth the last four years, they ultimately shared the Ivy League title with that same Dartmouth squad in 2000 and 2001.
Last year Princeton housed the Ivy League trophy for the full year for the first time since 1982. Yet the memory of having to share the title even after the in-season wins each year still lingers with the upperclassmen.
"We weren't happy with sharing the Ivy League title because it was essentially tying without the technical stuff," senior forward Theresa Sherry said. "Sharing the title those two years meant that we did not defeat all of our Ivy League opponents during the season.
"We want to have 'W's in the columns for all six of those games."
A similarity between both teams is that they boast standout forwards.
"[Forward] Lea Kiefer is a senior who has been really dangerous the last couple of games," Shackford said.
This week Kiefer was named Ivy League Player of the Week after Dartmouth's successful matches against New Hampshire and Brown. Kiefer scored four goals including two game-winners. She is leading the team in scoring with a total of five goals.
Princeton junior forward Esmeralda Negron leads the team in scoring for the season. More notably, Negron has scored in all seven games this season — however her total tally on the season is eight since she scored twice in one of the contests.
Supporting Negron are center midfielders sophomore Emily Behncke, Bell and Sherry. All three of these players, like Negron, return to positions familiar to them. Sherry and Bell have vast game experience in their combined eight years in the Princeton program, while Behncke shows surprising composure for a player her age.
To be fair, Behncke also started last year as a freshman, which has given her an advantage over most other sophomores around the country. But the sophomore sensation has taken advantage of the opportunity, putting up the numbers of a grizzled veteran.
Holes in the midfield
Behind Kiefer, the situation is different. Dartmouth's star midfielder, Mary McVeigh, graduated last year, leaving a question mark as to who will fill the void in the middle of the field this year.
Despite what appears to be Princeton's strong advantage coming into this game, Shackford remains true to her plan for the season in regards to this game. The team must focus on defending well.
"We will focus on defending for 90 minutes without lapses and playing aggressively on the attack," Shackford said.
While the Tigers know that they dominated in the past, they must focus on the task at hand to continue the tradition.
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