Bend it Like Behncke

When Villanova and Vanderbilt showed up on the women's soccer's team's schedule, the only 'V' Princeton could think about was victory.

After defeating Villanova on Friday in Philadelphia, 1-0, the Tigers set their claws on Vanderbilt in a 3-0 route starring junior forward Emily Behncke.

"They were coming into the game 0-3, so they had nothing to lose," head coach Julie Shackford said. "They sat back on us, so that made it easy."

Their aggression brought results quickly. Less than 20 minutes into the game, Behncke corralled a deep pass from senior midfielder Kristina Fontanez on a breakaway. She tore down the pitch, beat the goalie, Nicole Reed, and dumped the ball into the net to take the early 1-0 lead.

"I feel like they [Vanderbilt] came out really flat," Behncke said.

The Tigers wouldn't rest, though, and continued feverishly pushing the ball, leaving junior goalie Emily Vogelzang with little to do but twiddle her thumbs.

With 6:42 left in the first half, Behncke made another individual performance to push her team closer to victory.

Freshman midfielder Diana Matheson lofted the ball ahead to Behncke. The last defender back dove to try to intercept the pass and missed. Behncke took the ball on the run with nothing between her and the net but the Commodore goalie.

Behncke drove to her right, then cut back, leaving Reed with no option but to flail at the ball. Behncke's shot rolled agonizingly slowly toward the net, where a Vanderbilt defender could only tip the ball with her foot before it found the back of the net.

"Usually on those plays, I try to deke the keeper and hopefully have a nice easy shot into the goal," Behncke said.

Superstar senior forward Esmeralda Negron added a beautiful header with 41:22 left in the second half to add the insurance goal that made the score 3-0.

With the win over Villanova (4-1) on Friday, the Tigers made a statement — beating a team who participated in the NCAA tournament a year ago — the team that had knocked them out of the same tournament.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

For Shackford, the game had added incentive as she became just the fifth coach in the Ivy League to win 100 games and the first woman to do so.

"It's nice to say you've reached a milestone, but I think it's more about the players I've had here," said Shackford. "I've had some wonderful kids in this program, and this is something that belongs to all of them and to [assistant coach] Ron Celestin as much as it does to me."

Matheson, a member of the Canadian national team, scored Princeton's only goal with 20:23 elapsed in the second half. The goal, a slow roller from the left side came courtesy of an assist from junior midfielder Maura Gallagher.

Not to be outdone, the Tiger defense turned in another marvelous performance. Junior goalkeeper Madeleine Jackson recorded four saves en route to a shutout of the Wildcats. After the finish of Friday's game, the Tiger's defense had yielded only one goal in 180 minutes of play. Sunday's game against Vanderbilt extended that to one goal allowed in 270 minutes.

"[Defense] has been the bread and butter for this team for the last five or six years," Shackford said.

Princeton played both games without senior defender Rochelle Willis, a first-team All-Ivy League and Regional All-America player. Twin sister Janine Willis, made her return to the field playing sparingly in both games.

"It's been tough without them," said senior Elizabeth Pillion." "They're such strong presences. They've been great for us when they've been on the sideline coaching us, but we miss them. We're off to a good start, and it'll be great to get them back out there. Hopefully we can keep pushing ourselves and build off of this."