Athlete of the Week -- Esmeralda Negron

Women's soccer closed out its regular season last Saturday after a 4-1 trouncing of Penn in which senior forward Esmeralda Negron earned a hat trick and an assist during the game — all in the first half. Only one other player in Princeton women's soccer history has had three goals in a game. Negron has done it twice this season.

Also this season, Negron broke four school records, tied another and helped lead her team to setting three more. Negron ended the regular season setting records with 17 goals for the season, 43 points for the season, 103 career points and 43 career goals. She also tied the season assist record with nine.

Her career goals tally also surpasses the men's record. The Penn game brought her out of a tie with Linda DeBoer '85 and Steven Davidson '69, both of whom had 41 career goals. The 2004 women's team has set the mark for most wins in a season (15), most consecutive home wins (14) and an unprecedented 7-0 record in the Ivy League. While no Princeton team has ever had a perfect league season, only three other Ivy League teams have ever matched this feat. It propeled the Tigers into their sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance and handed them their fourth Ivy title in five years. Prior to 2001, Princeton had only won the Ivy championship once.

Negron was last year's Ivy League Player of the Year and has been named Ivy League Player of the Week every year that she has played and twice this season.

Negron participated in the United State Under-21 national team that won the Under-21 World Championship in Iceland over the summer.