Stifling defense equals winning formula for women's soccer

Your defense must be airtight when you're 18-0 when scoring a goal. The Tigers (18-2) advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals with their 12th shutout of the season — a 2-0 win over Boston College (15-7-1) Saturday night in front of 1,822 fans at Lourie-Love Field.

Although the 1982 women's soccer team did make it to the quarterfinal round, the tournament was only a 12-team affair that year. Now, the NCAA tournament has 64 teams in the field. So in terms of wins, this Tiger soccer team is the most successful in program history. No. 7 Princeton will next face No. 15 Washington (17-4-1) in the quarterfinal round at home next weekend.

The stats are astounding. Princeton has won all three of its tournament games via the shutout. It has outscored its opponents 8-0 and outshot them by a staggering 71-9 margin. Each of its opponents got off just three shots in the respective games.

"We have one of the best, if not the best, defenses in the country," junior goalkeeper Madeleine Jackson said. "And because of that, [the other teams] haven't had a lot of legitimate shooting chances."

Most of the season, the Tigers have stuck with a 4-4-2 formation with seniors Elizabeth Pillion and Brea Griffiths, junior Romy Trigg-Smith and sophomore Christina Costantino as defenders holding a flat line.

In the last three games, however, Princeton switched to just three defenders holding the line with Pillion serving as a floating back to mark the strongest forward on the other team. During Saturday's game, however, the Tigers changed back to their customary formation.

"The second half, we switched it around to the regular four backs," Jackson said. "We started with Pillion marking [Boston College forward] Kia McNeill, and [McNeill] was good but changing it allowed us to get an organized attack going. We thought that was more important."

McNeill is a fearsome attacker. She leads Boston College in shots (72) and goals (10) for the season, respectively. Five of her goals were game-winners. On Saturday, McNeill was limited to just one shot, but it was the only shot on goal for the Eagles and their best chance at scoring. She beat her man up the left side and took on Jackson one-on-one, only to have Jackson knock it away before she could get a shot off. In the three tournament games, Princeton has only had to make two saves while forcing its opponents to make 26.

Princeton has had both Jackson and junior keeper Emily Vogelzang in goal during the tournament. Jackson made no saves against Central Connecticut but had one in Saturday's game against the Eagles. Vogelzang made one in the Villanova game.

The Tigers have contained their opponents' offensive power with four of the most skillful defenders in the country working together like clockwork and preventing their opponents from taking any clean shots on goal.

In the midfield, the Tigers have been content as of late with seniors Kristina Fontanez and Janine Willis, junior Maura Gallagher and sophomore Diana Matheson. Fontanez and Willis have speed that is fatal to their opponents' ability to move up the sides of the field. Gallagher came through in a clutch moment against Villanova, scoring the game-winner off a corner kick. Matheson has one of the Tigers' heaviest foots and has serves as a key component in moving the ball cross-field from the center.

The Tigers have two spectacular forwards in senior Esmeralda Negron and junior Emily Behncke. Negron's accolades are well-known to anyone who has picked up a newspaper in the past month, and Behncke scored both goals one minute, 34 seconds apart in the win over Boston College. But Princeton's biggest threat is the versatility and depth of its lineup.

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Head coach Julie Shackford utilizes the strength of her bench and liberally substitutes with seniors Rochelle Willis and Catherine Byrd, junior Maija Garnaas, and sophomore Meghan Farrell, to name a few.

During the Villanova game, the Wildcats made the mistake of watching only one of the Tigers' players: Negron. The result was a goal by Gallagher after Princeton outshot Villanova, 24-3, in a one-sided match.

Boston College did not make this mistake of focusing solely on Negron, but still struggled to guard the Tigers. Nine different players pelted away unchecked at Boston's keeper during the game. Negron never seemed to have anyone marking her. Several times, Negron would simply run with the ball looking for an opening to put one away with two Eagle defenders trailing behind her trying to keep up. In the first half, Negron cut to the left so fast, her defender fell trying to catch up.

Boston College was limited to three shots. McNeill's came four minutes before Behncke's first goal and served as a wakeup call for the Tigers to get focused.

"They broke down a little bit in the second half," Princeton head coach Julie Shackford said. "They were a little fatigued. We regrouped for the second half."

The Tigers recognize that their opponents are worthy of respect. Rather than play to the other teams' weaknesses, the Tigers play to their own strengths. Their defense has proven inpenetrable and their offense unrelenting.

"We have a great team," Jackson said. "I'm assuming that Washington is going to be good, but we're a skillful enough team that we shouldn't have to adjust to the other teams."