Women's soccer did everything it needed to do over Fall Break, but its efforts just weren't enough. Playing the last three games of the regular season against league opponents, Princeton (8-6-2 overall, 5-2-0 Ivy League) ran the table but saw its luck ran out as Yale held on to first place, foiling the Tigers' late-season run at a repeat Ivy League title.
Though the wins over Cornell, Columbia and Penn put Princeton's record above .500 for the first time this year and extended its winning streak to five games, without the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for winning the title, the Tigers' season may be over. Hope still remains in the form of an at-large bid, however.
Princeton began the week in fine form, hosting Cornell (3-9-2 overall, 2-4-0 Ivy League) on Saturday, Oct. 29 at Lourie-Love Field. The Big Red, which eventually finished the season in sole possession of last place in the Ivy League, proved to be no match for the Tigers, who were led by a three-goal performance from senior forward Emily Behncke.
The scoring started early, when an assist from sophomore midfielder Diana Matheson found Behncke open in front of the Cornell goal just under nine minutes into the game. The Orange and Black outshot the Big Red 15-2 in the first half, but the Tigers were just getting warmed up.
In the second half, Matheson added a goal of her own on a penalty kick after a foul to senior forward Maura Gallagher in the 64th minute. Several minutes later, Behncke went on a tear and scored two unassisted goals 1:19 apart, bringing the Tiger lead to four. Cornell's Caitlin Oliver would score with 15 minutes left in the game, but it was too little, too late. Princeton walked away a 4-1 win, the Tigers' biggest margin of victory in league play all season.
Scraping past the Lions
Three days later, Princeton took to its home field again for the rescheduled makeup game against Columbia (3-10-1, 0-4-0). The Lions proved to be a tougher foe than Cornell, but the Tigers scraped out a 2-1 win to keep their title hopes alive for a few more days.
With Princeton seizing possession right from the whistle, sophomore midfielder Ashley Beyers scored the first goal of her career to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead just two minutes into the game. The assist came from Matheson, who crossed the ball from the left side to find an open Beyers close to the net.
Columbia responded with a goal at 23:25 from Courtney Nasshorn, assisted by Jana Whiting. Thanks to strong efforts from senior defensive leader Romy Trigg-Smith and senior goalie Emily Vogelzang, however, that would be all that the Lions would get despite quite a few other close calls.
The winning goal for Princeton again came from Behcnke, the team's leading scorer. At 54:17, freshman forward Aarti Jain found the team captain on a pass to the middle, and Behncke hammered it home for her 13th goal of the season. The Tigers held off the tenacious Lions for 35 more minutes of tough soccer, giving themselves a winning record of 7-6-2, as well as a shot at the title.
Into the meeting house
The day after the Columbia game, then second-place Yale beat then first-place Dartmouth, setting up a weekend of games that would determine the eventual league champion. In order to win the title, Princeton needed to win both its game against Penn and to have Brown beat Yale. It was a virtual free-for-all, and nobody wanted to let go first.
Saturday's game against Penn (9-5-1, 2-3-1) was another hard-fought battle, as Princeton traveled to Philadelphia to take on the Quakers on their own meeting house. The Tigers emerged with a 3-2 win, but their joy was soon tempered by the news of Yale's victory.
After two games in which the Tigers took the lead early on, Penn turned the tables with a goal by Rachel Fletcher, assisted by Jennifer Price, just 5:17 into the first half. Princeton answered when Trigg-Smith, the defender, came all the way up the field to score on a corner-kick header at 29:32, evening the score and turning the game around for the Tigers.
Princeton came out strong in the second half, with a goal by Behncke off an assist by Beyers, just over six minutes after the break. It was Behncke's 14th goal of the season, the second-highest total ever record in a season, exceeded only by Esmeralda Negron '05's remarkable 20-goal season last year.
The Tigers added to their lead at 72:00, when Matheson set up Jain for a shot that gave Princeton a 3-1 lead. Penn's Carolyn Cross would score two minutes later, but the Tiger defense drew the proverbial line in the sand and shut out the Quakers for the rest of the game.
Vogelzang played all 90 minutes of the game in goal, finishing with five saves. The senior played every minute of the last five games of the year, after sharing time with two teammates for most of the year. Vogelzang finished the regular season having allowed an average of 0.93 goals per game and has a .778 save percentage.
Victory not enough
With Yale's win, the Tigers do not get an automatic bid, but their season isn't necessarily over — there are still at-large bids available. The Tigers will surely be watching ESPNNews at 5:00 p.m. today, when the NCAA selection committee announces its picks for the 64-team field.
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