Matheson's return sparks rout

At the 13-minute, five-second mark in the first half of the women's soccer game against Lehigh, junior captain Diana Matheson sat on the field with her legs extended in front of her, collecting herself for what was to come. Moments before, a defender tripped Matheson in the penalty box to earn Princeton a penalty kick — a valuable scoring opportunity.

With the poise expected from a team's star and captain, Matheson calmly rocketed a shot into the back of the net to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

The Orange and Black never looked back.

Princeton opened the game up with a four-goal second half to cruise to a 5-0 win over the Mountain Hawks under the lights last night at Lourie-Love Field.

Though the match was high scoring for the Tigers, sloppy play marked the remainder of the first half following Matheson's penalty shot. Passes were not crisp, touches were not sure and Matheson's teammates spent as much time watching her as did the fans.

After a rousing halftime speech from head coach Julie Shackford, however, a different Tiger team stepped onto the field.

"[The speech] wasn't anything magic," Shackford said. "[The first half] was definitely sloppy and it was one of those 'Do you get angry or stay focused?' moments and we decided to stay focused."

The more focused approach paid off, with sophomore midfielder Aarti Jain scoring just 2:47 into the half. Assisted by sophomore forward Allison Williams, Jain corralled a pass in front of a crowded goal and skillfully knocked it past Mountain Hawks goalkeeper Julie Kafka.

From the combination of new substitutes, moving a defender forward and the increased confidence from Jain's goal, the floodgates opened for Princeton.

"We forced their hand a little bit," Shackford said.

The Tigers dominated play for the next 15 minutes, frustrating Lehigh's players with quick combinations and through balls to forwards, creating a multitude of crosses and opportunities.

In the 65th minute, Princeton finally converted when senior forward Amanda Ferranti found sophomore forward Sarah Peteraf directly in front of the goal with a defender on her back.

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Putting on a spin move, Peteraf lost her defender and pounded a shot straight past Kafka for her first goal of the season.

After another 15 minutes of Tiger domination over the Mountian Hawks, it was freshman forward Vicki Anagnostopoulos' turn to break through Lehigh's defense and score Princeton's fourth goal of the night.

Senior forward Meghan Farrell threaded a pass through the Lehigh defense, allowing Anagnostopoulos to break forward for a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Completely in control, the freshman pushed the ball to her outside, around a diving Kafka and tapped it into the back of the net.

Two minutes later, Jain put away an unassisted goal during a post corner-kick scramble for her second goal of the night.

Though a win is always appreciated, this win was an extremely important one for Princeton. After being shut out in both games over the weekend, losing one and tying the other, the Tigers were looking not just for a win, but for goals as well, as their next match is against Ivy rival Yale.

"We needed this one," Matheson said. "Especially going into this weekend. It's going to be a tough game, but we're going in to win."

Princeton heads to New Haven, Conn., to take on Yale in their first conference game Saturday. The teams are the two typically competing for the Ivy title at the end of the season, giving the game extra importance.