Matheson best in Ivies all four years

The women opened the season with a 0-4-1 record, with two of the games going into double overtime. All but one of those losses were by one goal. After a Fall Break trip to a tournament at Notre Dame, however, the Tigers (8-8-1 overall, 4-3-0 Ivy League) went on a seven-game winning streak.

In the middle of this run, the team welcomed back star senior midfielder Diana Matheson and defeated Rutgers 5-1 on national television in her second game back.

“It was a rough start,” Shackford said. “Once Diana got back, we got on a good run, [and] we had a chance to win the league. We put ourselves in position to win.”

Matheson, a member of the Beijing-bound Canadian national team, missed the first seven games because she was competing for Canada in the Women’s World Cup. In only 10 games with Princeton, she scored a team-high six goals and seven assists.

“Having someone who can play at that level is something we are going to sorely miss,” Shackford said. “I think she ties things together for us on the field, and people looked to her to make things happen.”

Unfortunately for the Tigers, Matheson’s added boost proved to be too little, too late. A 1-0 overtime loss at Penn on Nov. 3, effectively eliminated Princeton’s chance at an Ivy title.

Matheson, who has been an All-Ivy first-team selection for four straight years, was named the 2007 Ivy League Player of the Year. She ended her career at Princeton with 26 goals and 26 assists, making her the only men’s or women’s soccer player in history to end with more than 20 goals and 20 assists.

In addition, a pair of defenders was named to the All-Ivy second team, as senior Melissa Whitley and junior Taylor Numann were recognized for their crucial support in the backfield.

The women will lose five graduating seniors: Matheson, Whitley, midfielder Ashley Beyers, midfielder Regina Yang and goalkeeper Maren Dale.

The 2008 squad will welcome five new freshmen to the roster, and captains junior Jen Om, junior Lisa Chinn and sophomore Melissa Seitz will lead the team.

Men recover from early-season struggles

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The men began the season with six losses and disappointment similar to the women’s. Princeton (5-10-2, 3-4-0) never lost faith, however, and fought back to put itself in the middle of Ivy competition. The Tigers never lost a game by more than two goals and ended with a winning home record.

“After having a really disappointing start to the season in the first six games, pretty much [everything] that could go wrong did go wrong_ , we bounced back well,” head coach Jim Barlow ’91 said. “We finished fourth in the league, and the three teams that finished ahead of us [Brown, Harvard, Dartmouth] received berths in the NCAA tournament.”

The men, like the women, began their upswing after Fall Break. The Tigers dropped two decisions at the Stanford tournament but returned to Princeton Stadium to tie Monmouth 0-0 and defeat Fairleigh Dickinson 2-0 for their first victory.

Princeton opened its Ivy schedule with a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to Brown, who finished the season atop the standings and undefeated in the league. The Tigers, however, bounced back with a 2-0 decision over Columbia.

In its next game, Princeton was leading Harvard 2-1 with just over 15 minutes left on the clock when the Crimson roared back with a cross into the goal. Five minutes later, the game slipped through the Tigers’ hands as Harvard scored again to secure a 3-2 victory.

Princeton strung together two more wins against Cornell and Penn but lost its momentum with a hard-fought 2-0 loss to Yale at home.

Their efforts did not go unrecognized in the postseason. Senior co-captain and forward Kyle McHugh, _ who led the team with seven goals, _ was named to the All-Ivy first team as one of three unanimous selections.

Aditionally, sophomore midfielder Devin Muntz and junior midfielder Matt Care garnered All-Ivy honorable mentions.

The Tigers will lose eight seniors this year: McHugh, defenders Matt Kontos, Dan Cummins, and midfielders Ted Wolfson, Victor Nuskov, Mike Jester, Robbie Morganroth and David Metcalf.

“The senior class will be missed,” Barlow said. “A bunch of those guys contributed this year in positive ways both on the field and off the field. Both of our captains, Kyle [McHugh] and Matt [Kontos], provided such good leadership when things weren’t going well … We’re going to miss that whole class, but at the same time I think they’ve left some good lessons for the younger classes.”

These younger classes will inaugurate the new Roberts Soccer Stadium currently under construction. The new stadium — slated for completion by the fall’s first home game — will have a concourse, concession stand, team room and showers, a press box and seating for 3,000 people.

As the men’s and women’s soccer teams build on the tough lessons learned through their ups and downs in 2007, this new stadium could provide an extra spark for next fall.