Olympian leaves large shoes to fill

The women’s soccer team (1-1 overall) faces this daunting task this fall as it attempts to replace graduated midfielder Diana Matheson ’08, who spent the past summer playing in the Olympics for the Canadian national team.

It is a challenge the Tigers are well prepared to undertake.

“Losing a player and person like Diana is a challenge for everyone [because of what] someone of her caliber brings to the game,” senior defender Taylor Numann said. “But this group has really taken it as an opportunity to show that we are a team, not simply a supporting cast for a single star. We all recognize the importance of carrying our own weight and not relying solely on someone else to do the job.”

Princeton can also draw from its past experience of playing without Matheson when she was fulfilling her duties with the Canadian national team.

“We played several games without [Matheson] in past seasons when she had her national team obligations,” Numann said. “So we know that, as nice as it was to have her, we’re not lost without her.”

Last season, the Tigers played their first seven games of the season without Matheson, going 2-4-1 during the stretch. That record, however, masks Princeton’s ability to play effective soccer without Matheson. Three of those losses came in competitive games against national powerhouses Notre Dame, Connecticut and Washington State.

“This will be more of a blue-collar working team, we’re hoping that different players will stand out in each game,” head coach Julie Shackford said. “It’s the first time in seven or eight years that we won’t have a bona fide star. It’s going to be interesting to see who’s going to step up and take a certain responsibility for things.”

Shackford will call upon a quartet of talented seniors to provide balance on defense and create scoring opportunities on the other end. On the defensive side, the team will be anchored by returning center back Numann.

“Taylor is our most consistent player,” Shackford said. “[She is] super-competitive and hard-nosed.”

In the team’s opening two games, the defense did an excellent job of shoring up the middle of the field, only allowing two goals off set pieces. The Tigers’ difficulty defending set pieces in the past is something they have been addressing in practice.

“We’ve spent a lot of time working on tightening things up when defending set pieces,” Numann said. “We’ve been able to withstand a lot of pressure throughout the run of play; we just need to make sure that we don’t give up any silly chances.”

Central to Princeton’s defensive efforts will be the tough mentality the team has maintained since the first day of preseason.

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“The biggest change this year has been instilling a battling mentality in the team,” Shackford said. “There were games last year that we should have won, plays that we gave up on. The team defending wasn’t consistent last year. That’s been a focus coming right into the first day of preseason.”

Princeton will look to a triumvirate of seniors to show opponents this newfound fighting spirit on the offensive end: midfielder Lisa Chinn, forward Sarah Peteraf and midfielder Jen Om. The trio has already combined to provide the Tigers with an offensive spark in the first game of the year, in which goals from Chinn and Peteraf proved the difference in a 2-1 win over Boston University.

“Sarah has been a star for us. She’s had two great games. There is a big difference in her play from this year to last year,” Shackford said. “Lisa is one of our hardest-working players, and she will play up front as well as in the back. Jen is always a composed and calming presence on the field and is great at connecting play.”

The Tigers’ four senior starters will look to provide experience on a team consisting predominantly of underclassmen. In a potentially parity-filled Ivy League season, their calming presence and playmaking ability will be absolutely crucial for Princeton’s success.

“I think the Ivy League is going to be wide open,” Shackford said. “We play Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown and Penn at home. It’s tough to be consistent for all four of those games on the road, so we’re really pleased about that. We feel like we have some unfinished business.”

With the convergence of upper-class talent, youthful potential and a definite home-field advantage for the first time in years, a serious run at the Ivy League title looks like it’s in the cards for the Tigers.

The women’s soccer team will have to wait another weekend to return to the pitch, however, as the Tigers’ weekend road trip to Texas was cancelled due to Hurricane Ike.

Ike is expected to hit Texas by Saturday and would have caused problems with Princeton’s Sunday afternoon game against Rice as well as its return travel plans.

“We’re making contact with every Division I coach in the country to try to reschedule those games,” head coach Julie Shackford said. “We currently don’t know when or where they will be.”