Women's Soccer: Princeton aims to rebound vs. Brown

When you only have seven conference games to make your case, you have little margin for error. That’s the situation the women’s soccer team finds itself in as it heads to Brown (3-5-0 overall, 1-1 Ivy League) this Saturday in the hopes of securing its first Ivy League victory.

Princeton (4-6-1, 0-2) dropped its first two Ivy League games to Yale (6-3, 1-0) and Dartmouth (5-4, 2-0) and is at risk of falling out of the race for the Ivy League title completely. That’s the bad news. The good news? Only one team currently has a record of 2-0, and that’s the Big Green, whom the Tigers matched blow for blow in New Haven, Conn., last Saturday. Unfortunately for Princeton, Dartmouth scored in the second overtime period to break a 1-1 tie, ending the Tigers’ hopes of stealing a victory on the road.

Yale and Harvard both sport league records of 1-0 as well.

No team is the clear favorite to run away with the Ivy League crown, but Princeton seems to need a win against the Bears to remain in contention.

“Everyone knows we’re under the gun,” head coach Julie Shackford said. “If we want to make a run in the league, we have to win out. It’s a challenge, but it’s a great opportunity. I think everyone is focused.”

Brown got off to an extremely slow start this season, dropping its first four games by a combined score of 11-2. Since then, however, the Bears have rallied to win three of their last four, though part of their recent success can be attributed to having played weaker opponents.

Two of those games were against Ivy League opponents. Brown squeaked past Columbia, 1-0, but fell to Dartmouth, 3-1, after jumping out to a short-lived lead.

The Bears also defeated Towson, 2-0, in a game that remains the only time this season that Brown has scored more than one goal.

Earlier in the season, the Tigers tied Towson, 1-1.

More than anything else, the Brown defense has propelled the Bears. Their three victories this season have been shutouts.

Two goaltenders have backstopped the Bears’ defense this year: Stefanie Yellin and Brenna Hogue have split time. Hogue has a .787 save percentage, while Yellin has a slightly better .800.

Unlike Princeton, which has outshot nearly all of its opponents this season, Brown routinely gives up far more shots to its opponents. In fact, the Bears’ opponents have taken more than twice as many shots as they have — 159 compared to 78.

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Even in its 2-0 victory over Towson, Brown was outshot, 21-11. But the Bears tallied just as many shots on goal as Towson.

So how does Brown win? With grit and tenacity.

“They work really hard. They’re organized,” Shackford said. “They’re hard-nosed, physical.”

Ultimately, if senior defender and tri-captain Melissa Seitz and her crew can prevent Brown from having opportunities to counter, the Tigers should be able to stymie a relatively inept Brown offense. The Bears have only one player with more than one goal this season: midfielder Joyce Chun, who has two.

That’s not to say that Princeton’s offense has been prolific: Only freshman forward Jen Hoy has recorded more than one goal. But it hasn’t been for want of trying — the Tigers have unleashed plenty of shots on their opponents’ goals, but they have failed to translate those shots into goals in most of their games.

“We need to be really organized defensively,” Shackford said. “We have to match the home team’s intensity, and we have to execute around the goal. We have to create chances.”

If the Tigers do these things, they can breathe some life back into their title hopes.