Women's Soccer: Team shoots for first Ivy victory

Let’s try this again.

The women’s soccer team will attempt to claim its first Ivy League victory this Saturday when it travels to Hanover, N.H., to take on Dartmouth (4-4 overall, 1-0 Ivy League).

For the second time in as many weeks, Princeton (3-5-1, 0-1) will head into the weekend with a bit of momentum. The Tigers knocked off Fairfield, 1-0, this past Tuesday in Connecticut when senior defender and tri-captain Melissa Seitz scored on a penalty kick. The goal was the first of her career.

The Tigers headed into last weekend’s matchup with momentum as well: Princeton was coming off a 3-0 thrashing of Hartford, the first game in which the Tigers’ statistical dominance translated into dominance on the scoreboard.

That momentum was extinguished, however, when Yale came to Roberts Stadium and walked out with a 2-0 victory. Princeton outshot the Bulldogs, but Yale had two opportunities, and it made the most of them.

The Big Green was on quite a skid until last Sunday. Losers of three in a row, Dartmouth shook off its slump by slamming Brown, 3-1, in Providence, R.I. It was the Big Green’s sixth consecutive road game.

Dartmouth plays a tenacious game, having given up more than a single goal only twice this season. Perhaps the most impressive game on the Big Green’s resume is its victory over then-No. 12 West Virginia. The victory gave Dartmouth the 2009 Nike Virginia Classic Championship.

But in the three games following the championship, the Big Green went 0-3 on the road and scored only one goal.

Dartmouth has a relatively modest offense, scoring nine goals in eight games. Two of the games — one against Maine and one against Brown -— were three-goal outbursts, so the Big Green has the ability to put points on the board. At the same time, a number of teams have managed to shut down the squad’s offense.

Forward Aly O’Dea, who has four goals on the season, leads Dartmouth’s offense. Five different players have scored for the Big Green, including midfielder Myra Sack, the only Dartmouth player to earn first team All-Ivy honors last year.

For the most part, however, the Big Green plays a grind-it-out defensive style. The Tigers struggled against a Yale team that packed it in as well, so it will be paramount for Princeton to remain patient while looking for the cracks in the defense.

Princeton continues to struggle with generating goals out of its ball-possession style of play. The Tigers’ youth movement — with freshmen forward Jen Hoy, midfielder Stephanie Iantorno, midfielder Caitlin Blosser, midfielder Rachel Sheehy and defender Alison Nabatoff all having started at least seven games — continues to be successful at generating opportunities. But Princeton admittedly lacks an offensive catalyst.

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Though the Tigers took home a victory Tuesday evening, they should have scored more than they did, considering that they recorded an impressive 10 shots on goal.

In the meantime, Princeton needs to be careful with the ball. Even if the goals aren’t coming — and they haven’t been, despite the massive number of shots the Tigers have taken — Princeton can’t force the ball into tight spaces.

Winning the Ivy League will remain a tough task. The margin for error in the league is slim, regardless of which teams are playing. Every team, including Princeton and Harvard, the co-champions, lost at least one game last year. After the opening loss to Yale, the Tigers can only hope to match that record. Columbia and Harvard, along with Dartmouth and Yale, have all picked up victories in the league.

Princeton can pull down at least one of those teams this Saturday.