Women's Soccer: Tigers bounce back by edging American

The women’s soccer team returned to campus bleary-eyed and exhausted on Sunday at 2 a.m., hours after its 2-1 gut-wrenching double-overtime loss to Dartmouth. But Princeton (4-6-1 overall, 0-2 Ivy League) shook off the bad taste in its mouth by posting a 1-0 victory over American (6-7) on Monday.

The first half of the match was mostly uneventful. Princeton had several chances that began to develop into scoring opportunities, and until very late in the first half, those opportunities fizzled out.

With roughly one minute left in the half, the Tigers’ diligence and hard work finally paid off. Junior midfielder Lauren Whatley got the ball by the Eagles’ 18-yard box. She sliced through American defenders and struck the ball.

“I had the ball on the left sideline, and I beat the first defender. I saw that they were backing off, so I cut in,” Whatley said. “I just went for it.”

Her high, arcing shot was perfect, and it found the back of the net in the upper right-hand corner. The goal, Whatley’s first score of the season, gave Princeton a 1-0 lead and plenty of momentum heading into the second half.

If American threatened Princeton in the first half, it was in the 18th minute. After a series of passes, forward Carleigh Morba found herself with the ball at the edge of the 18-yard box. She turned and struck the ball, but her shot had little velocity: It was a slow-roller that junior goalkeeper Alyssa Pont calmly scooped up.

The Tigers had an excellent chance to put one up on the board when senior forward and tri-captain Marci Pasenello was fed a perfect ball on the right side of American’s 18-yard box. Pasanello got behind the defense with the ball, took a few more dribbles and then fired, but her shot went left of the goal cage.

It looked like the first half was going to come to a close with the game still scoreless. Princeton had certainly enjoyed more opportunities, but none had borne fruit until Whatley scored her goal.

The Tigers trotted onto the field in the second half with a one-goal lead and an aggressive mentality. They continued to pressure American, but the Eagles held strong.

American did come close to finding the back of the net a couple of times in the second half. The biggest scare for the Tigers came when the Eagles generated a one-on-one opportunity early in the half.

In the 56th minute, Eagles forward Kelsey Brasher got behind the Tiger defense. She carried the ball toward Pont from the right side of the field, but Pont held firm, guarding the near post. Brasher hesitated and took her shot, but Pont dove left, and the ball ultimately went wide left of the frame. Princeton cleared the ball to kill the Eagles’ scoring chance.

Pont finished the night with three saves.

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The Tigers ultimately held off American’s last-ditch efforts to spoil their party. The game wasn’t always pretty, but it was a win for Princeton.

“An ugly win is better than a pretty loss. That pretty much sums it up,” said head coach Julie Shackford, who posted her 199th win as a coach in NCAA competition and her 157th at Princeton. “We did enough to win … but we were not good.”

Still, the victory will help the Tigers move on to their next league game against Brown this coming weekend with a bit of momentum. Princeton will need it as it looks to climb out of a daunting 0-2 intra-conference hole.

“I think we definitely needed this going into our game against Brown,” Whatley said. “It’s tough losing Ivy League games. We were hoping that maybe that first goal would open the floodgates and we’d have more, but we’ll take any win.”