Princeton drops first Ivy match

The women’s soccer team dropped its Ivy League opener Saturday afternoon, falling to Yale in an overtime battle that ended with a 3-2 victory for the Bulldogs (5-3 overall, 1-0 Ivy League).

“Every Ivy League game, especially the first one, is always really intense, and we knew that it was not going to be easy and that Yale was going to come out strong,” senior midfielder and defender Gabriella Guzman said.

The game started slowly, with action on both sides of the field. The scoreboard remained blank, though, until freshman midfielder Jesse McDonough scored her first career goal 30 minutes into the first half.

The Tigers (4-2-2, 0-1)went into halftime ahead, but came back in the second half and gave up a goal within the first two minutes. Another freshman, defender Haley Chow, scored her first career goal around the 73-minute mark, but again Yale came right back to score, tying the game within one minute.

Regulation ended with a score of 2-2, and the game went into overtime. Despite a number of shot attempts by the Orange and Black at the end of regulation play and the very beginning of overtime, it was Yale that scored the winning goal and ended the game 3-2.

Head coach Julie Shackford said she thought the game-winning goal was scored despite the player being offside since the linesman’s flag was briefly raised then lowered, but she has yet to watch the game tape.

“We totally outplayed them and had plenty of chances. We just could not finish, which is unfortunate,” Shackford said. “It was just one of those games … Ivy League women’s soccer has always been really strong, and [the games are] always good battles.”

With this loss, the two Ivy rivals continued their seven-year streak of losing to each other on their home turf.

“They were very dangerous off of set pieces, corners and free kicks, and they were very good in the air,” junior midfielder and forward Lauren Lazo said. “I think that’s how they created most of their chances — off of set pieces and not in the run of play — so I think that was really hard for us to cope with.”

Guzman added that Yale was able to finish its chances on goal while Princeton was not able to take advantage of all of its opportunities and put the ball in the net, despite having possession of the ball frequently in Yale’s defensive third.

The Tigers took 22 shots throughout the course of the game. Freshman forward Tyler Lussi, who leads the team with six goals and 33 shots on goal, had nine shots on Saturday, but none found the net.

Princeton will now play catchup in the Ancient Eight after winning the Ivy League championship with an undefeated league record last year, but Shackford is not too worried about the team’s current standing.