No. 9 Princeton (4–2 overall, 1–0 Ivy League) narrowly defeated the University of Pennsylvania (3–3, 0–1) on Friday with a late goal from an impressive assist from first-year midfielder Caitlin Thompson in the fourth quarter.
This matchup was the first game of Ivy League play, and Princeton, ranked in the top ten teams nationally, was expected to dominate. But keeping in line with their past two games, the Tigers struggled to connect on offense.
“[I] thought we needed to combine more in the midfield, like pass and run through and add numbers to the midfield,” Head Coach Carla Tagliente told The Daily Princetonian. “I think we just started off out of sync, meaning we couldn’t even string a couple passes together. I think frustration set in and we were forcing plays and we never really got into a system and opened them [UPenn] up.”
The Quakers started with the offensive attack in the first half, but they didn’t hold onto the ball for long. Princeton and Penn played scrappy, tapping the ball away from each other and running the whole field to grab possessions. The momentum shifts weren’t long-lasting, and neither team scored off of corners and circle entries.
The second quarter followed the same pattern. The Tigers played aggressively on both sides of the field, producing offensive runs and swarming Quaker players on defense. However, due to their inconsistent passing and communication, their game play wasn’t being reflected on the scoreboard. Going into halftime, the Quakers had five shots on goal and Princeton only recorded two shots of their own.
While the Tigers started with the ball in the second half, the Quakers wound up in Tiger territory in less than a minute of play. This quarter mimicked the previous two. For Princeton, it seemed that players sent passes thinking that their teammates would go one way, but they would actually go another.
Late in the third, around the five-minute mark, sophomore midfielder Molly Nye had a one-on-one opportunity against the Penn goalie, but her shot was blocked. The quarter ended scoreless.
The urgency built with only 15 minutes remaining, and sporadic runs weren’t winning the game for either team. The Tigers began the quarter with their seventh shot attempt, but the Penn defense deflected it. The next run decided the game for both parties.
“You could feel the stress from [Princeton] and [I told them] just relax and push through and try to break one,” Coach Tagliente told the ‘Prince.’ “The opportunities will present themselves and they did.”
The game-winning progression started with 13:16 on the clock, when sophomore midfielder Clem Houlden sent a pass into the circle to senior forward Talia Schenck. Schenck dribbled it away from the Penn defense until she sent a dagger to the post where Thompson was positioned. Without looking, Thompson launched the ball between her legs to a wide open senior midfielder Beth Yeager on the opposite post.
Yeager had an open shot, the only goal of the game. The Tigers took it against the Quakers 1–0.
“I was thinking about having composure in front of the goal, earlier in the game I had missed an opportunity, so I was just trying to reflect on that and go forward and I’m glad that it paid off,” Thompson told the ‘Prince’ about her game-winning play.
“We knew that we were generating opportunities and shots on goal, but that didn’t matter if they weren’t going in,” Thompson added. “We felt the momentum going, and there was no way we could come away today without a win so we just knew what needed to be done and anyway we could do that, if we kept bringing the intensity and kept knocking on the door.”
The last three matchups of the Tigers have been won by a single goal.
“I think it was a great team goal, something we had been working on all week. It was great to connect like that and scoring is always fun,” Yeager said.
Princeton also bested the No. 6 University of Connecticut Huskies (3–4 overall, 1–0 Big East Conference) 5–0 on Sunday for a massive top-ten win.
Emilia Reay is a staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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