After losing to Harvard 2–0 last weekend, Princeton women’s soccer (2–5–3 overall, 1–2–0 Ivy League) faced off against the Yale Bulldogs (3–7–0, 1–2–0 Ivy) on a warm Saturday evening at home on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. Both teams were looking to bounce back after suffering Ivy League losses. Right when it seemed as though the game would conclude in a tie, the Bulldogs scored in the last 10 minutes to pull off their first Ivy League win of the season.
In the first half of the game, the Tigers appeared to have the upper hand on their home turf. Their defense moved as a smooth unit, rapidly turning the ball around whenever the Bulldogs tried to make an approach towards goal. Before even five minutes had passed, senior midfielder Pia Beaulieu attempted a shot against Yale.
“We spent a lot of time working on staying connected defensively,” first-year defender Julia Johnson wrote in an email to The Daily Princetonian. “In games past, sometimes we were a bit fractured without possession of the ball, but yesterday we showed real growth in our ability to defend as a team.”
Beaulieu and first-year forward Nina Cantor both took shots on Yale goalkeeper Kyla Holmes. Cantor, undeterred after an unsuccessful first attempt on goal, shot once again, but it was again blocked by Yale’s defense leading to a corner kick. Senior forward Drew Coomans took the kick, sending the ball arcing towards the goalbox where sophomore forward Alexandra Barry was waiting.
Barry seemed to make the connection, sending the ball towards the goal off a header. Immediately, the Tiger faithful leapt to their feet, believing they had gained the lead. However, just before the scoreboard changed, a replay of the shot showed that the ball had actually hit the crossbar and bounced downwards to land frustratingly close to the line between the field of play and the net. Neither team threatened again, and the first half came to a close tied at nil.
“We didn’t come out aggressive enough with our press to put their back line under pressure,” first-year attacker Aubrey Crisostomo wrote to the ‘Prince.’ “We sat in a mid-block, and that gave their center backs time and space to play balls in behind us.”
The teams remained tied throughout much of the second half despite an offensive turnaround by Yale. Unlike in the first half, where they spent the majority of the time focused on responding to Princeton’s pressure in the box, the Bulldogs began matching the Tigers nearly shot for shot, with both sides making the most of successive opportunities to turn corner kicks into attempts on goal.
However, as the clock ticked down, the Tigers struggled to balance “push[ing] numbers up the field in order to score,” as Johnson described, and maintaining the connected defensive strategy that had been key to turning the ball away from the Bulldogs in the first half.
“I thought we did great [defensively],” Head Coach Sean Driscoll said in a post-game interview. “I think the focus has to be on our attacking piece. We don’t score enough goals, you know — we’ve scored less than a goal a game.”
With just 10 minutes to go, Princeton began moving the ball up towards the goal once more. But their burst of momentum was abruptly cut short after senior defender Kelsee Wozniak received a yellow card. Soon after, Yale began to threaten and apply pressure to Princeton’s defense.
In the final minutes, Yale defender Alex Chang intercepted a pass and fired a powerful shot which caught junior goalkeeper Cecilia Cerone by surprise as it soared past her and into the net. With barely any time left, the Bulldogs took the lead 1–0.
“[The goal] came from one good opportunity and a great shot on target where we were a bit disorganized,” Johnson wrote. “It’s one of those situations that remind you it’s really hard to be perfect defensively and we just need to do more work to sort ourselves out in those moments.”
The Tigers seemed to take Yale’s goal as a challenge, rather than a disappointment, and regrouped rapidly to make the most out of their last few minutes on the field. With two minutes to go, sophomore forward Dylan Jovanovic took a corner kick and sent the ball to Cantor, who hit a header towards the goal that bounced off the crossbar in the same manner of Barry’s shot in the first half.
The second the ball hit the ground, once again right by the line between goalbox and net, a small circle of Princeton forwards and Yale defenders surrounded it, only to be stopped when the referee’s whistle blew, awarding Princeton an indirect free kick. Jovanovic took the kick with around a minute and a half left, but it was intercepted immediately by the wall of Yale defenders.
“Honestly, I think that with a little bit of luck, one or two of those shots would have gone. One of them hit the corner where the crossbar and post meet which is simply bad luck. I don’t think changing anything would have changed that result,” Cantor wrote to the ‘Prince’ afterwards.
“I thought we competed really well. Great energy about us at home, but we need to be far more efficient in front of goal. It’s plagued us all season, and it came out again tonight,” Driscoll told the ‘Prince.’
With less than a minute left in the game, the Tigers seemed ready to drive the ball back towards goal one last time, but all too soon, the whistle blew, ending the game with a 1-0 victory for the Bulldogs.
“They were resilient. They tried everything. It just didn't come off. But it wasn’t from a lack of effort,” Driscoll said. “I mean, they gave everything they had to give.”
Women’s soccer is set to play Cornell at home on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 1 p.m.
Leela Hensler is a staff news writer and contributing sports writer for the ‘Prince’ from Berkeley, Calif.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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