Women's Soccer: 3-1 defeat at Penn brings season’s end

Last week, the women’s soccer team finished the season with split games between Ivy League leaders Cornell and Penn.

The Tigers (6-10-1 overall, 2-5 Ivy League) hosted Cornell for a 1-0 shutout victory in their final home game of the season. Princeton then traveled to Penn, where they fell to the Quakers 3-1 to cap a tough Ivy League campaign.

On Oct. 30, the Tigers hosted Cornell (2-13-1, 0-6-1) on the Plummer Field turf in frigid conditions after the October snowstorm left Myslik Field, the team’s usual surface, unplayable.

Princeton came into the game off a close loss to Ivy League-leading Harvard after building a four-game win streak.

The Tigers dominated offensive play against the Big Red, outshooting their opponents 21 to three. In the 24th minute, freshman forward Melissa Downey and junior forward Jen Hoy railed the goalkeeper with shots that came off the crossbar, then sophomore forward Gabbie Guzman found the missed attempt and returned it into the back of the net.

Despite pressuring the defense for the rest of the game, the Tigers were unable to find the net again. Princeton held the one-goal margin for the rest of the game to clinch the win, which marked the Tigers’ 16th-straight victory over the Big Red. Since head coach Julie Shackford took the helm of the Tiger squad in 1995, the team has lost only one game against Cornell.

“I thought we played well as we have all season,” Shackford explained. “It was kind of a weird weekend with the snow, but I thought it was good overall team performance.”

With momentum behind them, the Tigers traveled to Philadelphia seeking redemption in their season finale against Penn.

Last season, the Tigers tied Penn in an ultimatum game that Princeton needed to win in order to take the Ivy League title. This year, the Tigers found themselves out of contention for the final two weeks of the year.

After taking the field, the Tigers quickly found themselves in a deficit. In the 18th minute, Penn forward Ursula Lopez-Palm found a loose ball in the box on the right side and punched it past junior goalkeeper Kristen Watson to knock in the first goal of the game.

The Tigers tried to answer the strike, shooting five more times before the end of the half, but could not find any luck as they ended the first half with a one-goal deficit.

The situation only turned worse for the Tigers in the second half. Two minutes after the end of the break, Penn midfielder Kathryn Barth found a crack in the Princeton defense to pass up the right side of the goal to forward Erin Beck. Beck followed the pass with a shot into the net to bring the Quakers to a 2-0 lead.

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But Princeton came back to answer the Quaker call in the 57th minute. Sophomore midfielder Kacie Kergides flew a corner kick low on the right side and Hoy headed the shot back into the Penn goal.

Both teams continued to trade shots for the next 20 minutes, but neither was able to gain advantage. With under 10 minutes left in the game, Lopez-Palm took a pass from a midfielder and lobbed the ball over Watson to find the goal for the second time in the match, taking a 3-1 lead.

The Tigers could not find the goal in the last 10 minutes and took their fourth straight loss to Penn.

“It was a difficult game, and it was definitely not our best game,” Shackford said. “In many ways I thought it was not like our matches earlier in the season where we played strong offensive matches.”

The 2011 season was an unusual one for the Tigers, who typically are a perennial power and a consistent Ivy League title contender.

For much of the season, the Tigers showed the signs of a potentially powerful team, outshooting their opponents in a majority of their matches, including each of their final 12 matches.

“It was a disappointing season,” Shackford said. “I think it put a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, and hopefully that will be motivation for squad going forward.”

Shackford explained that next year the team will have a lot of experience to work with and a reputation for the women’s soccer program to rebuild.

“We will have 10 talented rising seniors next year, and every [graduating class] in the past 10 years has come away with an Ivy League title, so hopefully we’ll be able to give next year’s team a title,” she said.