After beginning conference play with a 3–0 record, the Princeton women’s soccer team (8–4, 3–1 Ivy League) dropped its first Ivy League game to rivals Yale (8–4–1, 2–1–1 Ivy) Sunday afternoon. Despite a late goal from sophomore midfielder Kayla Wong, the Tigers were unable to erase an early 2–0 Bulldog lead in New Haven.
The Tigers entered New Haven flying high after a pair of big wins over Ivy League opponents in the past week. After thrashing Brown (5–3–4, 2–1–1 Ivy) 8–0, the Tigers picked up a home win over the Penn Quakers (1–7–5, 0–2–2 Ivy) on Wednesday. Entering enemy territory without senior captain Heather MacNab, who suffered a head injury in the win over Penn, the Tigers looked to maintain their lead at the top of the conference.
For the first fifteen minutes, it looked as though the game‘s narrative would be centered around Princeton’s dominant defense — a familiar theme this season. The Tigers had not yet conceded a goal in Ivy League competition and had not been scored on in over 380 minutes of play, dating back to a 1–0 loss to Fairfield nearly a month ago. Though Yale registered a shot on target in the third minute, the Tiger defense kept them at bay and initially prevented the Bulldogs from taking advantage of any serious chances.
In the eighteenth minute, the Tigers finally faltered. Yale brought the ball into the attacking half, but the Tiger defense held its shape and seemed to contain the oncoming attack well.
This lasted until Yale forward Alanna Butcher uncorked a screamer of a shot that whizzed past senior goalkeeper Tyler McCamey. From a nearly impossible angle, Butcher put an end to the scoreless streak and put the Tigers on the back foot for the first time in nearly a month.
Just five minutes later, the Yale forward struck again. In a near repeat of her first goal, Butcher got the ball, cut left towards the edge of the box, and let a shot fly again, zooming past McCamey and meeting the back of the net to put Yale in the driver’s seat up 2–0.
Butcher BOMBS 💣💣
— Yale Women's Soccer (@YaleWSoccer) October 13, 2024
The senior scored ✌️ times to lead the Bulldogs over Princeton!#ThisIsYale pic.twitter.com/DsyBcpUQtE
After falling behind early, Head Coach Sean Driscoll searched for solutions to make up ground quickly.
“I always look for a positive response in difficult moments,” he told The Daily Princetonian. “I trust that our leaders will step up and get us refocused. When things don’t go as planned, the priority must be to get everyone on the same page, stick to our principles, and increase our defensive stability.”
The scoring remained static throughout much of the rest of the game, with Yale’s defense bending but not breaking as Princeton struggled to break through. For a comeback to happen, the Tigers would need to find something fast. Enter Kayla Wong.
Despite playing significant minutes down the stretch for the Tigers in 2023, Wong had not been a consistent starter for the team until this year. Though she had yet to register a goal this season, she played her way into a starting role early on, garnering more and more playing time until she played all 90 minutes in the 1–0 victory over Penn.
“This year, I definitely feel that I am stepping into a more significant role on the team, and I am glad that my coaches and teammates have been there to help me through this transition,” Wong told the ‘Prince.’
In the 69th minute, Wong received a pass in the center of the attacking half from first-year midfielder Brooke Dawahare. With traffic in front of her on the edge of a crowded box, she used the pinpoint vision only a midfielder could have to find an opportunity amid the chaos. Stepping up and approaching the box with a defender in pursuit to her left, Wong dragged the ball to her right foot and fired a low shot that bounced as it traveled past Yale’s goalkeeper into the bottom left corner of the net. Creating a chance out of what looked like nothing, Wong breathed life back into a once-dying game.
21' left, 2nd half | Yale 2, Princeton 1
— Princeton WSoccer (@PrincetonWSoc) October 13, 2024
There's One!
Kayla Wong strikes to get Princeton on the board!
💻: https://t.co/reSZVX1i4j pic.twitter.com/5J7Dvl92BO
“In that moment, I knew we had some opportunities to score, but we hadn’t tested their goalie very much yet in the game, so when I got the ball, I knew I wanted to create space to shoot,” Wong told the ‘Prince.’ “I saw the defender was to my left, so I took a touch to my right and tried to shoot it low and hard across the face of goal.”
Coach Driscoll was effusive in his praise of Wong after the game.
“She has the uncanny talent to change the game in one moment with her vision and awareness,” he told the ‘Prince.’ “Her qualities on the ball allow her to flourish in any of the three central midfield positions.”
After Wong’s goal, the game became more focused on defense. As Princeton kept pushing, Yale settled back in their own half and remained impervious to repeated Tiger attacks. The two teams combined for only one more shot, with Dawahare rattling one off the crossbar just seconds before the end of the game. With her shot falling harmlessly to the side, the Tigers left Connecticut with their first Ivy loss of the 2024 campaign.
“We were understandably shell-shocked by the two goals we allowed in the span of five minutes early in the opening half,” Coach Driscoll told the ‘Prince’ after the loss. “It was the first time we had conceded two goals in a game and, given we had only given up five goals in the prior 11 games, it made complete sense that we were shaken.”
Looking ahead, the Tigers have reasons to be excited about their chances for the rest of the season. Though Sunday’s loss put them three points behind Columbia (6–3–3, 4–0 Ivy) in the league table, they can all but clinch a spot in the Ivy League Tournament with a home win this Saturday against the struggling Harvard Crimson (5–2–5, 1–2–1 Ivy). Harvard knocked the Tigers out of last year’s tournament, so this year’s team should be hungry for revenge.
Joseph Uglialoro is a staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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