Women's Soccer Team to Open Ivy League Tournament Friday at Brown
October 31, 2023 | Women's Soccer
vs. Harvard, Friday, 2 p.m. | ESPN+ | Int'l Video | Live Stats
Ivies in the NCAAs: When Princeton, Brown and Harvard all made the 2021 NCAA tournament, it was the first time since 2008 that more than one Ivy team got in. Brown and Harvard made it in '22, and with all four teams in the Ivy tournament as strong candidates to make it in '23, it'd be the third straight year that the Ivy is a multi-bid league. The last time the Ivy had as many as three straight years with multiple bids was when the league had multiple bids in eight straight years from 1998 through 2005. Four Ivies in has happened twice, in 1999 and 2001.
Strong League: The Ivy League is one of just three conferences with as many as four teams in this week's NCAA RPI top 25, with Brown (five), Princeton (12), Harvard (16) and Columbia (24). The ACC has five (FSU three, Notre Dame eight, Clemson nine, UNC 10, Pitt 15) and the SEC has four (Arkansas 11, Alabama 19, Georgia 20, Mississippi St. 21).
Recently vs. Harvard: Among current players, Harvard's Anna Karpenko played the second half and allowed the game's only goal in Princeton's 1-0 win in Cambridge in 2021. In 2022, Heather MacNab and Lexi Hiltunen had goals for Princeton. Ainsley Ahmadian is the lone returning Harvard goal scorer from the Crimson's 3-2 win last season. Tyler McCamey played the full 90 in last year's meeting. This season, McCamey and Karpenko each went the distance while Jen Estes for Princeton and Jade Rose for Harvard each had a first-half goal in a 1-1 tie.
Recently vs. Brown: In 2019, Ava Seelenfreund had the goal for Brown in a 1-0 Bears win. In 2021, Brittany Raphino and Seelenfreund each had a goal in Brown's 3-1 win. Last season, Evelyn Calhoon, Raphino (two), Kira Maguire and Seelenfreund each scored for Brown in the Bears' 6-1 win while Pietra Tordin had Princeton's goal. Clare Gagne and Bella Schopp split the game in goal for Brown. This season, Raphino had both Brown goals and Lexi Hiltunen scored for Princeton in Brown's 2-1 win that matched Tyler McCamey in goal for Princeton against Gagne for Brown. Princeton's last win over Brown was in 2017 in Providence, and the Bears have taken all five meetings since.
Recently vs. Columbia: Shira Cohen had the goal for Columbia in a 1-1 tie in 2019 in which Liz Matei backstopped the Lions. In 2021, Lexi Hiltunen had the goal for Princeton in double OT in a 1-0 win in the last season of regular-season overtime, scoring against Paige Nurkin. Last season, the teams played to a scoreless draw with Tyler McCamey in goal for Princeton and Matei and Nurkin splitting time for the Lions. This season, just last weekend, Kat Jordan had a first-half goal with Nurkin and McCamey going the distance in Columbia's 1-0 win.
Talkin' about Tordin: Pietra Tordin, who earned her third Ivy Offensive Player of the Week honor of the season on Oct. 23, has an Ivy League-best 12 goals this season and has scored seven game-winning goals, the second-most game-winning goals in the nation. Tordin's 12 goals already put her in a tie for ninth in program history for most goals in a season, and her 20 career goals over just two seasons put her 14th in program history. Among sophomores or younger, the program record for a season is 18, held by Tyler Lussi '17, who scored 18 as a sophomore in 2014. Mimi Asom '19 was the last Tiger to score as many as 12 in a season, hitting that number in 2018, and she was also the last Tiger to have 20 by her sophomore season, scoring 21. If Tordin scores another goal, the last Tiger to have 13 or more goals in a season was Lussi, who had 15 in 2015, and had 28 over her first two seasons. Tordin missed Princeton's game last weekend against Columbia while training with the Brazilian U-20 team.
On offense: At 32 goals, Princeton has well eclipsed its goal total from all of last season (25). Princeton has seen 11 players score a goal this season, marking the second time in three seasons that Princeton has seen 10-plus goal scorers. In 2021, 14 Tigers combined to score 43 goals.
Between the posts: Junior Tyler McCamey has played most of the minutes in goal this season, accruing a 1.16 GAA while authoring five solo or combined shutouts this season. She earned Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week honors on Oct. 9 for shutting out Penn and then holding Yale to a goal with 10 saves between the two games in a 2-0 week.
Stat rankings: Princeton entered the week ranking 29th in the nation in assists per game at 2.12, and 29th in shots per game at 16.75, among top-30 team rankings. Princeton's top-50 individual statistical rankings included Pietra Tordin's second-ranked seven game-winning goals, eighth-ranked 2.20 shots on goal per game, ninth-ranked 1.93 points per game, ninth-ranked 1.93 points per game, 16th-ranked 29 total points, and 18th-ranked 12 total goals.
Coach Driscoll: Sean Driscoll is in his eighth competitive season leading Princeton. A three-time Ivy Coach of the Year (2015, 2017, 2018), Driscoll has led Princeton to Ivy titles in 2015, 2017 and 2018, NCAA tournament bids in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2021, the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2015, 2017 and 2021, and the NCAA quarterfinals in 2017. Driscoll's 92 wins are second-most in program history behind predecessor Julie Shackford, who had 203 wins in 20 seasons from 1995-2014.