No. 13 Women's Soccer Team Beats Penn 1-0, Secures Outright Ivy Title, NCAA Berth

Saturday, November 4

Philadelphia, Pa.

4:00 PM

Princeton University

14-2 (6-1)

Penn

5-8-3 (5-8-3)

Princeton

Penn

Princeton won its ninth Ivy League title and second in three years Saturday.

No. 13 Women's Soccer Team Beats Penn 1-0, Secures Outright Ivy Title, NCAA Berth

November 04, 2017 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

The 13th-ranked Princeton women's soccer team knew a win Saturday, regardless of anything else that happened in the league, would give them their second Ivy League title in three years.

Thanks to a Vanessa Gregoire 34th-minute goal and stifling defense that held Penn without a shot until the 65th minute, Princeton did just that, claiming their ninth Ivy title in program history, in a 1-0 victory.

"You couldn't ask for really that much more," Princeton coach Sean Driscoll said. "It was great to see Vanessa get her third goal in three games. She's been a catalyst for us in our offense, particularly in the last several games. But to come here, which is a place we hadn't won at since 2005, and we hadn't beaten this team, really, in (the last) four years, the seniors had never beaten them. I think, in a lot of ways, it was meant to be. This is the only team the senior class had not beaten."

Princeton hadn't beaten Penn since 2012, going 0-2-2 in the four seasons since, entering Saturday. In 2015, the Tigers came to Penn looking to go 7-0 in the league for the first time since 2012, but the Quakers held then-No. 24 Princeton to a 0-0 tie. At Rhodes Field, Princeton had gone 0-4-1 since 2005.

The win came with Princeton outshooting Penn 18-3 overall and 9-0 on goal, forcing Penn keeper Kitty Qu to make eight saves.

"While we did have a lot of shots, we struggled to finish," Driscoll said. "That's a credit to their defending, and their goalkeeper was outstanding. It's a wonderful feeling. Any time you can win a championship, it's just almost too good to be true."

The one time Princeton did finish, senior Mikaela Symanovich moved the ball up the field and found sophomore Tomi Kennedy about 25 yards from the goal. Kennedy made a quick flick to Gregoire, and the senior co-captain needed just two touches to power the ball inside the right post. All three of the midfielder Gregoire's goals on the season have come in the last three games, giving her 11 for her career.

"If anything, it's a manifestation of the work that we've put in this entire year, dating back to last season, essentially, and the end of that," Gregoire said of the attack Princeton put on Penn. "We didn't end the way that we wanted to, and coming in as seniors, and especially as captains, we had one objective in mind, and that was to win this league. Columbia's loss to Yale gave us a chance to come back, and motivation against Penn is always easy. We hadn't beaten them yet and so this game was huge for us.

Princeton entered the Oct. 14 home visit from Columbia 3-0 in the league, as were the Lions, and Columbia stunned the then-No. 11 Tigers 2-0. Since, Princeton has gone 3-0 in the league while the Lions fell to Yale last week on a penalty kick to fall to a first-place tie with Princeton and pushed in vain for a goal Saturday against Harvard that would have shared the Ivy title and sent Columbia to the NCAA tournament by virtue of the Lions' head-to-head win over Princeton.

Instead, well after Princeton's win was in the books, Columbia battled Harvard to a scoreless draw, delivering the outright Ivy League title and the automatic NCAA tournament berth to the Tigers.

"The loss with Columbia was really important for us," senior co-captain Katie Pratt-Thompson said. "I think it made us refocus and really figure out that you have to work for every single game. Nothing's going to come to you. If anything, it just motivated us even more to win the league."

Now, the Tigers, at 14-2 overall and 6-1 in the Ivy League, will find out their NCAA tournament destination and opponent Monday at 4:30 p.m. ET. The selection show will be streamed on NCAA.com.