GETTING LOOSE: Princeton University women’s soccer player Tyler Lussi heads upfield in action earlier this season. Last Saturday at Yale, sophomore star Lussi came up big, scoring a goal late in the second half to give the Tigers a 1-0 victory over the Bulldogs in the Ivy League opener for both teams. Princeton, now 2-3-2 overall and 1-0 Ivy, hosts Dartmouth (3-2-2 overall, 0-0-1 Ivy) on October 4 at Roberts Stadium. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

As the Princeton University women’s soccer team headed into its Ivy League opener last Saturday at Yale, things weren’t going well.

The Tigers were coming off a Virginia swing which saw them lose 3-2 at Richmond on September 19 before getting defeated 4-1 at William and Mary two days later.

In addition, Princeton was forced to go with a number of young players as several key veterans were sidelined by injury.

“We have so many injuries, we literally had 12 or 13 healthy players,” said Princeton head coach Julie Shackford, whose starting lineup at Yale featured a quartet of freshmen in Natalie Larkin, Alessia Azermadhi, Vanessa Gregoire, and Beth Stella.

To make matters worse, starting goalie Darcy Hargadon had to leave the game after eight minutes due to a quad injury, giving way to unheralded sophomore Hannah Winner.

“It was wild,” recalled Shackford. “You are playing with 12 or 13, you lose your keeper, and you are playing on the road in a league game.”

Winner, for her part, felt some butterflies as she took the pitch. “It was a little nerve-wracking at first but I went back to all of my work in practice,” said Winner in a video interview on the Princeton sports website. “I had the support of my team behind me. I calmed down and I was ready to rock and roll.”

After a shaky start, the Tigers calmed down collectively. “We rallied for sure in the second half,” said Shackford. “We were putting a lot of pressure on them.”

That pressure finally yielded dividends as Tiger sophomore star Tyler Lussi struck, converting a feed from Gregoire into the back of the net, putting Princeton up 1-0 with six minutes remaining in regulation.

“Vanessa played a great ball in,” recalled Shackford of Gregoire, who was later named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. “Tyler has been forcing things lately so hopefully this will help her relax.”

The Tigers didn’t relax after the goal as Winner and the defense held the fort and Princeton came away with a hard-earned 1-0 victory, the 10th straight game in the hotly-contested series to be decided by two goals or less and the third straight decided by one goal.

“We all just pulled it together; everyone was in it working hard,” said Winner, reflecting on the last six minutes of the contest.

“We know from experience that you can be scored on in the last two seconds of the game so everybody was focused. Our plan was to keep it up the field for as long as possible and just play our hearts out until the final whistle.”

Shackford was proud of how her team played to the final whistle. “We were phenomenal with game management after the goal,” said Shackford, whose team improved to 2-3-2 overall with the victory.

As Princeton hosts Dartmouth (3-2-2 overall, 0-0-1 Ivy) on October 4, Shackford is hoping the Tigers can build on the win over Yale.

“I think it gives you a lot of momentum,” said Shackford, whose team currently sits atop the Ivy race along with Columbia (5-1-3 overall, 1-0 Ivy) and Harvard (6-2 overall, 1-0 Ivy). “If you had just 12 players and had a league loss going into Dartmouth, that would be a big hole to get out of.”

Princeton is lucky to have a great group of freshman players. “The freshman class is phenomenal,” said Shackford, who also inserted freshman Mikaela Symanovich as a sub on Saturday. “They are leaders, they are hard, they want it, they have adapted so well.”

Going forward, the injury-depleted Tigers face a hard task in their bid for a league crown.

“We have to defend well and stay together,” said Shackford. “People have to have some extraordinary performances.”

Winner is confident the Tigers will stay on task. “We are taking it one day at a time and working hard in each practice,” said Winner.

“Having a win under our belt is great but we are looking forward to the next game. It is a clean slate and we have got to just get those next three points.”