GETTING IT DONE: Princeton University women’s soccer player Jesse McDonough boots the ball upfield in a game last fall. Junior captain McDonough, a native of Monmouth Beach, N.J, figures to help the Tigers in the midfield and on the back line this season. The Tigers open their 2015 campaign by hosting Howard on August 28 in the first game under new head coach Sean Driscoll. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

New Princeton University women’s soccer head coach Sean Driscoll and his staff put out the welcome mat for their players as they arrived on campus last week.

“The first day we got to camp, all the coaches met the kids and we helped  them get their bags out of their cars,” said Driscoll, the associate head coach at Fairfield the last five seasons and successor to Julie Shackford, who stepped down last fall after 20 seasons guiding the program.

“I was greeted very well by them, they loved the fact that I helped them out. They are very happy to be back; they were happy to see each other. They were happy to get going. In the Ivy League, where you don’t get as long of a spring season, I think that makes you thirst that much more for the fall and the opportunities when you do get to play. These are kids who love to play soccer, they want to play whenever they can. The energy was fantastic.”

Princeton, which opens regular season play when it hosts Howard on August 28, got a chance to get on the field last Sunday when it faced The College of New Jersey in a preseason scrimmage.

“We are going to focus a lot on our defending and for the first three or four days of preseason, that has been our focus,” said Driscoll.

“We have not really discussed any part of the attacking so I think we basically looked pretty good defensively. We looked OK offensively, we lacked a few ideas but that is to be expected when you spend so much time working on one side of the ball and not as much on  the other side. We will start to address the attack side of things this coming week.”

The Tigers boast one of the premier attacking players in the Ivy League with junior star Tyler Lussi, named the league’s Offensive Player of the Year last season after scoring 18 goals.

“Tyler is relentless, I think that is what stands out about her,” said Driscoll of Lussi, who now has 28 goals in her career and has earned All-Ivy honors in each of her first two seasons.

“She works equally hard on both sides of the ball and that is rarely done by a player that scores so many goals. Tyler prides herself on her defense, she understands that if she works really hard when we don’t have the ball, she is going to give herself more opportunity to score goals and her team more opportunity to be successful. She is a two-way player, that is rarely seen in a top, top talent.”

Newcomer Mimi Asom could emerge as another scoring threat for Princeton.

“Mimi is a freshman from Texas, she is a very talented player,” added Driscoll.

“She has done very well for us thus far. She really does a very good job with her back to goal. She has a nose for scoring goals. The tandem of her and Tyler is a dangerous one.”

Sophomore Beth Stella could also prove to be dangerous up top. “We also have Beth Stella, who will be between the midfield and the front,” said Driscoll of Stella, who had two goals and six assists in 2014.

“She has improved a great deal. She looks good around goal and is really good on the ball. She has got a lot of athleticism, she will be a nice option as well.”

The midfield should be keyed by a trio of Canadians, Nicole Loncar (two goals in 2014), Vanessa Gregoire (one goal, seven assists), and Alessia Azermahdi (one assist).

“Loncar has been injured since the beginning of preseason so we haven’t seen her yet, she looks like she is nearing a return which will be great,” said Driscoll, who also plans to give freshman Leah Becker, freshman Samantha McDonough, senior Stephanie Paloscio, and senior Catherine Hartigan (two assists) some action in the midfield.

“She will give us some more stability in midfield, she brings a different side of the game. Vanessa is a very astute player. She is very, very bright, and has a high soccer IQ as does Nicole. Alessia Azermadhi is also another kid who plays right smack in the middle of the field. She is exceptionally coachable with a tireless work rate. So those three are key, I call them the Canadian triangle. They all have their gifts, they each have unique things that they bring to the table. They will certainly play a major role in there.”

One of Princeton’s most gifted players is junior captain Jesse McDonough (four assists), who figures to shore up both the midfield and the defense.

“Jesse McDonough is a returning captain, she is going to be in the back line or the midfield,” said Driscoll.

“She is the most versatile player on the team, she can play anywhere. She is just an exceptional talent. She is going to be the player we need to move around based on our opponent. If we need an aerial presence, she will probably play in the midfield and give us that. If we need a little bit more pace in the back to deal with some really talented attackers, she may need to move to the back line just to help us with that. She can play literally just about any position on the field.”

The Princeton defense will feature an imposing presence in sophomore Natalie Larkin (six assists), a second-team All-Ivy performer in her debut campaign.

“Larkin is going to play as a wide back or as a wide midfielder,” said Driscoll.

“She has bags of talent. She is one of the best attackers on the team, she has the mentality to get to goal. She provides a whole other element because she is very comfortable on the ball, she is very good in one versus one situations. In attack, she creates fits for the other team because she is a  different kid to account for. When she comes out of the back, she has as much skill as any player on the team.”

Senior co-captain Emily Sura is poised to emerge as a key player along the Tiger back line.

“Emmy has been, to me, the real shining light so far of the preseason,” said Driscoll, who sees junior Haley Chow (three goals, one assist), sophomore Katie Pratt-Thompson, sophomore Mikaela Symanovich (one goal, three assists), freshman Alex Whiting, and junior Kathy Jones as additional defensive options.

“I didn’t see her at all last year; she was injured when I got there. She had a labrum injury, which is never easy. She destroyed the fitness test. She brings great spirit, her speed is very, very good. She has a great awareness and she has a great left foot. She brings all sorts of wonderful qualities to the team that we did not see in the spring so she has been a tremendous, tremendous addition.”

As for the goalie situation, Driscoll is looking at three players, junior Hannah Winner (1-1 record in 2014 with a 2.48 goals against average), sophomore Gudrun Valdis Jonsdottir (0-1, 3.32 GAA), and freshman Noelani Kong-Johnson, who each possess some impressive qualities.

“The goalie situation is still up in the air, we have three good goalkeepers,” said Driscoll.

“Hannah is the one returning with the most experience. Gudrun is a 6’2 kid from Iceland who has improved. She played all summer as did Hannah. They are battling and Noelani is coming in as a freshman from Hawaii. None of them are the same, they are all very different in what they bring to the table so I think all three of them right now are really competing. We are going to have to look at it day by day and see where we are with things. We are comfortable that we have multiple goalkeepers that can feature and play.”

At the outset, Driscoll is striving to get his squad to develop a comfort level on defense.

“We want to make sure that our goal differential is the best we can make it, we will really, really focus on that aspect,” asserted Driscoll.

“If we are not conceding many goals, we are going to keep ourselves in a lot of games. We play some very formidable opponents early in the season and we are going to have to do a really good job to make sure that we keep ourselves in the game defensively. We do have enough attacking punch but we want to make sure that we are in the game by being very disciplined on the defensive side of things.”

The defense will get a test right off the bat in Howard, the 2014 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Tournament Champions who have gone 1-1 to start this season.

“The focus for Howard is just to keep a clean sheet and to not concede any goals and then to start to establish an identity on the attack,” said Driscoll.

“Every day is basically just about adding another piece to the team and trying  to identify who we are going to be over the course of time. We are not by any means a finished product now and we won’t be at the end of this week either. Every day we are trying to build ourselves and be the best team we can be.”

For Driscoll, the opener will mark a special day for him, no matter how things go. “It is going to be an array of emotions,” said Driscoll.

“It is going to be excitement, it is going to be humbling to set foot on a field that has been shared by so many great coaches and players. It is really exciting because it has been a lifelong dream to be associated with this program and take the field with these kids. It is a tremendous honor, they are a great group of girls. They work exceptionally hard, they are very charismatic, and they are very determined. I am ecstatic to get going and see what we can do.”