| NEWS |
  
|
| FEATURES |
| ENTERTAINMENT |
  
|
| COLUMNS |
     |
| CONTACT US |
|
| HOW TO SUBMIT |
|
|
| BACK ISSUES |
|
|
 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption:
|
Trigg-Smith's Heady Play a Major Factor For 12th-Ranked Tiger Women's Soccer
By Bill Alden
Romy Trigg-Smith may have come to the Princeton University women's soccer program from the state of Hawaii but that doesn't mean she won't mix it up in the mud.
After the Tigers edged visiting Rutgers 1-0 last week at a damp, chilly Lourie-Love Field, Trigg-Smith's grin glowed through the blades of grass stuck to her forehead and the dirt caked on her cheek.
Even though she was soaked with sweat and grass stains, the star junior defender eschewed a sweatshirt as she reflected on the hard-earned victory.
"My body heat is keeping me warm," said Trigg-Smith with a chuckle. "The game with Rutgers is always competitive. We consider it one of our toughest games. It's always a big, aggressive game."
As usual this fall, Trigg-Smith was the linchpin of another aggressive defensive effort from the Tigers who shut down Rutgers' top gun, Carli Lloyd.
On Saturday, Trigg-Smith and her partners on the back line were at it again as they put the clamps on visiting Brown in a 2-0 win that improved 12th-ranked Princeton to 9-1 overall and 3-0 in the Ivy League.
So far this fall, the Tigers have yielded a microscopic total of three goals in their ten outings. In the view of Trigg-Smith, who was named the women's soccer Ivy League Player of the Week in mid-September, the team's stellar defensive performance has been triggered by a special bond.
"I think it's reading each other, we all know how each other plays," said Trigg-Smith, who is joined in the defense by a quartet of seniors, Brea Griffiths, Elizabeth Pillion, and the Willis twins, Janine and Rochelle.
"Last year was my first year playing on the back line. I was definitely nervous, being a natural midfielder. The experience that Brea and I have from playing together since last year helps a lot. We have a lot of confidence in each other.²
Trigg-Smith has enjoyed the experience of coming east for college. "I moved to Hawaii when I was five and lived there for 13 years," recalled Trigg-Smith, whose mother is Scottish and father is English.
"It was warm all the time with no change of seasons. I felt like I needed a change and I got it. When we played Cornell my freshman year, it actually started snowing during the game. That was the first time I had seen snow. I'm thinking I'm playing soccer in the snow, what's going on?"
Princeton head coach Julie Shackford will tell you that Trigg-Smith knows exactly what's going on this fall on the pitch.
"She's been great, I think she has been one of our top three players," asserted Shackford of Trigg-Smith, an architecture major who was an Academic All-Ivy selection in 2003.
"She reminds me of Heather Deerin (a four-time All-Ivy defender for Princeton), she steps in, plus her feet are so good that she is able to find people with the ball. I'll be surprised if she's not All-Ivy this year, she's been phenomenal."
While the Tigers have gotten off to a sizzling start, they aren't a phenomenal team yet in Shackford's view. "We are where we want to be in terms of results," explained Shackford, who got goals from Pillion and Diana Matheson in the win over Brown which gave Princeton a program-record 11th straight win at home. "I still think that there are a lot of things that we can do better."
With the Tigers having gone five straight NCAA tournaments, Shackford has high aspirations for this year's group.
"There is no doubt that talent-wise I think we can play with anyone in the country," declared Shackford, whose club plays at Columbia on October 16.
"It's a matter of finding their mentality. Sometimes they go out and they don't go to the game. They let the game come to them. We need to come out and assert ourselves. We have four or five players who can break down defense and they need to do it more consistently."
Trigg-Smith, for one, is confident that the Tigers can reach that higher level. "Just playing on the field with them is so much fun," said Trigg-Smith. "I can honestly say that even in practice, when we get things going, everything is so intense and fun. It just makes it amazing to go out everyday and play."
While Trigg-Smith has come a long way to play for Princeton, she and the Tigers could be in for a unique journey this fall.
