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 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption:
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Standing Tall, Matheson Produces Dynamic Debut to Help Tiger Women's Soccer Edge Texas A&M
By Bill Alden
Standing barely five feet tall, Diana Matheson looked like a high schooler as she lined up with her teammates on the Princeton University women's soccer team before last Friday night's season opener against Texas A&M.
It didn't take long, however, for the dynamic freshman midfielder from Canada to stand tall on the pitch at Lourie-Love field.
Just five minutes into the game, Matheson took a sweet feed from Esmeralda Negron and rifled it into the lower corner of the net to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead over the nationally ranked Aggies.
Negron added a goal on a penalty kick minutes later to give Princeton a 2-0 lead that it took into the halftime break.
With Texas A&M putting on the pressure in the last 45 minutes, Matheson darted and dribbled through the midfield, making one unerring touch after another to help Princeton hang on for a 2-1 win.
Afterward, the freckle-faced Matheson smiled through the sweat that her effort produced on the humid evening.
"I was just excited," said Matheson, reflecting on her goal. "I knew Es would see me, she's just an amazing player. I just got a good touch; I thought I made a good strike. It was a great way to start the year."
Matheson, who deferred admission to Princeton for a year to play with the Canadian national team, is developing a connection with her Tiger teammates despite having only played five days with them
"Shack (head coach Julie Shackford) has tried to put us together a lot and it's working," said Matheson, referring to her partnership with Negron, herself a member of the U.S. Under-21 women's national team.
"I'm just helping to move the ball and connecting the players. We have so many great players on this team."
Shackford, for her part, knows that she has something great in Matheson. "Diana is at another level when it comes to playmaking," asserted a beaming Shackford, who is now 99-49-10 in her decade heading the Princeton women's soccer program.
"She just sees things that other people don't. I think she is a natural playmaker who is able to link up the other players. We haven't had someone like her in that position. She also covers a lot of ground and does a lot of the dirty work besides her skill with the ball."
Shackford credited her whole club with taking care of the dirty work in the win over Texas A&M, who entered the evening ranked 11th in the country by Soccer Buzz magazine.
"We fought hard," said Shackford, whose club outshot Texas A&M 9-5 on the evening. "I thought we lost our legs a little bit in the second half. They've already played three games. Having said that, I thought we battled hard the whole way."
In Shackford's view, the win was the product of a total team effort. "There was nobody who played badly, they all played well," asserted Shackford.
"I thought Emily Behncke had a good game in the midfield, she was all over the field. Emily Vogelzang made the one save she needed to make early in the second half. She commanded her box. There was no shakiness about her."
The Tigers came into the evening determined to enhance their status on a national basis. Princeton and Texas A&M are two of the 19 teams who have made the NCAA tourney for the last five years with the Aggies having advanced to the Sweet 16 a year ago.
Shackford believed that her team made a statement with its sharp performance. "I'm kind of flabbergasted," said Shackford, whose club faces Villanova this Friday at Penn, looking to avenge its defeat to the Wildcats in last year's NCAA tourney.
"I didn't think we expected to get on top of them like that so early. This was a huge test for us and I thought we played well. This game should give us a lot of confidence."
Matheson acknowledged that her experience with the Canadian national team in the Women's World Cup gave her a major shot of confidence as she hit the pitch for the first time in her college career.
"It helped a lot," said Matheson, referring to her time with the Canadian national team. "You're playing with the best players in the world, going against teams like the United States. You get experience in high-pressure games."
Based on how Matheson performed last Friday, she will be putting a lot of pressure on Princeton's rivals this fall.
