Women's Soccer Weekly Release - Week 10

Complete Women's Soccer Release in pdf format

Photos courtesy of Brown and Dartmouth Athletics Communications and Princeton Athletic Communications

PRINCETON, N.J. -- The race to the Ivy League women’s soccer title comes down to the final week of the regular season. With one conference contest remaining on the schedule, Princeton is the only team that controls its own destiny.

The Tigers (12-3-1. 6-0-0 Ivy) need a win over Penn on Saturday to clinch their first title and NCAA Tournament appearance since 2008, their first outright championship since 2004 and become the first team to go undefeated in Ivy play since that same 2004 squad. But victories by the Quakers (9-5-1, 5-1-0 Ivy) and Dartmouth (12-4-0, 5-1-0), which faces Cornell on Saturday, would force a three-way tie for the League title.

Should that occur, Dartmouth, Penn and Princeton would all be Ivy champions and the League office would conduct a drawing to determine which team will represent the Ivy League in the NCAA Tournament.

All three teams did what they needed to do last week to remain in the hunt. Princeton defeated Cornell, 5-1, behind two goals and one assist from sophomore Lauren Lazo. Penn held off a pesky Brown squad (7-8-0, 1-5-0 Ivy) to win in overtime, 1-0, on a goal in the 95th minute by sophomore Megan York. Dartmouth defeated last year’s League champion Harvard (8-5-3, 2-3-1 Ivy), 2-0. Sophomore Tasha Wilkins scored both goals for the Big Green. In the fourth Ivy game last week, Columbia (6-8-1, 2-3-1 Ivy) and Yale (7-7-1, 1-4-1 Ivy) battled to a 1-1 draw.

In non-conference action, Princeton senior Jen Hoy scored in overtime to give the Tigers a 2-1 win over La Salle. For Hoy, it was her 17th goal of the season, which leads the League. Yale needed a little more time than that to defeat Fairfield, as senior Anne Song scored in the 104th minute to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 victory. Brown and Harvard squared off in a non-conference contest, with the Crimson coming out ahead in overtime, 1-0.

The action this week will determine who will advance to the NCAA Tournament. Yale and Brown will play on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.; that game will be broadcast on the Fox Soccer Channel. On Saturday, Columbia hosts Harvard at noon, Dartmouth faces Cornell at 3:00 p.m. and Princeton takes on Penn at 4:00 p.m. Sunday features the final game of the Ivy League regular season, a non-conference matchup between Brown and Yale at 2:00 p.m.

CO-PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
A pair of sophomores made sure that their respective teams did not suffer a setback last week, as Dartmouth’s Tasha Wilkins (Portland, Ore.) and Princeton’s Lauren Lazo (Scottsdale, Ariz.) each tallied multi-goal games to lead their squads to victory.

Needing a win over the defending League champion to remain in the playoff picture, Dartmouth got two goals from Wilkins in a 2-0 victory over Harvard. It was Wilkins’ first multi-goal game of her career and both scores came within a 10-minutes of each other late in the second half. Her first tally in the 76th minute came off an assist from Emma Brush and proved to be the gamewinner, but she made sure to ice the contest with another score in the 86th minute.

Wilkins takes home her first career Ivy League weekly award and is the third Big Green to earn Player of the Week honors this season, joining Brush (Sept. 10) and Aurelia Solomon (Oct. 15).

Wilkins’ Weekly Stats
1 GP, 2G, 4 Pts., 2 Shots, 2 SOG, 1 GW

Lazo continued her breakout season, finishing with seven points on three goals and one assist in a pair of victories for the Tigers. Lazo scored the equalizer in the 75th minute of Princeton’s eventual 2-1 overtime win over La Salle and then recorded her second multi-goal game of the season in the Tigers’ 5-1 win over Cornell while also tallying an assist.

Lazo has set career-highs in goals (seven), assists (five) and points (19) this season. All seven goals have come in the last seven games for Princeton, all wins. She earns her third career Ivy League weekly award after being named Rookie of the Week twice last season. She is the third Tiger to earn Player of the Week in 2012, joining Jen Hoy (Sept. 3, Sept. 24, Oct. 15) and Rachel Sheehy (Oct. 22). Princeton has received Player of the Week honors for three-straight weeks.

Lazo’s Weekly Stats
2 GP, 3G, 1A, 7 Pts., 3 Shots, 2 SOG

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Brown dropped both of its games last week, but it was not for lack of trying. The Bears suffered a pair of 1-0 overtime losses last week, first to Harvard and then to Penn. Brown freshman Sarah Moody (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) was a key figure on the Bears defense that held strong against the defending League champion Crimson and the Quakers, who are currently tied for second-place.

Moody is the first Brown player to earn an Ivy League weekly award this season, and the first Bear to take home Rookie of the Week since Chloe Cross on Sept. 19, 2011.

Moody’s Weekly Stats
2 GP

Honor Roll
Amber Bledsoe, Brown (Jr., GK – Cincinnati)
2 GP-2 GS, 185:51 Mins., 2 GA, 0.97 GAA, 7 Svs., .778 Sv. %, 0-2-0

Beverly Leon, Columbia (Jr., M – Wrentham, Mass.)
1 GP, 1G, 2 Pts., 3 Shots, 2 SOG

Anne Song, Yale (Sr., F – Hudson, Ohio)
2 GP, 1G, 1A, 3 Pts., 2 Shots, 1 SOG, 1 GW

Elizabeth Weisman, Harvard (Jr., F – Atherton, Calif.)
2 GP, 1G, 2 Pts., 2 Shots, 1 SOG, 1 GW

Megan York, Penn (So., F – Chicago)
1 GP, 1G, 2 Pts., 5 Shots, 1 SOG, 1 GW

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Thursday, November 1
*Yale at Brown^, 7 pm

Saturday, November 3
*Columbia at Harvard, 12 pm
*Dartmouth at Cornell, 3 pm
*Penn at Princeton, 4 pm

Sunday, November 4
Brown at Yale, 2 pm

KEY
*-Ivy League Contest
^-Fox Sports Channel