Goal Story

The Princeton women's soccer team has scored six goals in its history against its next two opponents, Ohio State and Syracuse. 

One of those goals was an own-goal. The remaining five goals belong to just two players. Can you name them? 

Now that's an obscure one. 

TigerBlog will give you a hint: This is from the story on goprincetontigers.com after the last meeting:

Princeton, now 3-0 against Big East teams this season, won its ninth straight game.

This tells you a few things. First, it had to be after the birth of the webpage in the late 1990s. Second, Syracuse was still in the Big East. 

Here's another hint: both players won the Ivy League Player of the Year Award. 

While you mull that over, TB will give you some specifics of the two upcoming games. Ohio State is here tonight at 7, while Syracuse will be here Sunday at 11 am.

Ohio State is ranked 25th nationally after last year's trip to the Sweet 16 and off to a 1-1-1 start, with a win over UNC Wilmington (1-0), a tie against Clemson (1-1) and a loss to South Carolina (1-0).

As for Syracuse, the Orange are 3-1, with wins over Charleston Southern, Niagara and Holy Cross and a loss to Canisius. 

Princeton is 0-1-1, with a 1-1 tie against Rutgers and a 2-1 loss to Loyola. It was a bit of a frustrating opening weekend for the Tigers, who outshot its two opponents by a combined 45-11. 

It is also possible that Princeton had its best goal it will have all year. That would be the one that Zoe Markesini scored against Loyola, a rocket from way outside the box. 

Here's a look at Zoe's goals from the award-winning week! pic.twitter.com/WEfoZ621jj

— Princeton WSoccer (@PrincetonWSoc) August 25, 2025

Could that have been any more impressive? It had everything — distance, power and perfect placement. When TB saw it live (on ESPN+ at least), he let out an audible "woa" at the shot. 

Markesini scored both Princeton goals last weekend, a performance that earned her Ivy League Offensive Defensive Player of the Week honors.  

Meanwhile, back at the two women who scored all five goals against this weekend's opponents, those two would be Emily Behncke and Esmeralda Negron, two names that should be familiar to even casual Princeton women's soccer fans. 

The game against Ohio State tonight will be the first ever between the two teams. The game Sunday against Syracuse will be the third in the series, with a pair of 3-1 wins, in 2003 and 2004. 

The own goal, plus single goals from Behncke and Negron, came in the 2003 game at Syracuse. The 2004 game, on old Lourie-Love Field, had two goals from Behncke and one from Negron. 

That 2004 Princeton team reached the NCAA Final Four, making it the only Ivy school ever to reach the Final Four in an NCAA tournament with at least 64 teams. That still stands. 

Those Tigers went 5-0 against Big East teams, with two of those wins against Villanova, in the second game of the season and then again in the NCAA second round. Villanova is still in the Big East.

The other three wins came against Syracuse, Rutgers and Boston College (Sweet 16). None of those three are still in the Big East, with 'Cuse and BC in the ACC and Rutgers in the Big Ten. 

Who would have foreseen any of that back when those games were played 21 years ago?  

That 2004 postseason run drew huge crowds to Lourie-Love, which was just a grass field with wooden stands, no restrooms, no team rooms, no press box and no concession stands. The success of that 2004 team led directly to the construction of the first Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium and, subsequently, its successor.

It's that new facility that will host the two games this weekend. Technically, Thursday isn't a weekend, but hey, close enough. 

Tonight it's Ohio State-Princeton at 7. Sunday it'll be Syracuse-Princeton at 11 am. Admission is free for all regular-season Princeton soccer games.