MAKING HER MARK: Princeton University women’s soccer player Zoe Markesini boots the ball in a game last season. After being sidelined early last fall due to a leg injury, senior defender Markesini, a 2024 All-Ivy League second-team selection, is back in action and poised to produce a big final campaign for the Tigers. Princeton kicks off its 2026 campaign by hosting Loyola (0-0-2) on August 20. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)
By Justin Feil
heading into this fall, Sean Driscoll asked his Princeton University women’s soccer team to read What Drives Winning by former college basketball player Brad Ledbetter.
The book shares perspective not on how to win, but on how each individual can look inward to maximize their strengths to help the team the most.
“It’s a lot about personal journey,” said Driscoll, who begins his 12th season as the head coach of the Princeton program. “Working on your strengths, your mindset, how you can reframe things out self-talk that’s more in a positive vein, to hold each other accountable, to really present well for the team versus yourself, and understand that every time you step foot on the field and every time you’re in anything regarding the team, your individual decisions are incredibly influential in what happens with the group.”
The Tigers also read the book five years ago before enjoying a 15-3-1 season that included an Ivy League championship and an NCAA tournament win. Princeton would certainly be pleased with that level of success against a strong non-conference and talented Ivy schedule.
“Based on my experience in the last several years, every game is a dog fight,” said Driscoll. “I think clearly we’re an underdog in a couple of these games based on what I’m watching and the physicality and the athleticism. But I’ll say I think from a technical standpoint, top to bottom, I do feel we’re a really, really good team.”
The Tigers open the season hosting Loyola (0-0-2) on August 20 at Roberts Stadium before going on the road to face Syracuse (1-0-1) on August 23. On the heels of that looms a game against nationally ranked West Virginia on August 27.
“If we have a favorable run through the non-conference schedule, then it really sets us up well,” said Driscoll. “Obviously, if you have an unfavorable one where you’re losing quite a bit and not getting the confidence and not scoring the goals and not getting clean sheets, then it yields the other result, which then you need to find a way to get on the right track quickly.”
Last year, it took one of the most incredible turnarounds in program history just to finish 8-6-3 overall and 5-2 in the Ivies to secure a second straight conference crown. They’re the first team in Ivy history to win the league with two losses.
“It was an incredible turnaround,” said Driscoll. “We had to make some adjustments. Kids really bought in. And so they were incredibly resilient, especially with all the injuries.”
Princeton lost both Zoe Markesini, arguably its top player, and Brooke Dawahare within the first four games of the season. The Tigers did not record a win until the sixth game of the year as they started 0-2-3 overall.
“Losing them early last year was crushing,” said Driscoll, whose team went 1-2 in its first three Ivy games last fall before catching fire. “It really did kind of rattle us. And then we also lost Alex [Barry] later in the season to a shoulder injury, and then she barely trained in the spring.”
The three injured represented all-conference players up the spine of the team, yet the Tigers were able to find the depth to replace them and rode the play of All-Ivy selections Drew Coomans, Pia Beaulieu, Kelsee Wozniak, and Dylan Jovanovic to the Ivy crown and a berth in the Ivy tournament final.
Only Jovanovic is returning along with Barry, but because Princeton had to use so many players last year to fill their gaps, they do have some good experience back, which is important with 15 players that are either sophomores or freshmen. Four freshmen were ranked in the top 200 recruits by Top Drawer Soccer, led by defender Victoria Adams of Naperville, Ill.
“Their job is to make ours really difficult in terms of
selecting who plays in games,” said Driscoll. “The more we have, the more we can handle travel, the more we can handle games in closer proximity, the more we can compete in training, the more we make our training sessions the more difficult, the better our games will be in preparation. So depth is essential for success.”
There are plenty of Tigers returning who got playing time a year ago. Barry (5 goals, 4 assists in 2025) and Jovanovic (2 goals, 6 assists) are the leading returning scorers along with senior Isabella Garces (3 goals) and sophomores Nina Cantor (2 goals, 2 assists) and Maddie Recupero (2 goals, 2 assists). But scoring wasn’t a strength for the Tigers a year ago. Only Barry had more than three goals on the season. Instead it was Princeton’s resilient nature that keyed the turnabout, and that’s something that can’t be measured in the preseason.
“I like a lot of the vibe I feel with the team,” said Driscoll. “I like the attitude. I like the dynamic. I really, really like what I’m seeing — the coachability, the investment, the engagement, everything on my end that I’m seeing is great; really, really as good as I’ve seen in a while. But the one question is going to be what happens when things don’t go as planned?”
Last year’s rough start could have torpedoed the entire season for a less resilient group. And Princeton will be facing another daunting non-conference schedule. They’ll play nine teams before opening Ivy action against Harvard on September 26. Ohio State is another currently ranked team that the Tigers will face in that span, along with a Rutgers team that also makes for the top in-state rivalry. Patriot foes Colgate and Lehigh are on the schedule ahead of another matchup against a Villanova team that will be looking to avenge last year’s loss. It’s a mix of levels that should challenge Princeton over the first month.
“Based on my experience in the last several years, every game is a dog fight,” said Driscoll. “I think clearly we’re an underdog in a couple of these games based on what I’m watching and the physicality and the athleticism. But from a technical standpoint, I do feel we’re a really, really good team. The challenge, of course, when you start to get against the upper echelon teams, the top 25, is that they have that plus the superior athleticism. We have to match that in areas where we may be deficient.”
Princeton will try to counter with pace of play while sorting out matchups that they can exploit. The quicker they can dictate their playing style and figure out mismatches, the more chances of success they’ll have. Doing so against a challenging non-conference schedule can set the Tigers up for Ivy play.
“Obviously last year we went through that real run where we struggled, and in a lot of ways, it killed our confidence,” said Driscoll. “And so you have to have that balance — the challenge of any schedule is to find some games where potentially you’re a favorite, where you can hopefully get some sort of momentum going and some confidence. And you have to find some where there are .500 games where it could happen your way, it could happen the other way. And you have to find some where you’re the underdog because all three of those mentalities, when you approach a game, are really important to kind of navigate.”
Princeton will be looking for a third straight Ivy regular-season crown. They’d like to go further and earn a spot in the NCAA tournament as well. The task grows harder each year as the Ivy teams have continued to develop to compete with anyone. Last year, Princeton fell 1-0 in the Ivy tournament final to Dartmouth to end its season.
“The quality of the league since I’ve been here is only improved,” said Driscoll. “I think it’s not a surprise if teams get results against ‘bigger name programs.’ I think our coaches in general are trying to play better competition for the chances to have at-large bids and just to help the overall conference RPI (Rating Percentage Index). That’s something we all try to do. I know our schedule is really difficult. Looking across the league, I see that everyone is challenging themselves. So it’s a really, really good league.”
The Tigers got a little taste of the league already ahead of the start of the season. Princeton comes off a promising scrimmage at Penn on Saturday in which the Tigers looked sharp over the first 30-minute period, then had a few more lapses over the next two periods.
“I thought overall from a team perspective some really good performances,” said Driscoll. “Ultimately it gives us a lot of things to focus on in preparation for this week.”
The preparations as a team have been underway since the first week of August. Their preseason work together, including discussions based on What Drives Winning, have set the stage for the next step, which is getting into a challenging non-conference schedule that could set the tone for winning down the road to secure an NCAA tournament berth.
“What’s happened over the last five times we’ve been in the league, you earn the tournament bid, we wind up playing against incredible competition,” said Driscoll. “So we’ll see what we do.”