The women's soccer team kept its hopes of winning an Ivy League title alive this weekend by beating Cornell 2-1 in Ithaca Sunday. Two first-half goals from forward Eliza Marshall '13 and defender Diana Ohrt '13 gave Bruno (10-4-1, 3-2 Ivy) a crucial early advantage, and strong goalkeeping from MC Barrett '14 kept the Big Red (2-11-1, 0-4-1) from mounting a comeback. The Bears must now win the rest of their games to have a chance at grabbing first place.
"It was a big win," said Head Coach Phil Pincince. "It keeps us in the race going into our sixth Ivy championship game. We're not in the driver's seat, and we need to wait for things to happen, but at least we did our part this weekend."
"I thought we came out with great energy to match the amount of energy and emotion that Cornell had," Ohrt said. "For us to score early, that was a big thing."
Bruno opened the scoring in the first 10 minutes of play. Barrett picked up a loose ball in the box and distributed it to right back Gloria Chun '12, who drove up the line and sent an early cross into the box. Marshall timed her run to meet the ball at the near post, touching it around the goalie and volleying it into the open net. The goal was Marshall's team-leading sixth of the year and her fourth goal in the past four games.
But Cornell looked dangerous and appeared to tie the game 20 minutes later. A strike from outside the box took a deflection off a Big Red player and rolled into the net. But the goal was disallowed because of an offside call.
The Bears added to their lead two minutes later, this time from Ohrt. A Big Red defender headed a corner kick out of the box, only to see her clearance fall to the feet of Ohrt. The Bears' center back struck the ball powerfully inside the right post from 20 yards out to give Brown the 2-0 lead going into halftime.
Cornell nearly got on the score sheet just four minutes into the second half. A Big Red player was dragged down in the box, but Barrett punched away the ensuing penalty kick to keep the two-goal advantage.
Barrett was finally beaten in the 70th minute when Cornell's Kerry Schubert put home a rebound from inches out. Barrett deflected the initial shot off the post, but Schubert was first to the loose ball, bringing the score to 2-1.
Despite out-shooting the Bears 7-5 in the second half and earning four corner kicks, the Big Red could not find a tying goal. The Bears walked off the field with their 10th win of the year, already three more than the team's win total last season.
"To win 10 games this year is a great achievement," Pincince said. "We haven't had a team win 10 games since 2003."
Bruno moves on to play another crucial Ivy League match Saturday against Penn at Stevenson Field in the final home game of the season. The Bears must continue to win in order move ahead of first-place Harvard and second-place Penn.
"I think being at home will be a nice change," Ohrt said. "Hopefully we can get a lot of support and energy from being at home in a familiar environment to finish the season strong."
