Anchored by a group of returning seniors, the women’s soccer team is entering the season with hopes of a conference title. After finishing last season with a 1-5-1 Ivy League record — second to last in the conference — Brown spent the offseason developing new offensive styles.
“We’ve been focusing on being a lot more creative in our attack,” said goalkeeper Mary Catherine Barrett ’14. “This year, we have a lot more options.”
Emily Wingrove ’14 said the changes are an attempt to improve the team’s goal-scoring capabilities.
“We only scored 15 goals last year,” Wingrove said. “We changed our formation to score a lot more this year.”
Bruno’s corps of eight returning seniors will give the team “more experience” than other conference squads, Wingrove said. Heading those seniors is captain Mika Siegelman ’14, a first team all-Ivy forward and midfielder who won the Ridgely MVP Award — voted on by the team’s members — at the end of last season.
“Mika’s got amazing feet,” Barrett said. “She’s one of the most technically skilled players in the league.”
“For our seniors, winning conference has always been one of our biggest goals,” Wingrove said. Barrett agreed, calling the Ivy title something “always in the back of our minds.”
A number of other skilled Ivy teams stand in Bruno’s path. Princeton, last year’s undefeated conference champion, will return with what Wingrove called “a very talented team.”
“Princeton was incredible last year, and they retained a lot of great players,” Wingrove said. “Harvard had one of the top recruiting classes in the conference, while (Penn) had a really strong offense last year and keeps a lot of returning seniors.”
Brown kicks off its season Friday with a non-conference game at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.
“As a Division I school, (Quinnipiac’s) going to be good,” Wingrove said. “We’re hoping to have a strong defense but really be on the attack and score a lot of goals.”
After trekking to Quinnipiac, Bruno will have its first home match Sunday at 1 p.m. in another non-conference tilt against St. John’s University.
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