Unlike the Bears' success in last week's games, the Minnesota Gold Classic was not followed by a celebration for the No. 21 women's soccer team.
Coming off of two outstanding games against top ranked teams, the team fell to the Minnesota Gophers on Friday night by a score of 2-0. In its second game of the tournament, Brown tied the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2-2 on Sunday.
Following the trend of prior games, the Bears were outshot by Minnesota, 24-9, with a corresponding 10-4 deficit in shots on goal. Coming out of this weekend's games, the Bears are sporting a 33-70 deficit in shots, but they still have managed a 2-2-2 record through an exceptionally difficult non-conference schedule.
Head Coach Phil Pincince commented that he believes all four teams participating in the tournament are of "high quality and national caliber." National polls agree, as Brown, Boston University, Milwaukee and Minnesota all received votes in the latest NSCAA poll.
Minnesota's first goal came in the 11th minute when Gophers' forward Lindsey Schwartz won a fight for the ball from Brown's defenders. Her shot from 20 yards out sailed into the upper right corner of the goal to give Minnesota the lead.
Later in the half, Minnesota's Kaitlin Wagner put the Gophers up by two. Her 25-yard free kick managed to hook past tri-captain goalkeeper Brenna Hogue '10.
The play by both sides stayed the same through the second half with Minnesota retaining most of the possessions. The Gophers outshot the Bears in the second half by a 13-4 margin, limiting their chances for a comeback. The game also resulted in Minnesota holding an 11-2 edge in corner kicks.
Meanwhile, the Bears were able to hold the Gophers scoreless in the second half as Hogue recorded eight saves.
Minnesota went into Friday's match with a perfect record, having won their first eight games prior to facing Brown. Ultimately, the Gophers took their own tournament title by winning their game against BU on Sunday.
Milwaukee placed second in the tournament, finishing 1-0-1 and the Bears took third with a 0-1-1 record. Both Lindsay Cunningham '09 and Hogue were named to the Minnesota Gold Classic All-Tournament Team.
The Bears brought back some of the offensive fire that they had played with in the UConn Classic for Sunday's match against Milwaukee. Even though the Panthers appeared to have more scoring chances, the Bears capitalized when opportunities presented themselves. Melissa Kim '10 managed to score the first goal, at the 15:32 mark, after a series of rebounds that followed a corner kick by Silvia Stone '11.
Milwaukee's Sarah Teegarden tied the game at 1-1 less than fifteen minutes later off a header.
Only 8:11 after returning from halftime, Kate Megna put Milwaukee up 2-1. The Bears answered back swiftly and got even less than 10 minutes after Megna's goal.
Bridget Ballard '10 directed a cross to the middle of the box forcing the Milwaukee goalkeeper, Erin Kane, to come off of her line to play the ball. Cunningham got to the ball before Kane and sent a header into the net on a play that midfielder Kim characterized as "really pretty."
Much of the one-sided dynamic of Friday's game followed the team into Sunday's game with Milwaukee garnering ample scoring opportunities. Though outshot 27-15, what made the difference on Sunday was the increased drive with which the Bears played, Kim said.
"I think we came out more intense than we did on Friday," Kim said.
Cunningham reiterated the greater "intensity," but also pointed out "of course, the way to win is to score."
Hogue held off another opponent's strong attack, living up to her Player of the Week nomination from Soccer America magazine last week.
"Brenna played very well," Pincince said. "She made two big-time saves in our game against Milwaukee."
Sunday's hard-fought tie leaves Brown feeling "confident and pretty excited about the way things are going," Kim said, as the team prepares to take on BU and its first Ivy opponent Dartmouth on Wednesday and Sunday, respectively.
"Playing these games makes our team better," Pincince said.
