The women's soccer team's Ivy League title aspirations slipped out of reach Sunday in Philadelphia. The University of Pennsylvania (8-4-3, 1-3-2 Ivy League) got past Brown's defense twice in the final 11 minutes to force a 2-2 tie. Brown (9-3-4, 3-1-2 Ivy League) now sits five points behind first-place Columbia in the standings with one game left to play.
Despite extremely windy conditions, Brown controlled the game on the pitch and the scoreboard until the final minutes. "The wind played havoc all day," said Head Coach Phil Pincince.
"It was hard to judge where the ball was going to go," said midfielder Jill Mansfield '07
In the first half, the Bears benefited from the wind at their backs. Penn's defenders had trouble communicating over the wind, leaving forward Lindsay Cunningham '09 wide open on the left side of the 18-yard box. The Bears worked the ball to Cunningham, whose shot into the right corner of the net gave Brown a 1-0 edge only 47 seconds into the game. The goal was Cunningham's fifth of the year, one short of her career-high - and last year's team-high - of six last season.
Cunningham almost gave the Bears a 2-0 lead later in the half with a shot that got behind goalkeeper Sara Rose but clanged off the right post.
In the second half, the Bears' offense went against the wind but still followed its usually successful script of scoring a quick insurance goal.
Mansfield took a long pass from forward and co-captain Kathryn Moos '07 and got behind Penn's defense. Mansfield chipped a shot over Cailly Carroll, Penn's backup goalkeeper, for her sixth score of the season at 53:10.
With just over 10 minutes remaining, freshman forward Jessica Fuccello turned the tables on the Bears, scoring two goals in eight minutes. First, Fuccello got behind the Brown defense and beat goalkeeper Brenna Hogue '10 to cut the Bears' lead in half at 2-1. Then, with just 1:36 remaining, Fuccello struck again with another shot past Hogue to knot the game at 2-2. Fuccello's nine goals on the year lead the Quakers and are the most for a Penn rookie since 2001.
Fuccello almost sent the Bears back to Providence with a loss in the first overtime when she got a one-on-one opportunity with Hogue from roughly 6 yards away. Hogue, however, denied the Penn phenom the hat trick, knocking the ball away at the last second - one of her career-high eight saves on the day.
After narrowly avoiding defeat in the first overtime, the Bears almost salvaged a victory in the second extra period when Moos finessed a ball to Mansfield in the box. But this time it was Carroll who came up with the big save, blocking Mansfield's shot.
When the final whistle blew, the team slumped to the field knowing full well that the Lions had defeated defending champion Yale 2-0 on Saturday and that its title hopes had been blown away. The tie locked Brown into third place - its highest finish since 2003.
Pincince applauded his players for not collapsing. "A lesser team would have let this disappear into a loss," he said. "The reason I say that is because of momentum shift. The last 11 minutes of the game, you know you're going to be dealing with a barrage. For them to tie it up with 1:36 left, a lot of teams would have folded up."
The tie extended the Bears' unbeaten streak to seven games, but ended their five game winning streak.
The Quakers' defense also halted Moos' scoring streak at five games. She did not spend much time lamenting its demise, though. "I don't really pay attention to goals and all that," Moos said. "I was just glad I was able to contribute."
In a rare event this season, Brown was out-shot 18-12 and had an eight-to-one disadvantage in corner kicks. "A lot of their shots were from long range," Pincince said. "The game was primarily played in the middle third of the field with a lot of the balls being launched. The end of the game ended up being an aerial attack. After a while (the ball) ends up on somebody's foot."
Bruno can still earn a double-digit victory season with a senior day win at Stevenson Field over defending Ivy League champion Yale at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Ten victories, three losses and an eight game unbeaten streak would also provide a convincing argument for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. "This is a big week for the NCAA making decisions," Pincince said. "We've already said 'one game at a time' and it's the last game. The best thing we can do is put our best foot forward and then the NCAA needs to decide."
