Despite outplaying Harvard for most of the game, the women's soccer team needed overtime to secure a 2-1 victory over the Crimson at home Friday night. With the win, Brown (7-3-3, 2-1-1 Ivy League) vaulted into the top half of the Ancient Eight.
At the midway point of league play, Brown now sits in third place with seven points, five behind first-place Dartmouth. The loss drops Harvard to 2-2 in the conference (3-9-1 overall), effectively eliminating its chances of contending for the Ivy title.
Just over three minutes into the first overtime, midfielder Jill Mansfield '07 had a clear shot on goal but was taken down inside the 18-yard box by a Crimson defender. The hit was so hard that the referee awarded Brown a penalty kick without any dispute from the Harvard bench.
Co-captain Kathryn Moos '07, who had scored Brown's other goal early in the second half, was chosen to take the kick. With the crowd on its feet, she calmly stepped to the line and blasted a shot over diving Crimson goalkeeper Lauren Mann to give Brown the 2-1 victory.
Moos said she just stayed focused and ignored the pressure.
"You can't think about it," she said. "You've just got to pick a spot and shoot it."
"Lot of pressure on her," said Head Coach Phil Pincince of Moos' situation. "I think she handled it very well."
The goal, which came at 93:06, was Moos' league-leading 10th of the season.
"You always want someone to play the best soccer in their career in their last year because you always want them to peak," Pincince said. "If you watch Jill and you watch Moos, they are taking their careers to a peak. Both of them have risen to the occasion as far as their leadership on the field and delivered the goods."
For the first 15 minutes of the game, however, Harvard looked like it would be the team celebrating at the end of the night. The Crimson left the Bears little breathing room to dribble in the middle of the field and controlled play with some strong passing.
Mansfield, however, helped Brown turn the tide at 15:16 with a shot from the right side of the box. Mann had little hope of stopping the rocket, but the ball deflected off the far post.
From that moment on, Brown dictated the pace of play. Bruno out-shot Harvard 24-11 for the game and took all eight corner kicks. But the Bears failed to convert that statistical dominance into a goal in the first frame. Mansfield followed her shot off the crossbar with a couple of empty-net shots that sailed just wide.
"I was frustrated but confident that our team was not going to let down," she said.
Pincince said he was pleased with his team's play in the first half but also saw aspects it could improve. "We worked hard, but it was all individual work," he said. "We definitely needed to stay more connected and we needed to exploit the flanks. We didn't do that in the first half."
Midfielder Melissa Kim '10 created an opportunity on the left side at just over five minutes into the second stanza. Kim fed forward Lindsay Cunningham '09 with a long pass along the sideline. Cunningham slipped a ball into the nearside of the box for Moos, who deposited the shot into the lower left corner of the goal. Kim and Cunningham - the team's assist leader with seven - both received assists on the goal.
For the next 20 minutes, Brown maintained its lead despite Harvard's speed and changing tactics. "It was different because they changed systems within the game," said center-back Kerrilynn Carney '08.
Carney and the defense had to be aware of how many attackers the Crimson was bringing forward, a number that ranged from one to three as the game wore on.
At 81:26, the officials awarded Harvard a free kick from 35 yards out. The Crimson's Lizzy Nichols had been knocked down a few minutes before, but was selected to take the shot. Brown goalkeeper Brenna Hogue '10 appeared to misjudge the ball's high arch and it glanced off her gloves into the net to tie the game at 1-1.
The tying goal with less than nine minutes remaining proved to be the lone blemish in an otherwise spotless game for Hogue, who made five saves. "It was a ball that I thought we could have handled," Pincince said, "but those things happen."
The young Harvard team, whose roster has only two upperclassmen, celebrated on the field after the goal. "This was a real young, strong Harvard team." Pincince said. "They've got some speed. They've got some talent.
"But this was a big game," he continued. "This was bigger than life for them."
Thanks to Moos' and Mansfield's overtime heroics, Brown now sits in third place after bottom-dweller Cornell upset defending champion Yale 3-1. "We were close to losing it and now we're still in the race," Mansfield said.
The Bears play at the University of Rhode Island Wednesday at 4 p.m. and resume their Ivy League campaign Sunday against Cornell on Stevenson Field at noon.
