The field hockey team picked an opportune time to score its first first-half goal of the season on Wednesday, with the tally tying the University of Rhode Island at 1-1, but that goal was the lone bright spot for Brown. The Rams eventually pulled away and won 4-1 on the strength of Jill Powers' hat trick.
The loss on Warner Roof dropped Brown's record to 0-6 heading into a key showdown at Harvard on Saturday, but co-captain Ani Kazarian '08 remained positive.
"I think that, overall, we played well," Kazarian said. "We have a lot of things to work on, which is fine. We're still in the beginning of our season. We're still taking those improvements and trying to implement them in our games. Hopefully we'll be ready for Harvard."
URI came out strong and scored an early goal. Powers scored her first goal at 8:20 when she pounced on a rebound after a penalty corner and put the ball in the back of the cage.
Then Brown struck back to tie the game. Entering the game, the Bears had been outscored 9-0 in first half play overall this season, but Brown created two quick penalty corners. On the second one, Victoria Sacco '09 was able to slip the ball past Rams goaltender M.J. Britt at 12:07 for her first goal of the season.
"Whitney Knowlton ('10) took a shot at the top of the circle, (but) the goalie saved it," Sacco said. "She pushed it out, and I happened to just be in the right place at the right time to squeeze it in the goal."
For the Bears, the goal demonstrated great progress, fulfilling one of their goals for the game.
"It definitely got us right back in the game," Sacco said. "We were able to pick it up and tie the game up. It was definitely a step forward."
That was as good as it got for Brown. URI scored again 13:09 later, when goalie Kristen Hodavance '08 laid out to stop a shot, allowing Jeannie Records to secure the rebound and fire a shot over her legs. The Rams did not waste their 10-3 shot advantage in the first half, taking a 2-1 lead into halftime.
URI's defense stiffened in the second half, leaving Brown few chances at the outset of the second half. Powers struck again at 47:27 when she tipped in a shot by Records to give the Rams a 3-1 lead.
The Bears fought back and mounted strong offensive pressure from the 57th minute up until URI called a timeout with 9:34 left, but were not able to score. Powers iced the game with 2:43 left when she came down the right side of the field and beat Hodavance, who finished with 8 saves, with a shot to the far corner of the cage.
Kazarian said one positive element of the game was that Brown took advantage of its depth. She noted that sophomores Abby Hein '10 and Nora Malgieri '10 both started at forward.
"A lot of different people (played)," she said. "It's nice that we have depth on our team so that we can push a lot of people up and (have them) play a lot of different positions."
Now the Bears must focus on Harvard, whom they face on Saturday in Cambridge. The Bears have suffered one loss to an Ivy League opponent, to Dartmouth two weeks ago. "Right now, all our focus is on the Harvard game," Sacco said. "It's our second Ivy League game. We really want to turn the season around. We can still win the league. We can still make this happen. We're putting all of our focus and all of our energy on the Harvard game."
