Seldom does the road to sunny Tempe, Ariz., pass through dreary Erie, Pa., but that is the route the men's club soccer team took to qualify for the national tournament last weekend.
After breezing through the regular season with an 8-1-1 overall record, Brown took third place at the Region 1 Men's Club Soccer Tournament in Erie. The top-seeded Bears made it to the semifinals of the tournament but fell to Pennsylvania State University on penalty kicks, 5-4, after regulation ended in a tie. Despite the loss, the Bears still punched their tickets to the national tournament, hosted by Arizona State University beginning Nov. 16.
"This is the first time that Brown's men's club soccer team has ever qualified for the national tournament, so everyone is pretty excited right now," said captain Ben Safran '07.
Though the team was disappointed with the loss to the Nittany Lions, the defeat was far from heartbreaking. Brown went into the game sure of advancing to the national tournament because the top three schools in Region 1 qualify. With two squads from Cornell facing each other in the other semifinal, the Bears were guaranteed a trip to Tempe, regardless of how they finished.
Still, the team was upset that after outplaying three straight opponents, it did not return to Providence with the region title. Safran said he was especially displeased, as he missed a kick in the penalty round that wound up costing Brown the game.
"I thought I played well overall. ... I was disappointed to miss the last kick," he said. "It was really a total team effort."
Brown knew heading into the tournament that it would take an all-around team effort to accomplish its goals. Drawing their players from a pool of undergraduate and graduate students numbering almost 7,000, the Bears are at a disadvantage to schools like Cornell, which has an enrollment above 12,000, and Penn State, which has over 40,000 students.
"The teams we faced were really good, deep teams," Safran said. "A lot of the players could have played varsity at other schools. But even though we have a small pool to draw from, I think we are as talented player-for-player as anyone out there."
Brown was able to display that talent right from the start. After making the nine-hour drive from Providence to Erie last Friday, the team woke up for its game against the 16th-seeded College of New Jersey Saturday. Brown lived up to its No.1 ranking by pounding the college 6-0.
A 1-1 draw with Loyola College in Maryland later that afternoon earned Brown a ticket to the knockout round. Since Brown knew a draw would allow it to advance due to goal differential, the team was content to sit back and rely on its formidable backline to protect the tie.
The next day, the Bears found themselves locked in a tight battle on a rain-soaked field with Towson University, 1-1. With 15 minutes remaining, midfielder Stefan Schaffer '09 snuck a shot past the Towson keeper inside the near post for what would prove to be the game-winner.
"Stefan Schaffer had a great tournament," Safran said. "He was dynamic on the outside and really came into his own last weekend."
Colin Lentz '09 put the game out of reach a short time later when he bent a corner kick into the goal untouched.
Though the Bears could not keep the wins coming against Penn State later that day, they were more than happy on the drive back home. Now, the team will need to fundraise "a couple thousand dollars" to cover the costs of the trip west, Safran said.
"There's a lot of unknowns heading into nationals," Safran said. "It's a whole other level of competition but our goal is to win it."
Gugliotta '07 named Ivy player of the week
It seems the key to winning an Ivy League Player of the Week award recently is recording a hat trick. Two weeks ago, women's soccer co-captain Kathryn Moos '07 received the honor after notching three goals in a win over the University of Rhode Island. Last weekend, Stacy Gugliotta '07 of the field hockey team was named Ivy League Player of the Week after helping lead Brown to a 5-2 victory over Bucknell University.
Gugliotta scored the first goal of the game against the Bison to give Brown a 1-0 lead 21 minutes into the contest. She deposited two more in the back of the net to put the game out of reach late in the second half. On Wednesday, in a game against the College of the Holy Cross, Gugliotta chipped in two assists to help the Bears to their second straight win, 3-1.
With 18 points each, Gugliotta and fellow forward Andrea Posa '08 are the Ivy League's two leading scorers. Gugliotta's 18 points are a career high.
