On a day of triumph for Brown Athletics, Bears fans settled into their seats to watch women’s soccer (4-2-3) hand Harvard their first loss of the season (4-1-4).
With Harvard coming into the game unbeaten following a draw against No. 24 ranked Santa Clara less than a week prior and the Bears riding a string of four consecutive Ivy titles, the match-up was highly anticipated — and it lived up to the hype.
From its outset, the game was a battle of coaching philosophies. Harvard looked to play out from the back, avoiding long balls and hoping to methodically find their way into the Bears’ box. The Bears favored a more direct approach, attacking heavily on the press and trying to win the ball upfield.
“Historically, we're a high press, high energy team. We know that Harvard wants to keep the ball and be very methodical in their build out,” Head Coach Kia McNeill said. “So we really wanted to deny that as much as possible.”
After flirting with danger in the early minutes, during which Harvard created confusion in and around the six-yard box, the Bears finally settled in. From that point, Harvard was challenged in possession and had no way to play through the Bears’ suffocating formation.
“First and foremost, (this was) just a good team win,” defender Layla Shell ’25.5 said. “I feel like we came in with a game plan and we executed it really well. We swarmed them pretty much the entirety of the game.”
While the Bears held up defensively, they struggled to finish with force offensively. But that changed after Ayla Sahin ’28 was subbed in. Her speed helped the Bears easily break the Crimson’s backline. Sahin had the best opportunity thus far around 30 minutes in, but her shot was ultimately parried by Harvard’s keeper.
One of Harvard’s strengths is their talented midfield, so Bruno made it their mission to keep them off the ball and force plays down the wing. Despite a pair of loose moments — one of which led to Harvard’s lone goal — the Bears kept Harvard’s best talents out of the match.
“Obviously their midfield is outstanding,” Shell said. “So (it’s) obviously not an easy job to deal with, but I think we did a really good job of just over-communicating and sticking to our game plan.”
If all Shell had done was keep the midfield quiet, it would have been enough — but her most important contribution came late in the first half, when the Bears won a corner and Karlie Schlosser ’25 stepped up to take it. The corner swung over all the players, and Shell found it at the back post to head it home, giving the Bears their first lead of the night.
From then on, the Bears held Harvard down. When the halftime whistle rang, the Crimson were thankful to hear it.
Unfortunately for the Bears, Harvard came out aggressive early in the second half. What the Bears had done so well, pressing and containing the center, fell apart for only one moment — but that was long enough. Driving through the center, Harvard slotted a pass between Bruno’s backline to find a free player on the right, who drove a successful shot to equalize the score 1-1.
But the Bears settled back into the match soon after, getting themselves down the pitch and winning another corner.
Once again, Schlosser stepped up and put the ball in the box for Ella Weil ’28, who sent it flying into the top of the net to win the game for the Bears.
Schlosser, who assisted from the corner on both goals, was also virtually unbeatable on the right. Because of her crushing defensive presence, Harvard found no service from that side of the pitch.
Schlosser called her performance “a testament to a lot of the preparation I've had over the past three years.”
“I couldn't do it without the support of my team, I play for them … so it's exciting to shut down everyone in the back,” she added.
McNeil noted the team’s stellar set piece play, as both Brown goals came from corners.“We knew that Harvard was susceptible to set pieces, and it's something that we really pride ourselves on,” McNeil said. “I'm glad it showed itself tonight.”
While long-time veterans like Schlosser and Shell stepped up, McNeil chose to deploy four first-years in the starting lineup — a decision that paid off.
Weil scored the game-winner, Nadja Meite ’28 and Chesney Robinson ’28 were key in keeping the press alive in the attacking half and Kyra Treanor ’28 shone on the left-side of defense. That’s not to mention the attacking potential demonstrated by Sahin and Isabelle Chukwu ’28 off the bench.
While pre-season discussion centered around who the Bears lost last season, attention is shifting to who the Bears have brought in.
“It's amazing how our freshmen have come in and made an immediate impact with this team. They're contributing in big-time games,” McNeil said. Since they’re just rookies, McNeil added, “they've got a lot of room to grow, too.”
Bruno returns to Ivy play on Saturday in Princeton, where they will try to stay unbeaten facing the Tigers.
Dennis Carey is a Sports Editor who enjoys playing volleyball, listening to and collecting vinyl records, and poorly playing the guitar in his spare time.
