On Sunday, women’s soccer (2-2-3) faced off against No. 17 Ohio State (6-1-1). Despite Bruno’s impressive stat sheet, the Buckeyes sent the Bears home with a 2-0 loss, their second of the season.
The Bears remain winless against the Buckeyes through two matchups, the first loss being a 3-2 defeat in 2022.
While the Bears had numerous chances in the second half, the game had already been decided within the first twenty minutes. After a shot that didn’t find the net in the first two minutes of the game, the Buckeyes earned a corner at almost exactly the four-minute mark. A successful conversion brought them a 1-0 lead within five minutes of play.
According to captain Alexis “Lexi” Quinn ’25, the Bears did not “show up like Brown Women’s Soccer.” The team struggled to find their feet and “were stepping out late,” “out of position” and “not pressing as a team.”
“It was a complete mess,” Quinn wrote in a message to The Herald.
Quinn played the full 90 minutes at center-back, keeping the team’s press organized and the backline intact.
“Instead of putting out fires in front of the goal and making last-ditch sliding efforts to get the ball out of the net, a good center back should be organizing the midfield, keeping their line and dictating the press’s shifting,” she wrote about her performance.
After a relatively quiet period with neither team registering a shot on goal, Ohio State restarted their attack. After two passes got the Buckeyes into the final third, a short drive and well-placed shot outside of the box put the Bears down by two.
“We had a slow start against Ohio State and conceded two goals early,” Head Coach Kia McNeill wrote in a message to The Herald. “I think it was just a lapse of focus in those two moments, and good teams will punish you for those types of mistakes.”
Bruno managed to create a few of their own chances, but were not clinical enough in front of goal to score.
Soon after Ohio State’s second goal, the Bears found their first chance of the day, slicing open the Buckeyes’s back line and putting Joy Okonye ’27 through on goal. But her shot was saved, preventing the Bears from drawing one back.
The same happened later in the second half, when Angelina Vargas ’27 found herself driving in on goal after a well-placed pass beat the backline once again. However, Vargas’s attempt to find the far post didn’t have the power to beat the keeper and the ball was once again saved.
“We just need a bit more composure in front of goal,” McNeill wrote. “I’m happy we are generating chances, but now we have to reward ourselves and take care of our chances.”
The second half was dominated by the Bears whose substitutes gave them a newfound confidence.
“The subs came on ready to play,” Quinn wrote. “Sometimes, when our starters are playing afraid to make mistakes and lose their spot, it’s nice to have fresh legs come on with this pride and fight to prove their worth and earn their spot.”
Bruno registered nine shots in the second and forced three saves out of the Ohio State keeper. Individually, Nadja Meite ’28 notched four of the Bears’ 13 shots.
“As the first half drew to a close we had all the momentum. And then in the second half we just went at ‘em,” Quinn wrote. “And honestly, we gave them a run for their money.”
Despite the loss, the second-half performance against Ohio State might give the team newfound confidence as conference play approaches. The short gap between now and the first Ivy game against Harvard will also give the Bears time to improve.
“I think the biggest thing I want our team to continue to work on is our quality and decision-making in the final third,” McNeill wrote.
Bruno closes out non-conference play on Thursday looking for a road victory against Northeastern.
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.
