Brown women’s soccer (6-4-5, 3-2-2 Ivy League), having already secured a spot as the No. 3 seed in the Ivy League Tournament, traveled to face Dartmouth (7-6-3, 1-4-2) on Saturday to wrap up the regular season. Despite Bruno taking control early in the game, a late concession gave the Big Green a 1-0 win.
The Bears are undefeated at home, but only have one win on the road this season.
The clinched playoff spot took “some pressure off the game, but in general, we always want to show up to every game as our best selves and compete to win regardless,” Head Coach Kia McNeill wrote in an email to The Herald. Some players were dealing with sickness and nagging injuries, which also impacted the game.
Though Bruno generated more offensive chances than Dartmouth and had clear control of the game, the team could not find a breakthrough.
“Soccer can be a cruel game,” McNeill wrote. “The big lesson we take from that game is we have to take care of our opportunities when we get them.”
The Bears dominated the opening phases of the game. Within 15 minutes, Joy Okonye ’27 had kicked the ball to Dartmouth’s net, but she was flagged for being offside. This pattern of play continued through the opening half, as Bruno outshot the Big Green 11-2 and had five corners to Dartmouth’s zero. Many of Brown’s attacks came through the skillful play of Nadja Meite ’28, who connected well with her teammates in the midfield to generate multiple shot attempts.
Brown’s best opportunity in the game up to that point came at the 37-minute mark, when Chesney Robinson ’28 made a driving run with the ball through the center of the pitch. Her shot from outside the box beat the goalkeeper, but rebounded off the crossbar.
The tempo slowed down once the two teams came out for the second half, with each team generating chances to score. As the clock wound down and a tie seemed inevitable, a defensive lapse from Brown proved to be the difference.
With under five minutes remaining, a hopeful ball played in behind the Bears’ defense fell to the feet of Dartmouth’s Hannah Curtin. Rounding Brown goalkeeper Gurleen Toor ’27, Curtin slotted into the empty net to break the deadlock and give the Big Green their first and only Ivy win of the season.
“The goal was a matter of us not judging the flight of the initial service and second ball well enough and we got punished for that,” McNeill wrote. “It should have never really come down to that play because we had more than enough chances to put the game away before that.”
But Brown’s focus turns to a looming postseason match-up against the No. 2 seed Columbia in the Ivy Tournament, hosted by No. 1 seed Princeton. Last season, the Lions upset the No. 1 seeded Bears in the semifinal match in Providence. In their only match this year, the two teams drew 1-1.
In a season following the loss of the program’s core offensive trio, which led them to four consecutive Ivy regular-season titles, Brown women’s soccer now looks to sustain their recent success as they transition to a new era.
“We are all excited to be back in the postseason, and hope to continue our season as long as possible,” McNeill wrote. ”The team is hungry to redeem ourselves from our loss last weekend and our tie against Columbia earlier this season.”
