On Saturday evening in Philadelphia, the women’s soccer team (7-2-2, 1-0-1 Ivy) took on Penn (5-4-2, 0-1-1) for its second Ivy League match of the season.
After Brown secured a decisive 4-0 win against Columbia on Sept. 26, Saturday’s draw against Penn put Bruno to the No. 2 spot in the Ivy League.
Despite both sides’ inability to convert any opportunities in the first half, both teams scored two goals in the second. The game’s result marks the first draw of the Ivy League season.
“This was a gutsy performance from our team,” Head Coach Kia McNeill wrote in an email to The Herald. “We knew Penn was going to throw everything at us and give us their best performance, and they certainly did.”
From the opening whistle, the Bears went on the offensive, keeping play largely within Penn’s half of the pitch.
Five minutes in, defender Kyra Treanor ’28 launched the first shot of the game. The ball careened through the air in the direction of the net, but the Quakers’ goalkeeper Josephine Hensley made an acrobatic leap to the side and deftly caught the ball, keeping the game scoreless.
Penn fought back against Brown’s aggressiveness. Dashing upfield, Penn forward Abbey Cook dribbled toward Brown goalkeeper Addison Etter ’29. Though Etter dove in an effort to intercept the ball, Cook managed to maneuver past her and shoot on goal. But her shot sailed wide right.
Cook’s attempt would prove to be the only Quaker shot on goal of the first half, while the Bears shot on goal five times.
Twenty-four minutes into the game, the lights at Penn’s Rhodes Field went out, momentarily plunging the pitch into darkness and halting play.
In the 38th minute, Hensley saved the Bears’ final shot on goal of the half. The game went into halftime with the score deadlocked at 0-0.
Just over 10 minutes into the second half, midfielder Joy Okonye ’27 found herself with a corner kick. Her shot arced toward the front of the goal, heading directly for her teammate, midfielder Brooke Birtwistle ’28. Despite two Quakers leaping to intercept the ball, Birtwistle firmly headed it into the goal, giving Brown a 1-0 lead.
About five minutes after Birtwistle’s goal, Penn’s forward Lily White charged forward and intercepted the ball from Bruno. She quickly passed to her teammate midfielder Magalí Capdevila, who launched the ball ahead of where Cook was sprinting.
Cook easily caught up with the pass and rapidly approached Brown’s goal. As Etter hustled forward, Cook kicked the ball to her right, and her shot found the back of the net, levelling the score to 1-1.
As the game approached the final 15 minutes, it seemed like a 1-1 draw was inevitable. Penn’s forward Camarin Choi streaked up the pitch, outpacing all Brown defenders, but Etter knocked Choi’s shot wide in an incredible save.
In the next minute, disaster struck for Brown. A corner kick from Penn sent the ball sailing into a cluster of Bears and Quakers just in front of the goal, from where the ball emerged and bounced toward the net. In an attempt to score, Cook stumbled but still managed to head the ball into the net.
Brown challenged the goal, asserting that it was a handball, but a replay of the moment proved that it was Cook’s head, not hand, that made contact with the ball, confirming Penn’s 2-1 lead.
The Bears could not score in the following 11 minutes despite earning three corner kicks and four shots.
With just four minutes remaining, Capdevila received the first and only yellow card of the game. As a result, Birtwistle was awarded a free kick from near midfield.
Birtwistle’s shot soared high over the throng of players clustered just outside the penalty box, and over Penn goalkeeper Henley’s outstretched hands, finding the back of the net. Having tied the score at 2-2 with a stunning second goal, Birtwistle fell to her knees.
“I was honestly overcome with emotion,” Birtwistle said in an interview with ESPN. “I looked at the scoreboard. I was like, what, we have 3 minutes left? There’s no way we drove all this way to lose points.”
“I feel like we played very well, but we didn’t play up to our standards, so if I have to score two goals for my team, I might have to do that,” she added.
Following the final whistle, the score rested at 2-2. McNeill was “really pleased with (the) team’s ability to stay calm and composed in that moment,” she wrote.
“Obviously we would have loved to come away with the win, but at this point in the season, every point matters,” McNeill wrote. “Finding a way to get a result keeps us right in the hunt for the Ivy Tournament and the Ivy League championship.”
The Bears will face Yale (5-6, 0-2) this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at home. The Bulldogs currently sit at the bottom of the Ivy League.
Rahul Sameer is a staff writer from Singapore. He plans to concentrate in Applied Mathematics. In his free time, he plays tennis and Mahjong.
