Even after 109 minutes of disappointing play, no one on the Penn women's soccer team could have expected the 110th and final minute to turn into such a nightmare.
The Quakers' perfect Ivy season and six-match winning streak came to an end with the sweep of Kerrilynn Carney's foot yesterday afternoon in Providence, R.I. The Bears' senior co-captain netted a free kick from 25 yards out in the second overtime to give Brown the 1-0 victory.
The golden goal came just 18 seconds before the game would have been called a scoreless draw.
With the loss, Penn (11-3-1, 4-1) falls into a first-place tie with Princeton, which slid past Cornell 1-0 yesterday afternoon.
"Obviously we're disappointed," coach Darren Ambrose said. "I think there are a lot of players who are disappointed with their individual performances."
After scoring at least two goals in each of their previous five contests, the Red and Blue looked sluggish in the early stages of the match, managing only two first-half shots.
"They came out strong, and we just didn't react well to it, especially in the first half," captain Natalie Capuano said.
Sophomore Jess Rothenheber put it more bluntly: "I don't think we came out ready to play."
Still, despite the Quakers' sloppy start, they were able to keep the aggressive Bears attack out of the net in the opening frame. As the second half wore on, it was Penn that dominated possession and created opportunities.
"I'm disappointed in the fact that we didn't play well in the first part of the game," Ambrose said. "We didn't really get ourselves into the game until later in the second half."
Brown goalie Steffi Yellin recorded six saves to earn the shutout, including a spectacular lunging stop on a shot off the foot of Jessica Fuccello from well inside the box late in the second half. Fuccello's four shots led the Quakers, but her five-game scoring streak came to a screeching halt.
Penn set the tempo in the overtime periods, putting Brown on the defensive for the majority of the final 20 minutes of play. But it was the Bears (6-8-1, 3-2) who finally cashed in, capitalizing on the last legitimate scoring chance that either team had when Carney drilled the free kick over a host of Penn defenders and into the top-left corner of the net.
Despite the setback, the Quakers still control their own destiny heading into Saturday's pivotal clash with the Tigers at Rhodes Field.
"Naturally [the loss to Brown] is a big disappointment," said Rothenheber, "but we're definitely looking past it already and getting focused on Princeton."
