No. 18 Women’s Soccer Clinches Ivy Title, NCAA Bid with 1-0 Win over Penn

Saturday, November 2

Providence, RI

7:00 PM

Brown University

13-1-1, 6-0-0Ivy

University of Pennsylvania

8-6-1, 2-4-0Ivy

Penn

Brown

No. 18 Women’s Soccer Clinches Ivy Title, NCAA Bid with 1-0 Win over Penn

11/2/2019 11:26:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Photo Gallery

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Senior Abby Carchio converted a penalty kick in the 110^th minute, lifting No. 18 Brown University women's soccer to a 1-0 win over Penn in double overtime on Saturday night at Stevenson-Pincince Field, as the Bears clinched their first Ivy League title since 1994 and earned the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Championships.

With 30 seconds left in the second overtime period, Carchio (Lakeville, Mass.) drove a penalty kick into the right side of the goal as the Bears (13-1-1, 6-0-0 Ivy) topped the Quakers (8-6-1, 2-4-0 Ivy) to gain a share of their 13^th Ivy League title all-time, tied for the most league crowns in conference history.

"It's never easy in the Ivy League," Brown head coach Kia McNeill said. "We know that every game is a battle. Obviously, we were playing for something today – playing for a championship. We knew that Penn would not let us come out of here easy with a win."

Brown – ranked No. 7 in the NCAA RPI, No. 9 in the Top Drawer Soccer poll, and No. 18 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll – has tied a program record with 13 wins on the year, matching the teams from 1977, 1984, and 2000. The Bears have now posted six Ivy wins for the seventh time in program history and for the first time since 1994.

"We knew it was going to take some time and that we would need to be patient," McNeill said. "We could have shown more composure in moments, but it doesn't get more composed than what Abby just did in the end there."

With one Ivy game left for each team in the conference, Brown has 18 league points – three points ahead of second-place Harvard (15 points). With their head-to-head victory over the Crimson, the Bears have clinched the Ivy League's automatic bid into the NCAA Championships.

"I'm really proud of the seniors," McNeill said. "I'm really happy that Abby was the one to put that away at the end. Everything has come full circle with this group."

Brown is set to make its seventh all-time appearance in the NCAA Championships and first since 1994. The selection show for the championships will take place on Monday, Nov. 11 at 4:30 p.m. on NCAA.com. First round games will be played on either Nov. 15, Nov. 16, or Nov. 17.

"I'm just happy that this team put it all together," McNeill said. "It has just been such an incredible season."

Brown improved to 10-0-0 at home on the year and has outscored opponents, 21-2. The 10 victories mark a program record for home wins in a season. The Bears have now gone 13-0-0 in their last 13 home matches, outscoring opponents 32-3. The win streak is one shy of the program-record 14 straight wins from 1976-78.

The Bears – ranked second in the NCAA in fewest goals allowed and third in save percentage – have now posted 11 shutouts as a team this season, one clean sheet shy of the program-record 12 shutouts in 1984.

Junior goalkeeper Kayla Thompson (Austin, Texas) – who ranks fifth in the NCAA in save percentage – made five saves in her eighth shutout of the season – the fourth-most clean sheets in a single season in program history.

Brown's back four of junior center backs Sydney Cummings (Millstone Township, N.J.) and Cameron Brown (Portsmouth, Va.), sophomore Lauren Hinton (Middletown, Conn.), and freshman Rachyl Francisco (San Jose, Calif.) all contributed to the team's fourth Ivy shutout of the year.

Cummings has now played all 1,390 minutes on the season and has helped Brown post 22 shutouts since 2017.

Carchio netted her third goal – and first game-winning goal – of the season. She now has 16 career goals and five career game-winning goals. Carchio improved to 3-for-3 on penalty kicks in her career.

Prior to the game, the Bears honored their four seniors – Carchio, Andie Gilmore (Walpole, Mass.), Abby Kaplan (Potomac, Md.), and Celia Story (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) – for their dedication to the program as part of Senior Night.

As part of her five-save effort, Thompson made a pair of acrobatic stops to keep the Quakers off the scoreboard. In the 35^th minute she dove to her left to deny a bid, and in the 64^th minute she parried a shot from close range over the crossbar.

Freshman Brittany Raphino (Randolph, Mass.) nearly scored in regulation as her shot from the edge of the penalty area in the 53^rd minute required a finger-tip save from Penn goalkeeper Kitty Qu that ricocheted off the left post following the tip. Qu finished the match with 10 saves.

For the match, Brown led in shots (27-12) and shots on goal (11-5) while the two teams stood even in corner kicks (6-6). Carchio led all players with 11 shots and five shots on goal.

Brown improved to 13-0-0 on the year when scoring first and to 6-0-0 in Saturday games, while extending its winning streak to seven matches.

Next, Brown hosts Merrimack in its non-conference finale on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 7:00 p.m. (ESPN+) before playing at Yale in its regular season finale on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 1:00 p.m. (ESPN+).

Video of all Brown women's soccer home contests and all Ivy League games, home and away, will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

Tickets for all Brown women's soccer games can be purchased online, by calling the Brown Athletics Ticket Office at (401) 863-2773, or by walking up to the box office located in the Pizzitola Sports Center, open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Gallery: (11/2/2019) 2019 Ivy League Champions