Women's soccer set to host St. John's in NCAA Tournament First Round

Saturday, November 13

Providence, R.I.

1:00 pm

Brown University

St. John's University

Tickets

Photo by: David Silverman Photography

Women's soccer set to host St. John's in NCAA Tournament First Round

11/12/2021 12:54:00 PM | Women's Soccer

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Brown women's soccer team will take on St. John's in the first round of the NCAA Tournament this Saturday, Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. at Stevenson-Pincince Field. It will be the Bear's second time hosting an NCAA first round game in as many seasons, after hosting and defeating Monmouth in the first round of the 2019 tournament.

Brown is fresh off one of the best regular seasons in program history, as the Bears won their 14^th Ivy Title and went 7-0 in conference action for the first time since the league expanded to eight teams in 1991. Brown is 9th in TopDrawerSoccer.com's national poll, 16^th in the United Soccer Coaches poll, and 21^st in the NCAA DI RPI.

St. John's is having an impressive season of its own, as the Red Storm have gone 12-6-2 and advanced to the championship game of the BIG EAST Tournament before eventually falling to Georgetown, but taking down No. 11 Xavier in the process.

The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Fans are strongly encouraged to purchase tickets online at BrownBears.com/tickets prior to their arrival at Stevenson-Pincince Field. Brown Athletics has moved to completely contactless ticketing, so fans should either download their digital tickets to display on a mobile device or print them at home prior to arrival.

Scouting the Bears (12-3-0, 7-0-0 IVY):

Brown claimed a trio of major Ivy awards this week as Brittany Raphino was named the Offensive Player of the Year, Kayla Duran the Defensive Player of the Year, and head coach Kia McNeill the Coach of the Year. Seven total Bears were named to the All-Ivy teams as well.
Raphino led the team, and the Ivy League, with a career-high 11 goals and 28 points on the year. Her six assists were tied for fourth in the league as well. She scored all three of the Bears' goals in their regular season finale at Yale last week. Her four game-winning goals on the season came against Holy Cross, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale.
Ava Seelenfreund, one of Brown's three All-Ivy First Team selections, was second on the team with eight goals and two assists for 18 points. She also had four game-winners on the year that came against Oklahoma State, Columbia, Cornell, and Penn. The strike vs. Penn claimed the Ivy Title for the Bears.
Brown saw 11 different players score at least one goal on the year. After Raphino and Seelenfreund, Miya Grant-Clavijo had four, Maesyn G'Bye had three, and three different players scored twice.
In goal, Kayla Thompson started all 15 games, recording 37 saves, a 1.03 goals against average, and a .712 save percentage. She was even better in Ivy games, posting a .57 goals against average and a .818 save percentage.
Against BIG EAST competition this season, Brown went 1-1. The Bears secured a commanding 5-0 win over UConn, but fell to Providence 2-1. Going back to 2019, Brown is 3-2 overall against BIG EAST teams.

Scouting the Red Storm (12-6-2, 6-3-1 BIG EAST):

St. John's finished fourth in the regular season BIG EAST standings at 6-3-1 in conference action and went on a run in the tournament, defeating Providence 2-1 in the quarterfinals, Xavier 1-0 in the semis, before falling to Georgetown 1-0 in the final.
The Red Storm had a schedule packed full of Ivy League competition, taking on three different Ivies from Aug. 27 to Sept. 19. They tied Columbia 3-3, went to overtime with Harvard, but fell 3-2, and was shutout by Yale 2-0. Since 2017, St. John's is 2-4 against the Ivy League.
St. John's top offensive threat is Zsani Kajan who has scored 17 goals this season and 39 total points. She scored at least two goals in five games and has two hat tricks on the year. Kajan scored nine of her goals in the team's first six games and recorded eight over the final 14. Not surprisingly, she was named the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year.
After Kajan, the Red Storm's next top scorer is Nicole Gordon who has 12 points from two goals and eight assists. Nine other players scored at least once for St. John's, with no one being responsible for more than three strikes.
Naya Lipkens has had a strong year in goal for St. John's, posting a .89 goals against average and a .811 save percentage.

Series History:

Brown is 3-1 all-time against St. John's with the most recent matchup coming in 2015, a 2-1 Bear win.
The Bears and Red Storm faced off every year for four straight years from 2012 through 2015. St. John's only win came in a 4-0 game in 2013. Overall, Brown has outscored the Red Storm 7-6.
This will be the first postseason meeting between the two sides.