Women’s Soccer Defeats Yale 5-2 to Open Ivy League Play

Sunday, September 21

New Haven, Conn.

4 p.m.

Brown University

7-1-2, 1-0-0

Yale

2-6-0, 0-1-0

Brown

Yale

Photo by: Tyus Phengkaen

Women’s Soccer Defeats Yale 5-2 to Open Ivy League Play

9/21/2025 6:49:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Brown women's soccer team (7-1-2) defeated the Yale Bulldogs (2-6-0) 5-2 in their first Ivy League game of the season.

In the first half, the Bears asserted their dominance. About 17 minutes into the game, Joy Okonye dribbled through the middle of the defense with precision before sniping a goal from outside the 18-yard box into the top corner.

Later in the half, senior defender Naya Cardoza scored for a fourth straight game. She spun on her defender and tucked the ball into the lower corner.

Okonye scored just three minutes later with another exceptional goal. She knifed through the defense and fired a long range shot that hit the crossbar and went into the net to help the Bears to a commanding 3-0 lead.

Yale added a goal in the 32^nd minute, and the Bears took a 3-1 lead into halftime.

Junior forward Corine Gregory scored with Yale defenders surrounding her to make it 4-1. The ball deflected off a Bulldog defender, but still found the back of the net to continue Brown's momentum.

The Bulldogs scored a second goal to tighten the lead back to two. Less than six minutes later, the Bears prevented them from gaining any momentum of their own as Ayla Sahin scored with a great individual effort.

The Bears held on to win 5-2. They outshot Yale 19-15 with 13 shots on goal. They earned six corners and were dominant from start to finish.

"I'm really happy with today's performance," said Messing Family Head Coach Kia McNeill. "Winning our first Ivy game 5–2 on the road is a great way to start conference play. Yale is a strong team with some special players up top, so we knew it was going to be a battle and a game where we had to capitalize on our opportunities in the final third. I think our ability to score in a variety of ways is really starting to show, especially in these last few games and it's great to see that we have several different players scoring as well. With three games in eight days, it'll be good to give the team a bit of rest and then shift our focus to getting ready for Columbia next week."

Brown will travel to New York for their second Ivy League matchup. They'll take on the Columbia Lions on Saturday, September 27, with kickoff set for 6 p.m.

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