Around the Ivies Season Review: Brown

With the spring semester already having begun at Dartmouth but around the corner for the rest of the Ancient Eight, The Crimson takes a look at the fall semester for each athletic program and the season that was in each major sport. First up, the Brown Bears.

Football:

Although finishing third in the league in 2012, the Brown football team enjoyed an eerily similar season to 2011, where they finished second. In both years, the team notched seven victories while outscoring opponents by almost exactly 50 points (50 in ’11, 51 in ’12). Led by quarterback Patrick Donnelly’s 226 yards per game and 15 touchdowns, the Bears won four of five after starting the season with conference losses against Harvard and Princeton. The lone exception was a 20-17 road loss to Penn where Brown took a 17-14 lead on a Cody Taulbee 1-yard touchdown plunge with three minutes to go, only to see Penn twice drive down the field for game-tying and game-winning field goals. Donnelly will graduate this year as the Bears look to take a three-game season ending winning streak as momentum into 2013.

Men’s Water Polo:

The 14th-ranked Brown water polo team finished second and fifth in its two most important tournaments of the year, losing to St. Francis in the finals of the CWPA Northern Championships and defeating No. 17 Navy to take fifth in the CWPA Eastern Championships. Senior Svetozar Stefanovic was named CWPA Northern Division Player of the year for the fourth consecutive season and joined teammates James McNamara and Henry Fox on the CWPA First Team All-North. The team won 29 of its 33 matches, beginning the season with seven straight victories to win the Brown Labor Day Weekend Tournament, one of two tournament victories (along with the Ivy League Championships) it took home on the year.

Women’s Volleyball:

For the fourth consecutive year, Brown could not escape the basement of the Ancient Eight. The Bears have alternated between seventh and eighth during that time, finishing a game ahead of their 2011-2012 squad this year. After winning two of three to start the season at the Central Connecticut and CCSU Invitationals, the Bears stumbled in losing five of their next six, capturing only three of a possible eighteen total sets over that time frame. Freshman Maddie Lord provided a bright spot for the squad, finishing eighth in the conference in kills.

Men’s Golf:

After a last place finish at the Ivy League Golf championships last fall, the Brown golf team was honored in the offseason with a GCAA Team Academic Award, posting the second highest cumulative grade point average in Division I. After an early fifth place finish in the Navy Invitational, the team posted three consecutive top-15 finishes before ending the season with a season-best effort in the Ivy League match play tournament. Sophomore Justin Miller won two of three matches on the weekend to help the Bears defeat both Harvard and Princeton en route to a third place finish.

Women’s Golf:

The Brown golf team had a busy 2011, competing in nine tournaments and playing 23 rounds of golf—both of which tied for or led the Ancient Eight. The Bears posted an average score of 314.26 strokes per round, edging out Columbia and Penn for second best in the conference. Low scorer sophomore Stephanie Hsieh finished the semester fifth in the conference last year, posting an average score of just 4.7 strokes above par but has improved even as she fell to eighth in the conference. Hsieh cut her strokes per round by nearly one whole stroke but the rest of the team has struggled to replace 2011 top-25 seniors Megan Touhy, Heath Arison, and Carly Arison. Hsieh is the only Bear in the top 25, although freshmen Juliette Garay and Lauren Flynn both rank in the top 35.

Women’s Soccer:

After a season in which they outscored their opponents by ten goals and finished with 10 wins and a fourth-place finish in the Ancient Eight, the Brown women’s soccer team regressed in 2012. The Bears won only one game and notched only seven wins against six losses. Brown benefited from strong net play, with goalie Amber Bledsoe leading the league in save percentage and backup MC Barrett finished fifth. Splitting time in the goal, the two gave up a combined 18 goals. On the offensive side of the ball, Chloe Cross led the conference with 69 shots and led the team with five goals.

Men’s Soccer:

After finishing first in the Ivy League a season before, the Brown soccer team finished third in the Ancient Eight in 2012 but ended the season ranked No. 15 in the nation. The team lost only one game in conference play but lost its final game of the season in overtime to Dartmouth in a loss that cost it the Ivy crown. The team defeated Drexel in the first round of the NCAA championship before falling in the second to two seed Maryland. Three members of the team (seniors Sam Kernan-Schloss, Dylan Remick, and Ryan McDuff) were named to Academic All-Ivy squads and Remick was named an All-American by the NCAA and invited to the 2013 MLS Player Combine. Remick led the team with seven assists and tossed in two goals as well.

Field Hockey:

A year after the winless 2011 squad finished last in the Ivy League, the Brown field hockey team scored its first conference win since the 2010 team won three straight to end the year. The team won four of its last ten games after a 2-5 start to the season, and sophomore Meghan O’Donnell finished sixth in the conference in goals. O’Donnell had three game-winning goals for the Bears and scored four goals in Brown’s three game winning streak in late October. Fellow sophomores Clayton Christus and Shannon McSweeney, along with O’Donnell and freshman Alexis Miller, were given 2012 All-Ivy honors.