Cornell University's women's soccer team needs a victory at Brown on Saturday to keep its Ivy League Tournament hopes alive with two conference matches remaining.
The Big Red's final regular-season road match starts at 3:30 p.m. October 31 at Stevenson-Pincince Field in Providence, Rhode Island. ESPN+ will carry the match, according to Cornell's preview.
Cornell enters at 5-6-3 overall and 1-3-1 in Ivy play after a 1-1 draw with Penn. Brown is 9-3-2 and 3-1-1 in the league following a 1-0 victory over Harvard.
Two wins and help needed
The Ithaca team has four points in the standings and can finish with no more than 10. Cornell needs wins at Brown and at home against Dartmouth the following Saturday, plus help elsewhere, to reach the top four.
Columbia leads the league with 12 points, followed by Brown with 10. Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton each have nine, Penn has five, Cornell has four and Yale has none.
One more victory would give Cornell six wins in a season for the first time since 2015. Its current five wins match last season's total.
A second league win would also give the Big Red multiple Ivy victories in three consecutive seasons for the first time since 2014-16.
Gibbons leads the attack; Kerrigan pursues another shutout
Senior midfielder Emily Gibbons leads Cornell with five goals and 12 points. She is the program's third player since 2015 to score five goals in a season, joining Ava Laden and Laken Gallman.
Freshman goalkeeper Sofia Kerrigan has five clean sheets, tied with Sherrie Chocola for the third-most by a Cornell freshman. Another would tie Kate Alexander's six for second on that list; Kate Thompson holds the freshman record with nine.
Kerrigan leads Ivy goalkeepers with 3.62 saves per match. Her 47 saves and .712 save percentage rank second in the league, while her 1.46 goals-against average ranks sixth, according to Cornell.
The Big Red has converted three penalty kicks, matching its single-season record set in 1987. Gibbons scored the record-tying penalty in the league-opening win over Yale on Sept. 26.
Sophomore defender Raya Leikin converted the first two penalties against Lafayette on Aug. 27. She became the first Cornell player to score multiple penalty-kick goals in one match, according to the university.
Cornell also produced its highest-scoring match in more than a decade with a 6-1 win over Holy Cross on Oct. 13. Hayes Wheeler's goal at 89:59 was the latest regulation goal in program history.
Brown is unbeaten at home
The Bears are 8-0 at Stevenson-Pincince Field this season, outscoring visitors 28-3. They have won the last 14 meetings with Cornell and are unbeaten in the past 16.
Cornell last beat Brown in 2008. Brown won last season's meeting 2-0 in Ithaca and the teams' previous meeting in Providence 1-0 in 2024.
Senior midfielder Joy Okonye leads Brown with 16 points, eight assists and 44 shots. Senior forward Angelina Vargas has a team-high six goals, including three game-winners.
Junior defender Brooke Birtwistle has scored five times in her last six matches and has played every minute this season. Jael-Marie Guy scored the winner against Harvard.
Brown has used two goalkeepers: Addison Etter has a 7-2-2 record with a 1.21 goals-against average, while Gurleen Toor is 2-1 with a 0.83 average in four starts.
The Bears can clinch an Ivy tournament berth with a victory if Harvard does not beat Penn. Other results involving Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia and Princeton could also secure Brown's place, Cornell said.
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