ITHACA, N.Y. — Joy Okonye and Corine Gregory scored first-half goals to lead Brown to a 2-0 victory over Cornell on Senior Day at Berman Field on Saturday afternoon.
Okonye opened the scoring in the 31st minute with a right-footed shot off passes from Angelina Vargas and Nadja Meite. The attempt deflected off Cornell senior defender
Gaby Gonzalez inside the goal area to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.
Gregory doubled the advantage just seven minutes later, finishing off a corner kick from Audrey Lam with a goal in a scramble inside the box.
The two first-half goals proved to be all Brown (9-2-4, 3-1-2 Ivy League) would need, as goalkeeper freshman goalkeeper Addison Etter turned away all seven Cornell shots on target to earn her first career victory and solo clean sheet.
Cornell (5-6-4, 2-4-0 Ivy League) came out aggressively in the second half, outshooting the Bears 10-6 after intermission. Senior midfielder
Tanum Nelson led Cornell's offensive push with a game-high five shots, testing Etter multiple times. The Brown goalkeeper made crucial saves on attempts from Nelson, sophomore midfielder
Ivy Tolbert, Gonzalez, and senior midfielders
Mariana Kessinger and
Abigail Bishara.
Despite outshooting Brown 16-11 for the match, Cornell couldn't solve Etter. Big Red goalkeeper
Natalie Medugno made three saves in the losing effort.
"We played really well for the most part," said Cornell women's soccer head coach
Rob Ferguson. "In the second half, we controlled pretty much everything with our intensity. In the first half, maybe that wasn't quite where it could have been, but we still played pretty well. We were pretty organized defensively and work out where we made the mistakes and fix that."
MATCH NOTES
• Brown increased its lead in the all-time series over Cornell to 32-7-4 and has now won each of the last 14 meetings against the Big Red.
• Nelson matched her career high in shot attempts (five) for the third time. Her five shot attempts were the most by a Big Red player in a match since
Laken Gallman also had five against Princeton on Sept. 28, 2024.
UP NEXT
Cornell will conclude its regular-season slate next Saturday, Nov. 1, when it travels to Hanover, N.H., to face Dartmouth (7-3-4, 2-1-2 Ivy League). Kickoff between the Big Red and Big Green at Burnham Field is scheduled for 5 p.m., with match action streaming live on ESPN+.
