Yale Ends Season With 1-0 Win Over Brown

by Tim Bennett

November 4, 2012

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Over the last four years, when Mary Kubiuk has scored, the result has usually been favorable for the Yale women’s soccer team. So perhaps it was only fitting that in the final game of her career, Kubiuk played a key role in sending the Class of 2013 off with a victory.

Kubiuk scored the only goal of the game just 5 minutes, 8 seconds in as Yale knocked off Brown before a nice Senior Day crowd at Reese Stadium.

Kubiuk finished with 13 goals in her career, and the Bulldogs were an impressive 10-1 in games she scored.

“Mary is probably the best pure goal scorer we have,” said Yale head coach Rudy Meredith. “She’s been great at providing us an offensive spark.”

Yale (8-7-2) ends the season on a four-game unbeaten streak and has now had a winning overall record in 10 of the last 11 years.

“I give our team a lot of credit. They bounced back from some tough early losses,” Meredith said. “Under the circumstances, with all of the injuries we had, I’m happy with how we ended the season.”

The winning goal came when Annie Hull sent a ball forward to Kubiuk, who made a couple of nice moves to get free and fired a shot up high and into the back of the net.

Kubiuk certainly wasn’t the only senior to contribute. Meredith started all seven of the healthy seniors (goalkeeper Adele Jackson-Gibson was out with an injury). Defenders Trish Berkanish, Torrey Leroy and Lauren Mathy were outstanding in keeping the Bears off the scoreboard. Captain Jenny Butwin anchored the midfield, and Kristen Forster and Annie Song were dangerous up front.

The eight seniors were honored in a pre-game ceremony.

Yale and Brown were playing for the second time in four days. The two teams played to a 2-2 tie in Providence on Thursday night in the game that counted in the Ivy League standings. The Bears (7-9-1) were the more physical team on Thursday, but Yale was more prepared for the rematch.

“We realized we had to be more physical today,” Meredith said.

Kubiuk’s goal came on the first shot of the game, and the Bulldogs nearly cashed in on their second as well. Berkanish fired a hard shot from the left wing that banged off the right post in the 10^th minute.

Brown’s best scoring chance came less than a minute later. Diana Ohrt headed a corner kick on goal, but Yale goalkeeper Elise Wilcox dove to her right to get a piece of it, and the rebound was cleared away.

Wilcox played the first half and made five saves. Rachel Ames then came on and stopped two shots over the final 45 minutes.

It was the fifth shutout of the season for the Bulldogs.

Brown outshot Yale 11-8, but the Bulldogs had an 8-5 edge in corner kicks.