Women's Soccer 10/24/2009 12:00:00 AM

Bulldogs Edge Penn 2-1; Back In Tie For Ivy League Lead

Adele Jackson-Gibson Makes Five Saves In First Career Start

PHILADELPHIA - It was a good day all-around for the Yale women's soccer team. Becky Brown and Kristen Forster scored, and Adele Jackson-Gibson made five saves in goal in her first career start as Yale edged Penn 2-1 on a rainy afternoon at Rhodes Field.

Meanwhile, in Cambridge, Mass., Princeton got a goal late in the second half to edge Harvard 1-0. As a result, the Bulldogs and Crimson are back in a first-place tie in the Ivy League.

Yale's defense did an outstanding job frustrating Penn's Jessica Fuccello, who came into the game second in the nation with 16 goals. She did not register a shot and was given two yellow cards in a three-minute span of the second half and as a result, ejected from the game.

"It was a tremendous team effort," said Yale head coach Rudy Meredith. "We had only 15 healthy bodies so we needed contributions from everybody. The leadership from our seniors has been outstanding."

The Bulldogs (9-5, 4-1 Ivy) jumped on the board at 21:01 when Brown took a ball along the left side from Kristen Forster and easily beat Quaker goalkeeper Gina Winters with a shot to the far post. It was Brown's 12th goal of the season.

She almost netted another one just seconds into the second half when she rocketed a shot that beat Winters but rang off the crossbar.

Yale, though, got a much-needed insurance goal midway through the second half. Mary Kubiuk played a ball into the front of the goalmouth. Forster stopped it about 10 yards from the net, beat a defender, and shot one past Winters' right.

"We had two quality goals," Meredith said.

Sarah Friedman scored for the Quakers (8-4-2, 2-3 Ivy) on a free kick at 81:24 and Penn nearly tied it a minute later, but Jackson-Gibson snared an Alex Dayneka shot from right in front.

"Adele played a tremendous game in very inclement weather," Meredith said. "She held down a very high-scoring team."