Ivy League Sports

The women athletes of Brown combined to win a total of 22 Ivy League titles in the 1980s, and perhaps the school’s most notable achievement was its decade-long dominance in soccer. Coached by Phil Pincince, the program first won the League soccer championship in 1980. After slipping to second place the following year, the team came back to repeat as Ivy champions for the next eight years. In 1982, the Bears were invited to the first NCAA soccer tournament, and they advanced to the quarterfinals in 1983 and 1984.

Three women — Colleen O’Day, Theresa Hirschauer, and Suzanne Bailey — took turns leading the Brown soccer dynasty. O’Day was a four-time first team All-Ivy selection on four consecutive Ivy League championship teams, from 1982 to 1985. The 1984 team allowed just three goals in the regular season and, with a 13-1-1 record, was ranked second nationally and awarded the number one seed in the NCAA tournament. A two-time All-American, O’Day was the Co-Ivy League Player of the Year in 1985.

Hirschauer followed O’Day and was the dominant player in the League from 1985 to 1988, earning first team All-Ivy honors in all four years of her career and being selected as the League’s Rookie of the Year in 1985 and Player of the Year in 1988. Hirschauer ended her career as Brown’s and the Ivy League’s all-time leading goal scorer (62) and point producer (131). An All-New England and All-America honoree as a senior, Hirschauer was also Rhode Island’s Female Athlete of the Year in 1988. Bailey’s career included the 1990 Ivy League Player of the Year distinction as well as four consecutive selections to the All-Ivy first team. A two-time first team All-Ivy lacrosse honoree as well, Bailey set school records for career goals (141) and goals in a season (60) in the spring sport en route to 1991 Player of the Year honors.

In doing so, she became the fifth female athlete in League history to earn player of the year status in two sports in the same academic year.

Brown’s softball team, also coached by Pincince, won its first Ivy League title in 1982. In 1986, the team shared the title with Princeton and entered post-season play for the first time, participating in the ECAC championships. Meanwhile, in volleyball, Brown won its first Ivy championship in 1988, catapulting from its position as the fifth seed into the champion’s position with victories over Yale, Princeton, and Pennsylvania twice in the Ivy tournament.

The field hockey team shared its first-ever Ivy League championship in 1984 with Dartmouth. Janet Akaishi and Lauren Becker were named to the All-Ivy first team, the first Brown players to achieve that honor. In 1989, the team took both the Ivy championship and the ECAC title. A three-time first team All-Ivy field hockey selection, Becker still holds the school’s record for goals in a game. A two-sport athlete at Brown, she also was the Ivy League Player of the Year in lacrosse in 1987.

Brown won its first Ivy League swimming and diving title in 1983 and finished second at the EAIAW championships. The next year, continuing under head coach Dave Roach, who currently serves as the school’s athletic director, the swimming and diving team won its second Ivy championship by emerging as the top League finisher at the Eastern Women’s Swimming League (EWSL) Championships. Elaine Palmer was that team’s best performer, earning All-America honors in three events at the NCAA championships and setting six school records and four League marks in the process. Meanwhile, the quartet of Palmer, Diane Makarewicz, Emily Picerne, and Donna Williams finished eighth in the 200-yard medley relay at the 1984 NCAA championships, setting a Brown- and Ivy-record time and achieving All-America recognition for all four swimmers. In 1985, Brown’s 400-yard freestyle relay team won the EWSL championship, the school’s first title in the event. Kendall Delgado won the 200-yard backstroke and 400-yard individual medley and placed third in the 500-yard freestyle and fourth in the 1,650-yard freestyle — which combined to earn her the Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet award.

There were other impressive individual accomplishments in the decade. Jennifer Loomis won the discus title four years in a row, starting in 1984, at the Heptagonal Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Sue Cutler holds the honor of being Brown’s only four-time All-Ivy honoree in squash. A four-time first team All-American, Cutler was also ranked in the top ten of squash nationally, and she was named first team All-Ivy in lacrosse in 1985. Runner Anne Sullivan had her best year of competition in 1980, with a first-place finish in the Rhode Island AIAW championship, second place at the New England championship, and 18th place (out of 200) at the national championship. Sullivan ran a personal-best time of 2:37:11 at the 1984 Boston Marathon, the fastest time of any American woman in the race.

Basketball player Donna Yaffe became Brown’s leading career scorer in 1985, with 1,779 points, a record that stood until Vita Redding broke it in 1999. Yaffe was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 1982, Player of the Year as a sophomore in 1983 and again in 1985, and was a first team All-Ivy selection and an All-American in all three years. Also an Academic All-American for three years, Yaffe played professionally in Sweden and Finland following graduation.