When the NCAA tournament bracket was released Monday afternoon, Brown was one of two teams from New England to see its name called.
Ivy League champions for the first time since 1994, the No. 17 Bears (14-2-1) had known for nearly two weeks that their postseason hopes would carry deep into November. They’ll now host Monmouth, winners of four straight MAAC titles, in a first-round matchup Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Stevenson-Pincince Field, with the winner advancing to face either South Alabama or Florida State, the defending national champion.
But Brown head coach Kia McNeill (Avon, Conn.) feels the Ivy League was hard done by and could have received multiple bids. After all, Harvard finished at 12-3-1 and Yale went 11-4-1, and both placed within the top-45 of the RPI rankings. The 64-team tournament features 31 automatic bids via conference play and 33 at-large ones.
