Brownell Reaches 100 Victories at Helm of Arcadia’s Women’s Soccer Program

9th year head coach Rick Brownell earns 100th career victory in Saturday's 2-1 Knight's win over Lycoming

With Saturday's 2-1 victory over visiting Lycoming College, ninth year head coach Rick Brownell, achieved his 100^th career win as the head coach of Arcadia University Women's Soccer's program.

Brownell is one of two active Arcadia head coaches with the 100-win milestone on their resume; Linda Detra, entering her 19^th season as the head coach for Arcadia's softball program owns 386 career wins and is recognized among the top winningest active head softball coaches within Division III.

“It's an honor to have reached this milestone here at Arcadia University,” acknowledges Brownell of the achievement. “Starting with a small program 9 seasons ago and having moved forward each year has brought many challenges and rewards. I can't thank all the players that have played for me these past 9 seasons enough. Each player has been important and yet unique in their impact on the program. I owe each player a great deal of gratitude for their commitment and value to our success.”

Coach Brownell has established the Arcadia University Women's Soccer program as a consistent top contender in Division III soccer with a 100-51-19 overall record to date, where the program has made 8 consecutive trips to post-season play and battled in 4 conference championship finals in over his tenure. Having amassed a 43-19-10 record against conference opponents since his inaugural season in 2003, Arcadia has made conference championship post-season appearances in the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference (2003-2006), Freedom Conference (2007) and the Commonwealth Conference (2008-2010), garnering a Pennsylvania Athletic Conference(PAC) Championship in 2005. Consistently ranked as one of the top teams within the Mid-Atlantic region, earlier this month, on Oct. 4, Arcadia earned their first national ranking in the history of the program, recognized by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) as the No. 24 team within Division III. The team is currently ranked 5^th in the Mid-Atlantic region.

During the 2010 campaign the program reached its second straight 15 win season with a 15-4-1 record (6-1 conference) following a 15-2-3 record (6-1 conference) during the 2009 season that saw Coach Brownell earn both NSCAA Mid-Atlantic Region and Commonwealth Conference Coach of the Year honors. The 2009 and 2010 squads combined boasted 7 players named 1^st team All-Commonwealth Conference, 3 NSCAA All-Regional and 1 NSCAA All-American awarded.

In 2007, coach Brownell's team came within 1 goal of their second conference championship in 3 seasons with an amazing final comeback in the closing minutes from 2 goals down to force overtime in the Freedom Conference Championship against Manhattanville College. The heroic comeback was not enough as team settled for a 4-3 loss, however, Arcadia led all statistics within the Freedom Conference that season, with an impressive 53 goals for and 23 against with 4 First Team All-Freedom Conference selections.

In 2005, the team (13-6-2, 7-3 PAC) won the PAC conference championship, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA National Championship tournament, finally losing to Haverford College in PK's.

“In the future, I can only hope that the program continues to grow and succeed on the pace we've been fortunate to have set,” remarks Brownell. “The passion and heart of the Arcadia University Women's Soccer team has brought such rewarding success that I feel confident in our future plans to continue the path set forth by our history.”

At 9-3-1 overall for the current season, the Knights are 2-1 against their Commonwealth opponents, with four more tests in conference play at hand prior to the league's post-season tournament in early November.

Looking ahead to the final four conference games, Brownell affirms, “These next conference games comprise the bulk of our focus and success for the year and our plans are to compete at our highest levels in these closing games. We respect every team in our conference in providing an intensely competitive match, so we'll see how things turn out but we're very hopeful that we continue to improve throughout the remainder of the season.”

Up next for the Knights is a road match at Lebanon Valley College (2-1-1) this Tuesday, Oct. 18. Elizabethtown College (1-3) visits Glenside on Saturday, Oct. 22 for the team's final home game of the regular season. The team will honor its seniors prior to Saturday's kick-off at 3 PM. The Knights will play one more non-conference contest on Oct. 25 at Penn State-Berks with two league matches on the road at Widener (1-2) on Oct. 26 and at Alvernia (2-1-1) on Oct. 29 to cap regular season play. The league's top four teams comprise the Commonwealth Conference Women's Soccer Championship Tournament, beginning with the semifinals on Nov. 1 and finals on Nov. 3 at the highest remaining seed.

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