WALTHAM, Mass.—Junior Natalie Knauf (Point Pleasant, N.J.) broke a 3-3 tie with the eventual game-winner in the 83rd minute and Babson College held on for a 4-3 victory over No. 21 Brandeis University Wednesday afternoon in a non-conference women's soccer contest at Gordon Field.

With the win, Babson is off to a 3-0 start to the season for the first time since 2015, while Brandeis drops 1-2. The Beavers posted their first win over a nationally-ranked team since a 1-0 shutout of No. 8 Ithaca back on September 5, 2010, on the same field during day two of the Brandeis Invitational.

Graduate student Izzy Lynch (Niskayuna, N.Y.) scored two goals for the Beavers, senior Morgan Krauss (Belmont, Mass.) added a goal and an assist, and sophomores Jordyn Ferrantino (Millis, Mass.) and Elisa Diletizia (Canton, Mass.) and first-year Izzy DeMatos (Holmdel, N.J.) collected assists in the win.

Senior Morgan Fedosiewich (Ottawa, Ontario) made seven saves in goal for the Beavers, including one on a first-half penalty kick, to post her third victory this season (3-0).

Graduate student Makenna Hunt (Tyngsboro, Mass.) and senior Caroline Swan (Pittsburgh, Pa.) tallied a goal and an assist each for the Judges, and grad student Bailey Cullen (Connellsvile, Pa.) scored once in the setback. First-year keeper Ella Thomson (Libertyville, Ill.) made three saves between the pipes.

Brandeis took an early lead in the third minute of play when Hunt fed a ball from the right side to Cullen who was alone in front 1-on-1 against Fedosiewich and Cullen buried her first goal of the season. Babson leveled the score in the 17th minute when Lynch ran down a through ball from Ferrantino and put in a shot off the inside of the post past a diving keeper for a 1-1 tie.

Fedosiewich kept the score even by denying a penalty kick by Cullen in the 20th minute, leaping to her right to knock away the low shot.

Babson capitalized on a miscommunication between the Brandeis defense in the 33rd minute and Krauss converted her first goal of the season, with an assist from Diletizia. Lynch extended the lead to 3-1 with a goal in the 69th minute with an assist from Krauss.

Brandeis did not go away quietly and came back to tie the score at 3-3 in a nine-minute span. Hunt got one back in the 72nd minute to cut the margin to 3-2. The Judges were awarded a second penalty kick in the 81st minute and Swan converted the equalizer with a shot to the lower left corner, giving Fedosiewich no chance.

The deadlock didn't last long as Knauf tallied the eventual game-winner two minutes later on an assist from DeMatos at the 82:50 mark.

The Judges had one final opportunity to tie the score again on a shot by Swan with a minute to play but Fedosiewich made the save to preserve the win.

Brandeis had a 13-11 advantage in shots and a 6-1 margin in corner kicks.

Both teams are back in action on Saturday as the Beavers will be on the road again, visiting Eastern Connecticut for a 4 p.m. kickoff while Brandeis is home again, hosting Johnson & Wales at 11 a.m.

GAME NOTES
• Babson snapped a nine-game winless streak (0-8-1) against the Judges with the first win in the series since September 9, 2009. Brandeis now leads the all-time series 24-18-4 dating back to 1981.
• The Beavers extended their unbeaten streak to 11 games (7-0-4) dating back to last season, the longest streak since the 1993 team won 16 straight games.
• The Green and White have scored 12 goals in their first three games, the most since the 2017 team potted 13 goals thru three matches.
• With Brandeis' first goal in the third minute, Babson trailed in a game for the first time in its last 11 contests (983 minutes), dating back to a 1-0 loss to MIT last October 6, 2021.
• The three goals by Brandeis was the most surrendered by the Beavers in the past 14 games since a 3-1 loss to Bowdoin back on September 28, 2021, and the most allowed in a victory since a 4-3 verdict over Wheaton on September 29, 2018.