Brookline High's girls soccer team closed its regular season with a 2-1 win over Braintree on Monday, Nov. 2, locking in a spot in the MIAA Division I state tournament.
The Warriors won the Bay State Conference matchup at Braintree, finishing the year 9-4-3 overall and 5-3-2 in Carey Division play, according to game results on MassLive. Braintree fell to 8-4-6 overall and 3-1-3 in the Herget Division.
Brookline entered the MIAA's final D-I power rankings at No. 9, according to MassLive. Braintree sat at No. 7. The top 32 teams in each division automatically qualify for the state tournament based on official MIAA power ratings, putting both squads comfortably inside the field.
The win over Braintree followed an Oct. 29 senior night draw against Wellesley at Skyline Park. Wellesley entered that game ranked first in D-I, according to The Cypress, Brookline High's student newspaper. Junior Neve Keselman scored the Warriors' goal in the 1-1 tie.
That result mattered. Brookline had lost to Wellesley 3-0 earlier in the season.
Senior captain Haley Ament said after the Wellesley game that the team had been focused on getting better. In a Nov. 3 Cypress article, Ament said, "We lost [to the Raiders] 3-0 early in the season, but that's not the level we were at, and I think we definitely showed our improvement."
Head coach Ben Peters and the Warriors now turn to the postseason. Several Bay State Conference teams populate the top of the D-I bracket, including No. 2 Wellesley and No. 4 Needham, according to MassLive's final rankings.
The MIAA tournament bracket is set for release Thursday, Nov. 5, at 1 p.m., according to the Boston Globe's postseason guide. Playoffs begin Friday, Nov. 6, with state championships scheduled for Nov. 20-21.
