Thirty years ago,
Kathy Brown embarked on her soccer journey when she stepped on the soccer pitch as a freshman at Berry College.
On a picture-perfect Saturday afternoon, it seemed only natural that the journey came full circle on the same pitch when Brown, now the head coach of the women's program at her alma mater, reached a milestone when the Vikings defeated Southern Athletic Conference foe Sewanee 2-0 at Pearson Field, giving Brown her 300
th career coaching victory.
The win over the previously unbeaten Tigers improves the Vikings to 4-3 heading into a non-conference showdown at home Sunday against Berea.
Brown, who returned to take the reins at Berry a year ago after serving as head coach at Loch Haven (Pa.) for three years, amassed the majority of her wins starting and heading up the program at Young Harris where she led that team to a National Junior College Association national championship.
Against Sewanee, the Vikings made the most of a pair of first half goals and a strong defensive output in the second half to give their coach the career mark.
Berry scored what proved to be the winning goal 8:48 into the game when
Sophia Coon scored an unassisted goal, and a nearly three minutes later came up with an assist when she delivered a pass to Kendall Veritek who scored and give the Vikings the 2-0 edge.
While both teams nearly matched each other in shots (13 for Berry and 12 for Sewanee) it was the Vikings' defense that stood tall the rest of the way as it turned back numerous attacks by the visitors, with Berry goalkeeper
Maggie Jones turning in a sterling performance between the posts where she came up with six saves.