Just a day before the United States women’s soccer team began its World Cup campaign with a 3-1 victory over Sweden on Sunday, the Yale women’s club soccer team earned its first season victory: 1-0 over Brown in Providence.

Lindsay Eisenberg ’07 scored the only goal of the match for the Bulldogs (1-1), who bounced back from a narrow 2-1 defeat to the University of Connecticut in their season opener two weeks earlier.

Unlike the men’s soccer club, the women’s soccer club does not compete in a league. Instead, the women’s club plays weekly matches against other universities in the Northeast in both the autumn and spring months. In addition to these games, the Elis also will travel to various invitational tournaments over the next two months. Yale will again host its own invitational tournament this year during the weekend of Oct. 18. The invitational will feature club teams from Brown, Cornell, Rutgers, American University, Lehigh, Maryland and Georgetown.

The combination of weekly games and extra tournaments will prepare the Elis for their campaign at the Northeast Regional Tournament of the National Association of College Soccer Clubs, to be held at Princeton near the end of October. If the Bulldogs qualify, they will have the opportunity to play at the NACSC national tournament, which will be held at the University of Alabama over Thanksgiving Break.

Last season, the Bulldogs showed their potential by finishing second at the Yale Invitational. But the Bulldogs did not attend the regional qualification tournament because of a lack of funding.

“We showed that we can be competitive against all the other big colleges [in the Yale Invitational], and I think we will do well again this year at the Yale Invitational, and hopefully in Princeton also,” said Dawn Lippert ’06, who is returning for her second season with the Bulldogs.

Although women’s soccer is highly popular in the United States, the Yale women’s club soccer team is only just beginning its fourth season. This year, a squad of 20 players, including four freshmen and two new sophomores, will be under the leadership of three captains: Carolyn Zabrycki ’04, Claire Kenny ’05 and Grace Silvia ’05.

“Almost everyone played varsity soccer at their high school or serious clubs and Olympic Development Programs, and decided to keep up soccer with a lower commitment,” Kenny said. “There are so many other amazing things you can do at Yale, but being part of the team is something really special.”

The club’s next game day is away against both Rutgers and Lehigh on Oct. 4. The Bulldogs’ next home game will be on Oct. 11 against Princeton at the Intramural Fields.