Mississippi State women's soccer beats Brown, advances to NCAA Tournament third round

Mississippi State women's soccer is headed to the third round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history after beating No. 3 seed Brown 2-1 on Friday in Palo Alto, California.

Sixth-seeded MSU (12-5-5) will face host and No. 2 seed Stanford (17-0-4), a 3-0 winner over No. 7 seed South Carolina on Sunday at 3 p.m. CT.

Brown (12-2-2) took a 1-0 lead in the 60th minute thanks to a goal from Naya Cardoza.

Less than 10 minutes later, Mississippi State got an equalizer from graduate forward Kennedy White. In the 76th minute, MSU took the lead with a goal from senior midfielder Taylor James.

Mississippi State opened the NCAA Tournament with a home match against Providence, which the Bulldogs won 1-0 in overtime.

MSU lost its second match of the SEC tournament but still secured hosting rights in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.

Last year, Mississippi State picked up its first-ever NCAA Tournament win with a victory against New Mexico State before losing to Memphis in the second round.

The Bulldogs are led by fifth-year coach James Armstrong.

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Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State women's soccer beats Brown in NCAA tourney 2nd round