April 24, 2004

Final Stats

In yet another come from behind victory, the No. 14 Yale women's lacrosse team (12-4, 5-2 Ivy) defeated the Cornell Big Red (3-9, 2-4 Ivy) 11-8 Saturday afternoon in Ithaca, NY ending their 2004 regular season. The automatic Ivy League bid to the NCAA tournament was secured earlier in the season by No. 1 Princeton, but this final win keeps the Bulldogs in contention for an at-large bid.

The Bulldog offense got off to a slow start against the Big Red as goals from Kate Hirschfeld and Lindsay Steinberg put the Bulldogs down 2-0 ten minutes into play. Katherine Sargent put Yale on the board after feeding a Lindsay Levin past Cornell goaltender Maggie Fava and Miles Whitman tied it up at 2-2 on an unassisted shot with 16 minutes into play.

A two-goal run by Cornell's Kristen Smith gave the Bulldogs another two goal deficit. Sarah Driscoll kept Yale in the game, scoring two unassisted goals at 21:29 and 23:37, tying the score at 4-4. Sophie Melniker gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the day at 25:17, scoring the last goal of the first half with Yale leading 5-4.

Katherine Sargent scored her second of three goals to open the first half. A Margaux Viola goal kept the Big Red in contention, but Yale would score four goals in four minutes to give the Bulldogs needed insurance. Lindsay Levin (on a Lisa Reindl assist), Melniker, Sargent and Whitman all scored in Yale's run, giving them a 10-5 lead with 20 minutes left to play.

Cornell would score three more goals, but the Yale lead proved too much for the Big Red. Miles Whitman scored off of an Alessandra Croffy pass with nine seconds left in the game, giving Yale the 11-8 win.

Levin and Sargent led Yale in ground balls with four each. Croffy, Melniker and Whitman each had three draw controls.

Bulldog goaltender Lonnie Sarnell played all 60 minutes in the cage and had seven saves on 19 shots.

2004 marks Yale's 11th consecutive 10 win season under head coach Amanda O'Leary.

Written by: Emily Field '05, Sports Information Department