NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The script could not have been written in a more dramatic fashion. Needing a win to keep itself in contention for the Ivy League championship and an NCAA tournament berth, No. 15 Yale fell behind 4-0 to No. 9 Princeton, the team that has won or shared five of the last six Ancient Eight titles. Then, the Bulldogs clamped down defensively and chipped away at the lead. After some unsung heroes helped tie the game at five, the Bulldogs got the ball to their leading scorer, junior midfielder Lauren Taylor, for the go-ahead goal with 10.4 seconds left. Finally, junior goalkeeper Ellen Cameron made a spectacular save as time expired to seal an emotional 6-5 win Saturday afternoon at Johnson Field.

That Princeton run to open the game included a goal by Ashley Amo just 14 seconds in. But Cameron also made two huge stops early on to keep things from getting out of hand. Two minutes in Christine Casaceli's spin move in front left her wide open from point-blank range, but Cameron was able to make the save. Six minutes later Casaceli had another golden chance in the critical scoring area denied by Cameron's quick reflexes.

The game reached an early turning point when Princeton's Katie Lewis-Lamonica received a yellow card and was sent to the sideline for three minutes, giving Taylor a free-position attempt. But Tigers goalie Kaitlyn Perrelle made the save, one of 12 stops on the day for her, and the Tigers survived the stretch without their top scorer unscathed.

Then came the flurry that put the Bulldogs to the test. Between the 13:57 mark and the 12:56 mark of the first the Tigers reeled off three straight goals -- and got a big save from Perrelle as well -- to seemingly grab control of the game.

The Bulldogs called timeout and regrouped.

"We still weren't even in panic mode," Taylor said. "We were getting good looks the whole time, we just weren't finishing well."

After Cameron came through with a stop on Alison Murray with under nine minutes left in the half, the Bulldogs finally got the spark they needed on offense. It came from sophomore defenseman Jenn Warden, who maneuvered her way to get just enough space for a low shot past Perrelle at the 7:43 mark.

Next it was junior midfielder Kat Peetz' turn, as she cut across and fired one in at 6:06.

The Bulldogs remained patient on offense even as they continued to build momentum. The Tigers did an excellent job in keeping Taylor from getting many good looks, but she still found a way to contribute. With just over two minutes left in the half she went to goal, attracting the attention of the defense before feeding senior midfielder Lara Melniker for a tally that pulled the Bulldogs within one.

That triggered a Princeton timeout, and the Tigers clung to a 4-3 lead as the half ended.

The Bulldogs had a chance to score right off the opening draw of the second half, but Warden sent a shot wide. Cameron then came up with another huge save on a shot from just outside the crease by Kathleen Miller, and Taylor finally broke through at the other end of the field off an assist by senior attacker Marya Myers to tie the game with 26:41 to play. It was her 48th goal of the year, establishing a new personal record.

With under 20 minutes to play Cameron got her stick up to deflect away a close shot from Amo, and Myers scooped up the ground ball. But Perrelle denied sophomore midfielder Taylor Fragapane at the other end of the field, and shortly after that she got a piece of junior attacker Meredith Callahan's shot with her leg. Lewis-Lamonica got the ball after the Princeton clear and bounced in her 25th goal of the year to re-claim the lead for the Tigers with 17:13 remaining.

With time starting to work against the Bulldogs Taylor backed down her defender and whipped a low shot that Perrelle managed to stop, even though she was momentarily unaware of where the ball was afterward. It was a play that would wind up factoring in the end of the game, but for now the score remained 5-4 Princeton.

First the Bulldogs needed other players to step up, and Callahan answered the call. She faked one run to goal, then backed away before quickly heading right back and firing in a shot with 12:28 to play that tied the score.

Cameron continued to come up big by making a save on Emery Maine's free-position attempt with 10:26 to play. The turning point of the game, though, may very well have been Warden knocking the ball away while the Tigers were attempting to set up their offense with five minutes left -- one of four caused turnovers for Warden on the day. Myers nabbed the ground ball, and Yale headed down to the other end of the field.

"Princeton has such a potent offense, I didn't think we could give them another opportunity," said Amanda O'Leary, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Lacrosse.

So the Bulldogs pulled up and played ball control for the next four minutes and 30 seconds. With the crowd hanging on each and every pass, Yale maintained possession and began setting up for a final shot.

Taylor still had Lewis-Lamonica, one of the top defenders in the country, guarding her. So the initial plan was to get the ball to someone else. But as the clock ticked down, with the offense right in front of the Yale sideline, O'Leary gave Taylor the green light.

"Mandee said `If you've got it, take it -- I have all the faith in the world in you.'," Taylor recalled.

So Taylor got the ball and headed behind the net, remembering that play from before that Perrelle had stopped.

"It was the same shot," Taylor said. "I knew I just had to move it higher on the far pipe."

Taylor curled around the net to Perrelle's right and, with Lewis-Lamonica still on her, turned and fired the ball in, touching off a celebration on the Yale sideline and forcing the Tigers to take a timeout.

As the celebration subsided the fact that there were still 10.4 seconds left on the clock sank in, and the Bulldogs had to make it through one more draw control. The worst-case scenario for Yale started unfolding when Princeton's Anne Murray quickly chased down the draw, and suddenly there was Miller with the ball right in front of the goal.

But Cameron was there too, getting her crosse on the final shot and keeping the ball there as the last second ticked off and the Bulldogs stormed the field to start celebrating.

Cameron's dramatic save, her tenth of the day, capped a stretch of 47:04 in which Yale allowed Princeton only one goal.

"We stopped the ball in transition and put a body on them earlier," Taylor said of the adjustments the Bulldogs made after the early Tiger run. "Ellen made save after save, and made them earn their goals."

The Tigers had entered the game averaging 12.86 goals per game, and this was just the second time in the last 20 games they have been held to fewer than six goals.

The Bulldogs' defensive success came in part due to the work they did on Lewis-Lamonica, Miller and Holly McGarvie. Junior defenseman Jess Champion, freshman defenseman Michelle Fiorentino and senior midfielder Lindsay Levin were responsible for that trio. Champion grabbed six ground balls, tying the high for a Bulldog this season (Cameron vs. Notre Dame Mar. 14) and setting the tone for Yale's eighth straight game holding an opponent to nine or fewer goals.

"Those matchups wound up working out for us," O'Leary said. "The key was the other four and Ellen -- they made the difference."

Included in that group was senior midfielder Lisa McKenna. With junior defenseman Katie Wiacek sidelined, McKenna made her first start of the season. She and her 11 teammates wound up playing the entire game.

"Lisa McKenna comes in, not having started before, and just does an amazing job," O'Leary said. "That says a lot about her. I'm so proud of her effort. Plus, Lauren Taylor's ability to play both ends of the field was unbelievable."

This is the first time in 16 years Yale has beaten Dartmouth and Princeton, the teams that have combined for 17 Ivy titles since 1993, in the same season. The Bulldogs are also the only Ivy team other than the Big Green to have beaten Princeton since the start of the 1994 season, and they've done it twice now. The Tigers are 62-0 against the other five Ivies in that span.

"It's nearly impossible to even put into words," Taylor said.

The win keeps Yale (10-3, 3-1 Ivy) in the running for the Ivy League title. Penn remained undefeated in the league, running its record to 4-0 with a win at Harvard Saturday. The Bulldogs and Dartmouth are both one game back with three games to play. Princeton (4-4-4, 1-1 Ivy) remains in the thick of things as well, and Brown also has only one league loss.

In winning its sixth straight, Yale surpassed last season's victory total (nine) with three games to play and also kept itself in the running for a berth in the 16-team NCAA tournament.

"We're really excited to keep playing, and we want to play some more games," Cameron said.

First, the Bulldogs must make the trip to Columbia Wednesday for a 3:00 p.m. game vs. the Lions.

"We've got to focus and take it one game at a time," Taylor said.

report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity