Jeffrey Scores First Career Goal In Victory
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – After a long bus ride home from Cornell
on Saturday, Yale head coach Rudy Meredith elected not to have his
team practice on Sunday or Monday. Instead, he put them through a
short session about 90 minutes prior to Tuesday night's game
against Holy Cross. Apparently, that was more than enough
preparation. The Bulldogs dominated the Crusaders and walked away
with an impressive 3-0 victory on a chilly night at Reese
Stadium.
"We played better after practicing for 10 minutes then we
do when we practice for two hours," Meredith joked after the
game.
Yale (6-7-1) outshot Holy Cross 16-2, including 11-0 in the
second half. Mary Kubiuk, Enma Mullo and
Juliann Jeffrey scored for the Bulldogs, who were
playing at home for the first time in nearly three weeks.
Meredith has been stressing the importance of scoring first in
games recently, and Kubiuk made sure it happened that way. Mullo
sent a ball forward to Kubiuk, who broke in alone, made a move on
the goalkeeper and deposited a shot into the empty net at
11:46.
The Bulldogs added a second goal less than three minutes later.
Jessica Schloth was pulled down in the box, and
Mullo scored on the ensuing penalty kick at 14:13.
Jeffrey added an insurance goal midway through the second half
when she banged in the rebound of a Becky Brown
shot. It was the first career goal for Jeffrey, a freshman.
"I was very happy to see Juliann get a goal,"
Meredith said. "Jessica [Schloth] also made a play to get
taken down, so our freshmen are contributing."
Ayana Sumiyasu started in goal for Yale and
made two saves. Adele Jackson-Gibson came on for
the final 20 minutes and was not forced to make a stop.
Holy Cross's best scoring chance came midway through the
first half. Maura Fox fired a hard shot from 20 yards out off a
free kick, but Sumiyasu grabbed it. The Crusaders (3-9-2) have now
been shutout in six straight games.
The victory avenged Yale's 4-1 loss to Holy Cross last
year in Worcester.
"I think we had a bad taste in our mouth from last
year," Meredith said. "They beat us pretty good. Our
players remember that."
Tuesday's game saw the return of senior Megan
Ashforth, who missed six games with an injury.
"It was nice for her," Meredith said. "It was
a good game to use to get her legs under her. We were able to ease
her back into it."
The Bulldogs are back in action on Saturday when they host Penn.
Kickoff at Reese Stadium is slated for 4:30 p.m. Pay-per-view video
of the game will be available on Yale All-Access.
Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity
