Four Different Players Score In Victory

NEW HAVEN, Conn. –The Yale women's soccer team broke out of a scoring slump in a big way Friday night against Sacred Heart. Four different players scored as the Bulldogs cruised to a 4-0 victory over the Pioneers on a gorgeous night at Reese Stadium.

"It's important to have a balanced attack," said Yale head coach Rudy Meredith. "We're going to need different people to score at different times to be successful."

Megan Ashforth led the offense with a goal and an assist. Miyuki Hino, Natalie Romine and Kristen Forster also scored, while Becky Brown, Juliann Jeffrey, Anna McCahon and Enma Mullo tallied assists. For Jeffrey and McCahon, both freshmen, the assists were the first points of their Yale careers.

The Bulldogs (2-4) entered the game not having scored since the season-opening 1-0 victory over then 16^th-ranked Penn State. The scoreless drought, though, came against very difficult competition in Illinois, UConn, Duke and Boston College.

"It was fun to just play a normal team," Meredith said. "We were able to match up more evenly athletically. It had been a long stretch."

Hino got Yale on the board at 11:09. Ashforth started the play by sending a long ball forward to Brown, who dribbled down the far side and sent a perfect cross to Hino, who was open it front and quickly knocked it in to the empty goal.

The Bulldogs scored twice in a 39-second span midway through the first half. Romine got the first one at 33:10. Sacred Heart goalkeeper Meghan Reichelt stopped shots by Mullo and Jeffrey, but Romine scored off the second rebound. Forster then tapped in a McCahon cross to make it 3-0.

Ashforth's goal early in the second half capped the scoring. She deflected Mullo's free kick past Reichelt.

Yale outshot the Pioneers 18-7.

Ayana Sumiyasu played the first 72 minutes in goal for the Bulldogs and made two saves. Adele Jackson-Gibson then came on in relief and stopped one shot to preserve the shutout.

"I'm glad we were able to get the shutout," Meredith said. "It should provide some confidence to our defense, especially after giving up seven goals to Boston College."

Yale returns to action on Sunday, hosting Syracuse at 1 p.m.

Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity