Accurso, Middough Score for Bulldogs

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale field hockey team was within 61 seconds of its second win of the season Sunday afternoon against BU at New Balance Field, but the Terriers spoiled the day by scoring late to tie the game and then winning 3-2 in overtime. Senior forward Jessie Accurso and freshman midfielder Carol Middough scored for the Bulldogs, who also got nine saves from senior goalkeeper Heather Schlesier. Freshman back Tess Thompson added a defensive save.

Yale (1-5, 0-1 Ivy League) was trying to bounce back from a 4-1 loss at Harvard Saturday, while BU (4-3, 1-0 Patriot League) was coming off a 2-1 win at Lafayette.

"Our game versus Harvard was disappointing," said Pam Stuper, Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey. "But after that, we sat down and took a good hard look at some changes we needed to make. We made a lot of adjustments this morning, and the players executed them."

After being limited to only five shots on Saturday, the Bulldogs got seven in the first half alone on Sunday and finished with 13 for the game. Still, BU held the lead for most of the half on a goal by forward Amanda Cassera 2:41 into the game.

"Even after giving up a goal early, we continued to play the way we are capable of," said Stuper. "There was no sense of panic."

The Bulldogs tied the game at the 21:50 mark. After corralling a long pass from the midfield by junior forward Danee Fitzgerald, Accurso battled her way through the Terrier defense to the top of the circle, where she sent one in to tie the score 1-1.

Schlesier made a pair of saves on a BU penalty corner with time expired in the first half, and the score remained tied as the second half got underway.

After a nice run by freshman midfielder/forward Lily Smith on the left side got the ball into the BU circle, Middough corralled a bouncing ball and rifled one past the left leg of BU keeper Valentina Cerda Eimbcke to put Yale ahead 2-1 at the 39:45 mark. That was the first career goal for Middough, playing in her second collegiate game.

BU brought in a kicking back with slightly more than three minutes to play, but Yale's lead remained intact until just over a minute remained. Terriers forward Taylor Blood deflected a shot by Bea Baumberger Altiribba high into the cage past Schlesier to tie the game 2-2.

The game was then decided by a penalty corner in overtime. After a pair of passes, back Rachel Coll slid the ball in for the game-winner at the 73:22 mark.

Despite the end result, there were some bright spots both individually and as a team for the Bulldogs.

"[Senior back] Megan Kirkham made some key plays at back for us," said Stuper. "She did a good job on our outlets, opening up spaces for us going forward. Overall the greatest piece of this game was the fact that we played really well as a team -- team attack and team defense."

This was the third one-goal loss of the season for the Bulldogs. They next play Princeton on Saturday at Noon at Johnson Field.

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