NEW HAVEN, Conn. – For more than 50 minutes Sunday afternoon at Johnson Field, the Yale field hockey team held No. 6 Albany to a scoreless tie. But before the Bulldogs could start entertaining thoughts of scoring a late goal and pulling off the upset, the Great Danes converted on a penalty corner -- their seventh of 12 for the day -- and grabbed the lead. Another goal three minutes later provided a further cushion, and Albany then held on for a 2-0 win.

Yale (2-9, 0-3 Ivy League) was coming off a tough 1-0 loss to Cornell Saturday, and Albany (10-2, 2-1 America East) had just seen its five-game winning streak snapped Friday with a 6-2 loss at Maine. The Great Danes controlled play for much of the afternoon Sunday, but were repeatedly stymied by junior goalie Emilie Katz (20 saves, one shy of her career high). Albany came up empty on all four of its first-half penalty corners, and the game could have changed dramatically when the Bulldogs got their first scoring opportunities late in the half. Freshman forward/midfielder Evagelia Toffoloni drew the Bulldogs' first penalty corner with six minutes left, and senior midfielder Nicole Wells' insertion to freshman back Marissa Medici set up sophomore forward/midfielder Carol Middough for a hard shot that sailed just to the left of the goal. Shortly after that, Middough nearly generated a goal in transition by sending a long pass towards the net. Because the pass came from outside the circle, Albany goalie Maxi Primus let it go past her -- only to hit the post, bouncing back into the field of play with Primus far out of position. No Bulldogs were close enough to get to the loose ball, however, and the two teams went into halftime scoreless.

"Coming off a tough loss yesterday and playing the No. 6 team in the country, I thought our team turned it around pretty well," said Pam Stuper, Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey. "We stayed with the game plan effectively."

Part of that plan involved trying to limit the opportunities for Albany midfielder Paula Heuser, who was the NFHCA National Player of the Year last year and had a hat trick in the Great Dane's 4-2 win vs. Yale. This time around, Heuser -- who had 12 goals and six assists entering the day -- was held scoreless.

"Emilie Katz played a brilliant game, and Nicole Wells played very well against one of the best players in the country," said Stuper.

But ultimately it was two players who had no goals entering the day -- forward Kelsey Biddell and defender Jaclyn Hibbs -- who undid the Bulldogs' upset plans. Biddell poked in a rebound of a penalty corner shot with 15:48 remaining to give Albany a 1-0 lead, and three minutes later Hibbs chipped one in to make it 2-0.

Katz kept her team in the game with a diving blocker save on Heuser's penalty corner shot with seven minutes to play, but Primus answered with a save on a shot by Toffoloni that was set up by Wells. That was the Bulldogs' last scoring threat, and Primus came away with her third shutout of the season.

Katz was left once again with little to show for her efforts; she now has nearly twice as many saves as any other goalie in the Ivy League (127; the next-closest goalie has 68) but has lost five games in which she allowed two goals or less.

Yale returns to action next Saturday against Dartmouth at Johnson Field.

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