Four Goals for Hanley

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's lacrosse team had to deal with a pair of opponents Sunday afternoon at Reese Stadium: the Canisius Golden Griffins and Mother Nature. With a snowstorm gradually starting to turn the field white over the course of the game, the Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead and then held off a late run by Canisius as conditions made it more and more difficult for Yale to utilize its speed. Sophomore attacker Hope Hanley had four goals -- including three in a 9-0 Yale run that made the score 10-3 Yale early in the second half -- to lead the Bulldogs to the 12-8 win.

Yale (2-1, 0-0 Ivy League) had faced an even bigger snowstorm in the season opener at George Washington last weekend, and the Bulldogs had dropped that game 13-5. That tough experience wound up paying dividends Sunday.

"The weather for that game at GW was 10 times worse than this," said Anne Phillips, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Lacrosse. "But maybe having played that game helped us. One of the things we learned is that when we got behind, we rushed on attack. And with the footing being bad, that was not conducive to our preferred type of execution. Today, we used our speed in the first half when we still could."

After sophomore attacker Tess McEvoy opened the scoring with a free position goal at 27:27, Canisius went on a 3-0 run. During that span the Golden Griffins got a pair of big saves from goalie Kayla Scully, who denied junior midfield Kelly Anne Sherlock on a free position shot and then stopped senior midfielder Cathryn Avallone on a shot off a pass from a free position attempt.

Shortly after a Yale timeout, senior attacker Erin Magnuson got the Bulldogs' attack going again with a pair of assists, feeding McEvoy in stride for a goal at 17:00 and then finding Hanley for a goal at 12:37 that tied the game.

Magnuson would finish the day with two goals, three assists, three ground balls and three caused turnovers.

"[Senior attacker] Kerri Fleishhacker was face-guarded, so Magnuson really quarterbacked the offense," said Phillips. "She has tremendous game sense, and did a great job holding possession when we needed it."

Senior goalie Erin Mullins stopped a free position shot by Canisius attacker Lauren Smolensky right before the game-tying goal, helping energize the Bulldogs. Mullins would finish the day with six saves.

Yale gradually built its lead after Magnuson drove in for a goal that made it 4-3 Bulldogs at 10:32. A goal by senior midfielder Christina Doherty, along with one more goal each from Magnuson and McEvoy (on a free position shot) made the score 7-3 Yale at halftime.

Mullins started the second half off with a big save on midfielder Meghan Cuddy, a preseason All-MAAC selection. Doherty then delivered another goal, assisted by Avallone, before Hanley scored twice in a span of just over four minutes -- one assisted by McEvoy, the other assisted by Magnuson.

"Hope is back after a frustrating freshman year dealing with injury and illness," said Phillips. "With the zone defense that Canisius played you have to know how to cut into space. She is gifted at finding space inside the 8-meter arc and finishing. She can catch that tight inside feed. This was her type of game."

Canisius (0-4, 0-0 MAAC), which has won the last four MAAC championships, would not go down without a fight as the snow started to accumulate in the second half. After being blanked by Mullins and the Yale defense for 30:21, the Golden Griffins went on a 4-0 run to close the gap to 10-7 with 17 minutes to play. Attacker Taylor Giglio scored three of her five goals for the game in that span, which ended shortly after another Yale timeout.

"Canisius is a dangerous team with a lot of really good shooters and scorers," said Phillips. "They went on a little bit of a run in the second half, but we called timeout and stopped that. [Junior defender] Kate Walker got a really important 50/50 ball when we needed to answer. Defensively, we played really well."

After that timeout the Bulldogs also went back to using junior attacker Nicole Daniggelis to take the draw controls; she wound up with four draws for the game.

"They were trying to draw to [attacker Tori Quinn, the MAAC Preseason Player of the Year]," said Phillips. "Nicole was most effective at -- if she couldn't get the draw herself -- at least, not letting it get to Quinn. We tried a lot of different people on the draw today, and we weren't self-drawing the way we like to, so it really was a team effort to win the draw controls that we got."

After the Canisius goal that made the score 10-7 Yale the Golden Griffins got the draw, but a stick check by Magnuson caused a turnover and Walker got the ground ball. That enabled Hanley to score again, making the score 11-7 with 15:55 to play. Two minutes later, freshman midfielder Madeleine Gramigna scored her first career goal (assisted by Avallone) to make it 12-7.

A yellow card on the Golden Griffins then enabled the Bulldogs to start to work the clock, but there were still some threats for Canisius. Shortly after Giglio shot wide on a free position attempt with 10 minutes to play, Quinn set up Giglio at the back door with a great pass for a goal that made the score 12-8.

The Golden Griffins would get no closer, however, as junior midfielder Lauren Wackerle got the next draw control and Yale spent most of the final nine minutes controlling the ball. After Hanley hit the pipe with a shot, Canisius was able to draw a free position attempt for Cuddy with three minutes to play, but Mullins got low to stop that shot and help finish off the 12-8 win.

Yale, which is now 6-1 in its last seven games at Reese Stadium, returns to action Wednesday at Bryant at 3:00 p.m.