NEW HAVEN, Conn. – With a big Alums Weekend crowd on hand at Johnson Field on a beautiful fall afternoon, the Yale field hockey put together its most complete game of the year Saturday. The Bulldogs scored early and then kept scoring at a steady pace, all while getting great defense and timely saves. It all added up to a 6-0 win vs. Dartmouth that was highlighted by goals from five different players -- including the first career goal for senior forward
Annina Zelkin.
Junior goalkeeper
Sydney Terroso finished with nine saves, and a defensive save by senior
Alex MacKay on a Dartmouth penalty corner midway through the fourth helped preserve the shutout.
"We played 60 minutes consistently, from start to finish," said
Pam Stuper, Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey. "We've really been focusing on that in practice. The team took what we did at practice and made sure we did it on gameday."
Senior midfielder
Bridget Condie, the Bulldogs' captain, led the way offensively by scoring a pair of goals. Junior forward/midfielder
Imogen Davies had three assists, part of a busy day as Yale's inserter on a penalty corner unit that scored a pair of goals on nine tries.
After senior forward
Camille Scheyer opened the scoring in the first by corralling a long pass from Davies and tallying her fourth goal of the year, Condie extended the lead in the second with a corner goal assisted by junior midfielder
Sarah King at stick stopper.
Dartmouth (3-9, 0-4 Ivy League) benefitted from a 10 save day by goalkeeper Isabella Santucci, but the Bulldogs never went more than 19 minutes without a goal in this game -- and some came much quicker than that. After Davies and sophomore midfielder
Alissa Wong set up another corner goal, this one by junior forward/midfielder
Olivia Levieux at 33:39, Condie scored off a Davies assist less than 10 minutes later to make it 4-0.
The final two goals of the game for Yale (3-9, 1-3 Ivy League) came in rapid succession. Sophomore forward/midfielder
Kelly Dolan took a feed in front of the cage and slipped one past Santucci at 56:19, then Condie set up Zelkin for the sixth and final goal less than a minute later. Zelkin had just checked in for her first action of the game.
"When I put her in, I said I want you to push up, play higher," said Stuper. "Seeing her score was just awesome."
This was Yale's first shutout of Dartmouth since a 1-0 double-overtime win Oct. 6, 2007.
MacKay's critical defensive play, knocking away a sure goal on a Dartmouth corner midway through the fourth, was even more impressive given that she missed the previous game due to illness.
"We had to be careful about her minutes," said Stuper. "She played very well in those minutes. That defensive penalty corner unit had to take care of a lot of corners [Dartmouth had 14] to secure the shutout."
In addition to being buoyed by a large group of alums and other supporters Saturday, Stuper noted that the players had put in a good amount of work to finally put an end to a frustrating stretch that included six straight one-goal losses.
"After the Cornell game [a 2-1 loss last Saturday] we had a team meeting," said Stuper. "We had a conversation about what we needed to do and the players took action. Fall break gave us more time to watch film, and the players made the most of it. That preparation was huge. And the team always enjoys the opportunity to play in front of the alums. We had the 12th person in the stands, and that meant a lot to us."
Yale travels to Quinnipiac Sunday for a 2:00 p.m. game.
