PRINCETON, N.J. -- After winning the program's eighth Ivy League title in the last 10 years, the Bulldogs dropped a one-match playoff to Princeton on Friday night.
The scores of the match were 23-25, 25-21, 26-24 and 25-21.
The Tigers earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, while the Yale's season came to an end with a share of its 10th conference title in the last 16 seasons.
Kathryn Attar finished with a double-double -- 13 kills and 12 digs -- while Samantha Bray also went for 13 kills and hit .423. Yurika Boyd finished with 25 digs, two short of her career-best.
Team captain Izzy Simqu, a senior, had 11 kills and hit .360 in her final match at Yale. Ellis DeJardin had 11 kills, eight digs and two solo blocks.
Attar and Bray lifted the Bulldogs in a first set victory. Attar had four kills, Bray had three and Frances Arnoutou, playing in her final collegiate match at Yale, had 10 assists in the opener and had 44 in the match.
After dropping the second set, Yale showed fight in the third. Trailing 22-17, the Bulldogs rallied for five straight points to tie the set. Attar gave Yale three kills in a four-point stretch, and Arnautou had a solo block during the run.
Princeton regained the lead on the next point before Yale fought all the way back to push the score to set point.
Despite the loss, the Bulldogs closed out another successful season with third third straight league title. In addition, they finished the Ivy League regular season with a 10-2 mark, went a perfect 9-0 at home and had five team members earn all-Ivy status.
