NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Ending the season on a high note, the Yale field hockey team topped Brown 4-1 Saturday afternoon at Johnson Field. The victory sends Yale's senior class -- midfielder
Bridget Condie, back
Holly Jackson, back
Tara Litjens, back
Alex MacKay, forward
Camille Scheyer and forward
Annina Zelkin -- out on a roll, as the Bulldogs ended the season with wins in five of their final six games.
The hot streak at the end of the season was even more impressive given where the Bulldogs were just a little over two weeks ago. Vexed by a seemingly improbable string of six straight one-goal losses, Yale found itself 2-9 and winless in the Ivy League. But the Bulldogs remained focused on the process, and that eventually paid dividends in the form of victories. The Class of 2020 leaves with the most wins of any Yale class in five years (33).
"We stayed with the game plan," said
Pam Stuper, Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey, of the team's turnaround. "We followed through with what we worked on in practice. We took that consistency and eventually put it into our games."
On Saturday Yale (7-10, 3-4 Ivy League) got on top early on a clear but cold day. As she has done all year, Condie provided the spark -- with a little help from junior forward/midfielder
Imogen Davies, who drove in from the right side and attracted the attention of the Brown defense before sliding the ball over to Condie for the finish.
For Stuper, it was only appropriate that it was Yale's captain who got what would turn out to be the game-winning goal in her final game for the Bulldogs.
"If I had to write the script, it would have started with Bridget scoring," said Stuper. "She's been on a mission. I was confident before this game because I knew she was locked in. Imogen had a phenomenal game as well; she used her athleticism to get around Brown and create opportunities on the attacking end."
While Condie and her fellow seniors were the focus of the day, the Bulldogs also got a goal from a first year with a bright future. Forward
Lena Ansari's goal at 19:18 -- assisted by Condie -- extended the lead to 2-0. Ansari was on a roll of her own at the end of the year, with three goals and an assist in the final four games.
After Ansari's tally the teams settled in to nearly 30 minutes of scoreless hockey. Junior goalkeeper
Sydney Terroso (five saves) provided the backbone for a Yale defense that continues to operate without Jackson, who had been a starter throughout her career before missing the final five games due to injury.
Brown (5-12, 1-6 Ivy League) made things interesting with a goal at 47:38, but the Bulldogs answered quickly. Providing a further glimpse of what Yale's future might hold, junior forward
Anissa Abboud tallied a pair of goals in a span of just over two minutes to put the game away. The first came off a long pass from sophomore midfielder
Theodora Dillman, and the second came off a nice deflection by sophomore forward/midfielder
Kelly Dolan.
Abboud's goals put Yale up 4-1 with less than five minutes to play, effectively ending any chance of a Brown comeback.
"When Brown came back and scored and closed the gap, we stepped up," said Stuper. "I said to the team it was like Brown had kicked a bees' nest."
Yale now heads into the offseason knowing that the six seniors will be hard to replace, but the 16 returnees will be eager to build off the momentum they established at the end of this season.
