NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's basketball team earned win No. 1 of the 2022-23 season Monday night, outlasting Fairfield 68-61 at Lee Amphitheater. The Bulldogs have little time to celebrate, however, as they must hit the road Wednesday to take on Army (6:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
Army Audio Broadcast,
Live Stats).
Last Game
Yale (1-2, 0-0 Ivy League) earned its first victory of the season Monday night in the home opener vs. Fairfield. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 12 point lead in the second quarter, then withstood a comeback attempt by the Stags that cut the deficit to three with less than nine minutes to play. First-year guard
Kiley Capstraw (West Orange, N.J.) led Yale with 24 points, while sophomore guard
Nyla McGill (Charlotte, N.C.) led in rebounding with eight boards.
Spreading the Wealth
In the first three games Yale has had four different players lead the team in scoring (including ties). The list includes two sophomores, a junior and a first year:
Stag Killers
First-year guard
Kiley Capstraw (West Orange, N.J.)'s 24 points Monday were the most by a Bulldog since senior forward
Camilla Emsbo (Lakewood, Colo.) scored 26 Nov. 28, 2021. Both efforts came in wins vs. Fairfield.
Earning It at the Charity Stripe
Yale earned 22 free throws in Monday night's game, hitting 17 (77 percent) of them. That was the most free throw attempts in a game for the Bulldogs since Jan. 8, 2022 against Harvard (also 22). The 17 made free throws Monday were their most since making 18 (on 28 attempts, 64 percent) at Sacred Heart on Nov. 17, 2021.
On the Road Again … and Again … and Again … and Again … and Again
Wednesday is the start of five straight games away from Lee Amphitheater for Yale. After playing at Army Wednesday, the Bulldogs travel to Maine Saturday and then go to Colorado for the University of Denver Classic, where they will play New Mexico State on Nov. 25 and Houston Christian on Nov. 26. They then visit UMass on Nov. 30 before returning home – for the first time in 20 days – on Dec. 4.
First Win of the Dalila Eshe Era
Monday saw Yale's first win under
Dalila Eshe, the team's new Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach. Eshe came to Yale from Princeton, where she spent three seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. She helped the Tigers to a No. 24 national ranking, an Ivy League title and a win over then-No. 15 Kentucky in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. A star player at Florida, Eshe earned first team All-SEC honors as a senior in 2006 and was selected 25
th overall in the WNBA Draft by the Seattle Storm.
Scouting Army
Army (1-2, 0-0 Patriot League) has dropped two in a row, to Binghamton and Texas A&M, since starting the season with a win vs. Emmanuel College. The Black Knights were picked fifth in the Patriot League preseason poll. Yale won the last meeting between these two teams,
68-50 last season, getting 20 points from junior guard
Jenna Clark (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and 19 points from junior guard
Klara Astrom (Menlo Park, Calif.).
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