NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The No. 25 Yale women's lacrosse team spent most of Wednesday afternoon playing catchup against No. 15 UConn at Reese Stadium, and the Bulldogs were almost able to pull off a major comeback. But after trailing 7-1 and rallying to get within a goal three times, the Bulldogs saw the Huskies pull away late to claim a 20-14 win. The loss snaps Yale's five-game winning streak, the Bulldogs' longest within a season since 2014.
Yale (9-3, 5-0 Ivy League) was coming off an emotional 15-9 win at Cornell last Saturday that clinched a spot in the Ivy League Tournament. UConn (12-2, 2-1 Big East) was coming in hot as well, having won 10 of 11 – with the lone loss in that span by one goal in overtime at No. 8 Denver. Yale had earned a spot in the national rankings earlier in the week, adding to the intrigue as the local rivals met.
The Huskies found the back of the net with seven of their first nine shots to jump out to a 7-1 lead in the first 6:36. But after that the Bulldogs began rallying, scoring three of the final four goals in the first quarter and then scoring the first two goals of the second quarter to get within 8-6.
The teams then engaged in a series of back-and-forth runs, with neither scoring more than three straight goals until late in the fourth quarter. A 3-0 run by Yale at the end of the first half, including a pair of goals by senior attacker
Olivia Markert and one by junior attacker
Olivia Penoyer, got the Bulldogs within one at 10-9. But UConn opened the third quarter with a pair of goals.
Yale got within 12-11 and 13-12 but never got the game-tying goal. UConn goalie Landyn White finished with 14 saves, and the Huskies outscored Yale 4-0 in the game's final 7:09 to finish off the win.
Markert finished with four goals and now has a career high 36 for the season. First-year midfielder
Caroline Burt had her first career hat trick (3-0-3) and now has seven goals in the last three games. Penoyer (2-1-3) and first-year midfielder
Taylor Lane (2-0-2) also had multiple-goal games. First-year attacker
Taylor Everson (1-0-1), first-year midfielder
Fallon Vaughn (1-1-2) and first-year midfielder
Sophie Straka (1-0-1) rounded out Yale's goal scorers. First-year midfielder
Sky Carrasquillo had a team-best four draw controls, and junior defender
Ali Anderson had four caused turnovers.
Junior goalkeeper
Clare Boone made six saves playing the final 49:11 in relief of first-year goalkeeper
Cami Donadio.
Yale returns to action Saturday, hosting Columbia at noon.
