PRINCETON, N.J. – The No. 23 Yale women's lacrosse team delivered a statement victory in its first Ivy League Tournament appearance Friday afternoon, shutting out Cornell in two of the four quarters and claiming a 16-6 win to earn a spot in Sunday's Ivy League Tournament Championship. That was a season-low goal total for the Big Red, who came in averaging nearly 14 goals per game. Senior attacker
Olivia Markert (3-1-4) and junior attacker
Olivia Penoyer (1-3-4) led Yale's attack at Princeton's Class of 1952 Stadium.
Yale (11-5, 6-1 Ivy League) came in as the No. 2 seed and looked like a group of seasoned veterans – despite the fact that this was the Bulldogs' first appearance in the Ivy League Tournament, and their starting lineup included four first years. In the pouring rain, Yale grabbed an early lead and never looked back. The Bulldogs' offensive depth was on display, as six different players scored Yale's first six goals. Yale outshot Cornell 13-5 in the first quarter in taking a 5-0 lead.
The second quarter was evenly played, with Cornell (8-8, 4-3 Ivy League) snapping a scoreless streak of 15:48 with a goal early in the frame and ultimately finishing with four goals – the same total as the Bulldogs.
Yale never let the Big Red score more than one goal in a row, however – in part due to the continued excellence on the draw control by first-year midfielder
Sky Carrasquillo (eight draws) and in part due to some big saves from junior goalkeeper
Clare Boone (10 saves). Senior defender
Kenya Boston limited Cornell's leading goal scorer, midfielder Amanda Cramer, to two goals and first-year defender
Marymegan Wright limited Cornell's second-leading goal scorer, midfielder
Genevieve DeWinter, to one goal.
Boone stopped the first two Cornell shots of the third quarter, when both teams hit a scoring drought. Markert's goal at 6:40 was the first of the quarter and gave Yale a 10-4 lead. First-year midfielder
Jenna Collignon then got the game firmly within the Bulldogs' control by scoring twice in a 32 second span.
Cornell had gone 17:43 without a goal by the time midfielder/attacker Sophie Ward scored at 13:08 of the fourth, cutting the Yale lead to 12-5. But the Bulldogs pulled away by scoring four of the final five goals of the game, including one by Carrasquillo – her third of the year – that seemed a fitting reward for all the work she had done on the draw.
In addition to Markert and Penoyer, Yale got multiple-point games from Collignon (3-0-3), first-year attacker
Caroline Burt (2-1-3), first-year midfielder
Fallon Vaughn (1-2-3), first-year attacker
Taylor Everson (2-0-2) and first-year midfielder
Taylor Lane (2-0-2). Carrasquillo and first-year midfielder
Sophie Straka (1-0-1) had one goal each as the Bulldogs' first-year class accounted for 12 of the team's 16 goals.
Markert led the Bulldogs in caused turnovers with three, while senior defender
Kelsey Dunn – Yale's captain – added two. Lane, Penoyer and Straka had three ground balls each.
Nine had been Cornell's previous season low goal total.
Yale plays Princeton Sunday at noon for the Ivy League Tournament Championship. The winner of that game gets the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
