NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's lacrosse team had three first years named to ILWomen's 2024 "Power 100 Incoming Freshmen Rankings". The media outlet announced the rankings Wednesday. The top 50 were ranked, and the remaining 50 were unranked. The 51-100 group included defender
Maggie Bellissimo (Darien, Conn.), attacker
Kelly Holmes (Darien, Conn.) and goalkeeper
Niamh Pfaff (Garden City, N.Y.).
The newcomers join a Yale team that is coming off a historic season. The Bulldogs won a pair of games in the NCAA Tournament, advancing to the NCAA Quarterfinals. They won the Ivy League Tournament for the first time in school history and secured the first outright Ivy League Championship for the regular season in program history (Yale shared the Ivy title in 1980 and 2003). The team went 7-0 in Ivy play for the first time, and the Bulldogs' 17 overall wins were a school record. Yale was ranked No. 6 in the final IWLCA/ILWomen national poll.
This year's three Power 100 selections join the five Bulldogs who were chosen for this list a year ago to give Yale more Power 100 selections in the last two years than any other Ivy League team.
Here is a look at Yale's 2024 Power 100 selections:
- Maggie Bellissimo was a USA Lacrosse All-American last year and an all-state and All-FCIAC selection for the last two years at Darien High. She was the team MVP and Defender of the Year last season.
- Kelly Holmes, Bellisimo's teammate at Darien High, was a two-time USA Lacrosse All-American along with earning all-state and All-FCIAC honors twice. She led the team in points last year.
- Niamh Pfaff was an honorable mention USA Lacrosse All-American last year at Garden City High. She was also the Long Island Lacrosse Journal Nassau County Player of the Year and was second team Newsday All-Long Island. She has earned all-county honors for the last two years.
| Ivy League in the ILWomen Power 100, Last Two Years |
| School |
2023 Power 100 Selections |
2024 Power 100 Selections |
TOTAL |
| Yale |
5 |
3 |
8 |
| Princeton |
2 |
4 |
6 |
| Penn |
1 |
4 |
5 |
| Dartmouth |
3 |
0 |
3 |
| Harvard |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| Cornell |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| Brown |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| Columbia |
0 |
0 |
0 |
