NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The No. 8 Yale women's lacrosse team hosts Columbia in the regular-season finale Saturday (3:30 p.m.,
ESPN+,
International Stream,
Live Stats). It is Senior Day for the Bulldogs, and the game is part of a doubleheader at Reese Stadium that starts with the Yale-Princeton men's lacrosse game at 12:00 p.m.
Yale is all alone in first place in the Ivy League with a 6-0 record, one game ahead of No. 18 Princeton. The Bulldogs have clinched at least a share of the 2024 Ivy League Championship, and can claim sole possession of it Saturday with either a win vs. Columbia or a loss by Princeton at No. 25 Harvard.
Senior Day
Yale will honor its seniors following the game on Saturday.The members of the senior class have have led the program to several notable accomplishments. That includes an Ivy League Championship this season, the program's first league title since 2003. The team has been ranked as high as number one in the RPI and number eight in the national poll this season. The Bulldogs had a nine-game winning streak earlier in the year, tied for the fourth-longest winning streak in school history. For three straight seasons, including this one, Yale has earned a spot in the Ivy League Tournament. The Bulldogs have advanced to the Ivy League Tournament Championship game in each of the previous two seasons. Yale will host the Ivy League Tournament this year – the first time in school history the Bulldogs have earned the No. 1 seed.
This senior class played a significant role in helping the program to those achievements. The members of the class are:
Last Game
Yale (12-2, 6-0 Ivy League)
fell to No. 12 Denver 12-11 in a neutral site game Monday at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. The game included two former Bulldogs playing for the Pioneers. Yale junior midfielder
Fallon Vaughn (Concord, Mass.) faced her sister, former Bulldog captain
Payton Vaughn '23. Payton is playing for the Pioneers as a graduate student after playing for Yale from 2019 through 2023. Former Bulldog
Olivia Penoyer '23 is also playing for the Pioneers as a graduate student, and she assisted on the game-winning goal Monday.
Iron Women
The same 11 field players have started all 14 games of the season to date:
- Junior midfielder Sky Carrasquillo (Alpharetta, Ga.)
- First-year defender Katie Clare (Bayport, N.Y.)
- Junior attacker Jenna Collignon (Hinsdale, Ill.)
- Senior attacker Chloe Conaghan (Chevy Chase, Md.)
- First-year defender Sydney Grogan (Bedford, N.H.)
- Junior midfielder Taylor Lane (Norwalk, Conn.)
- Junior defender Molly McGuckin (Alexandria, Va.)
- Sophomore defender Emmy Pascal (Lorton, Va.)
- Sophomore defender Bella Saviano (Severna Park, Md.)
- Junior midfielder Fallon Vaughn (Concord, Mass.)
- Junior defender Marymegan Wright (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
Carrasquillo, Collignon, Lane, Pascal, Vaughn and Wright also started all 17 games last season. Lane and Vaughn have stared all 48 games of their Yale careers.
RPI and the Ivy League
Here are the Ivy League teams in the latest RPI rankings from the NCAA:
3. Penn
6. Yale
16. Princeton
21. Brown
25. Harvard
32. Dartmouth
36. Cornell
87. Columbia
The ACC, the Big 10 and the Ivy League are the only conferences with five or more teams ranked in the top 25 of the RPI.
ILWomen/IWLCA Poll
Here is a look at the top 10 in the latest ILWomen/IWLCA Poll:
| Rank |
Team |
Record |
Next Game |
| 1 |
Northwestern |
13-2 |
May 2, No. 5 Michigan or No. 15 Johns Hopkins (Big Ten Semifinals) |
| 2 |
Notre Dame |
15-2 |
Apr. 26, No. 3 Boston College (ACC Semifinals) |
| 3 |
Boston College |
14-3 |
Apr. 26, No. 2 Notre Dame (ACC Semifinals) |
| 4 |
Syracuse |
13-4 |
Apr. 26, No. 6 Virginia (ACC Semifinals) |
| 5 |
Michigan |
14-2 |
Apr. 27, No. 15 Johns Hopkins (Big Ten Quarterfinals) |
| 6 |
Virginia |
14-3 |
Apr. 26, No. 4 Syracuse (ACC Semifinals) |
| 7 |
Maryland |
12-4 |
Apr. 27, Rutgers (Big Ten Quarterfinals) |
| 8 |
Yale |
12-2 |
Apr. 27, Columbia |
| 9 |
Loyola |
14-2 |
May 2, Colgate or Holy Cross (Patriot League Semifinals) |
| 10 |
Florida |
14-2 |
Apr. 27, Temple |
Defense Among Best in the Nation
Yale ranks fourth nationally in scoring defense (8.07 goals allowed per game). Michigan (6.69 goals allowed per game) leads the nation. Individually, Yale first-year goalkeeper
Laura O'Connor (Greenwich, Conn.) ranks sixth nationally in goals-against average (8.41). Michigan's Erin O'Grady is the NCAA leader at 6.45.
Reversal of Fortune
So far this season the Bulldogs have played four teams that beat them in 2023, and they have beaten them all. Here is the list:
| Opponent |
2023 Result |
2024 Result |
| UConn |
L, 10-11 OT |
W, 17-6 |
| Penn |
L, 6-16 |
W, 16-8 |
| Harvard |
L, 9-10 |
W, 16-8 |
| Cornell |
L, 12-14 |
W, 21-8 |
Ivy League Title History
With a
21-8 win at Cornell Apr. 20, Yale has clinched at least a share of the 2024 Ivy League Championship. The Bulldogs have won the Ivy League title two other times:
- 1980 (4-0-2 in Ivy League play, shared title with Penn)
- 2003 (6-1 in Ivy League play, shared title with Dartmouth and Princeton)
Yale's Best Ivy League Seasons
- Yale has won six Ivy League regular season games in a season four times, including this season. The 2003, 2007 and 2022 teams all finished 6-1 in Ivy games.
- Yale has gone undefeated against Ivy League opponents in the regular season three times – all before the league went to a seven-game schedule. The 1976 team finished 3-0 against Ivy opponents and the 1978 team finished 4-0-1 against Ivy opponents. In 1980 – the first year the Ivy League recognized an Ivy League Women's Lacrosse Champion – the Bulldogs went 4-0-2 and shared the title with Penn.
More Ivy Success
Dating back to a win in the final Ivy League game of the 2020 season, Yale is 17-4 in its last 21 Ivy League games.
Ivy League Tournament
Yale has clinched the No. 1 seed in the Ivy League Tournament for the first time in school history. The Bulldogs will host the tournament, which includes semifinal games on Friday May 3 (4:00 p.m. No. 2 vs. No. 3 and 7:00 p.m. No. 1 vs. No. 4) and the championship game on Sunday May 5 (12:00 p.m.). All games will be streamed on ESPN+. Ticket information is available by clicking
here.
This will be the 13th installment of the Ivy League Tournament since 2010.
Ivy League Awards
Following the conclusion of the regular season, the Ivy League will announce the winners of its annual awards this Tuesday:
- Attacker of the Year
- Midfielder of the Year
- Defender of the Year
- Goalkeeper of the Year
- Coach of the Year
- First Team All-Ivy League
- Second Team All-Ivy League
- Honorable Mention All-Ivy League
- Academic All-Ivy League
The last Bulldog to win one of the league's major individual awards was
Lauren Taylor '08, who was named the league's Player of the Year in 2007. The league began awards by specific positions (attacker, midfielder, defender) in 2013, adding coach of the year in 2015 and goalkeeper of the year in 2018.
Scouting Columbia
Columbia (4-10, 0-6 Ivy League) has lost three of its last four games, including games against then-No. 18 Princeton and then-No. 24 Harvard in which the Lions allowed 24 goals. The Lions have lost 23 straight league games dating back to their last Ivy win, 15-14 at Harvard on Apr. 6, 2019. Yale has won three in a row in the series, including a
19-5 win last year in New York.
Saturday Weather Forecast for New Haven
From the
National Weather Service: Mostly sunny, with a high near 61. Light southwest wind becoming south 6 to 11 mph in the morning.
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