NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale field hockey team will take on some of the top teams in the country, and face four Connecticut rivals, in 2024. The Bulldogs' schedule was announced Monday. The 16-game regular season (seven Ivy League games, nine non-league games) includes four games against teams that ended last season ranked in the top 25 in the NCAA RPI rankings.
The Bulldogs open the campaign Sept. 6 on the road at Lehigh. The Ivy League portion of the season starts Sept. 15 vs. Brown at Johnson Field. The Ivy League Tournament, which features the top four teams in the regular season standings competing for the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament, takes place Nov. 8 (semifinals) and Nov. 10 (championship) at the site of the No. 1 seed.
This is the Bulldogs' third season with
Melissa Gonzalez as Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey.
Kerry Kiddoo returns as assistant coach, joined this year by
Belle Bressler. Rising senior back
Keely Comizio (New Vernon, N.J.) is the team captain.
The Bulldogs return nine players who made 12 or more starts in 2023, when Yale was in contention for a spot in the Ivy League Tournament until the final game of the season.
Here is a breakdown of the schedule for 2024:
The Basics
- Yale's regular-season schedule consists of 16 games. There are seven Ivy League games (at Brown, at Columbia, at Cornell, vs. Dartmouth, vs. Harvard, at Penn and vs. Princeton) and nine non-league games.
- The schedule includes eight home games and eight road games.
- Yale plays games in five different states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania).
- The schedule includes nine non-conference games, and four different conferences are represented:
- Sept. 6 at Lehigh (Patriot League)
- Sept. 8 at Drexel (Colonial Athletic Association)
- Sept. 13 at Fairfield (Northeast Conference)
- Sept. 20 vs. Sacred Heart (Northeast Conference)
- Sept. 22 at UConn (Big East)
- Sept. 29 vs. Quinnipiac (Big East)
- Oct. 6 at Monmouth (Colonial Athletic Association)
- Oct. 13 vs. Wagner (Northeast Conference)
- Oct. 27 vs. Temple (Big East)
- Live stats and video of all home games, and road games where applicable, will be available via links on yalebulldogs.com. Home games and select road games will be streamed on ESPN+.
- The schedule is subject to change. Check yalebulldogs.com for updates.
Strength of Schedule
- The Bulldogs play four teams that ended last season ranked in the top 25 in the NCAA RPI rankings: No. 6 Harvard, No. 18 Princeton, No. 23 Drexel and No. 25 Cornell.
- The Bulldogs play two teams that ended last season ranked in the top 20 in the NFHCA poll: No. 9 Harvard and No. 19 Cornell.
- Two of Yale's opponents played in the 2023 NCAA Field Hockey Tournament: Harvard (advanced to quarterfinals before losing to eventual national champion North Carolina) and Sacred Heart (lost in opening round).
Dates to Celebrate
- Yale Field Hockey Alum Weekend is Sept. 27-29, with home games against Penn Friday Sept. 27 and Quinnipiac Sunday Sept. 29. Further details about that weekend will be announced later.
- On Friday Oct. 25 Yale will celebrate Senior Day, as the Bulldogs pay tribute to the members of the Class of 2025:
Postseason
- The Ivy League Tournament takes place at the site of the No. 1 seed and includes the top four teams in the regular season standings. Semifinals take place Friday Nov. 8 and the tournament championship game is Sunday Nov. 10.
- NCAA Tournament competition starts with opening round games Nov. 13 (featuring the four lowest automatic-qualification teams). The field includes 10 automatic qualifiers -- including a spot for the Ivy League Tournament champion -- and eight at-large selections. The first- and second-round games take place at campus sites Nov. 15 and 17. The winners of those series advance to the semifinals on Nov. 22. The championship is Nov. 24. The semis and championship are hosted by Michigan.
