STORRS, Conn. – In a game that culminated in a best-of-five shootout after two scoreless overtime periods in the pouring rain, the No. 17 Yale field hockey team earned a 1-0 victory at UConn Sunday afternoon. It was the Bulldogs' first win over the Huskies in program history.
Yale improves to 9-2 overall (2-2 Ivy League), while UConn falls to 6-6 (3-1 Big East).
Summary
- Yale had an apparent goal at 1:09 waved off after official review. The ball had deflected in off a UConn player and had not been touched in the circle by any Yale players.
- The Bulldogs outshot UConn 5-0 in the scoreless first quarter.
- UConn got its first shot on goal at 16:27 during a penalty corner, but Yale first-year goalkeeper Amelie Schwarzkopf made a kick save.
- UConn outshot Yale 3-1 in the scoreless second quarter.
- Schwarzkopf made a diving save on a corner shot by Pien Prins at 33:45 in the third quarter, then denied the follow-up attempt by Sol Simone.
- Schwarzkopf made another big save at 38:47, coming out to smother an attempt by Violeta Francese. UConn wound up outshooting Yale 4-0 in the third quarter.
- Shots were 2-2 in the scoreless fourth quarter, and the game went to overtime.
- Yale outshot UConn 4-1 in the first overtime and 4-1 in the second overtime, but six saves by Huskies goalkeeper Natalie McKenna in the overtimes kept the game scoreless. Each team totaled three penalty corners in the two overtimes. UConn's final penalty corner came with just over a minute left in the second overtime. Junior back/midfielder Hettie Whittington got her stick down to stop a shot by Milou Heuker, earning a defensive save.
- After those two scoreless 10 minute overtimes, the game went to a shootout. Five players from each team take alternating one-on-one shots from the 23-meter line. Each player has eight seconds to shoot.
- Yale sophomore midfielder Kaitlyn Chang was the first player up in the shootout, and she quickly and calmly deposited a low shot past McKenna.
- UConn did not score on its first-round attempt, and both teams went scoreless in the second round and the third rounds of the shootout.
- Whittington shot for Yale in the fourth round. She patiently dribbled to get McKenna out of position. After McKenna made a lunging attempt at a stop, Whittington went around her and tapped in a shot that put the Bulldogs ahead 2-0 in the shootout.
- UConn's fourth-round shooter was Abby Davidson, and she needed to score to keep the Huskies' chances alive. She backed into Schwarzkopf, then turned around and attempted to shovel a shot over her. But Schwarzkopf dove and was perfectly positioned to block that attempt. The rebound skittered off to Davidson's right and she made one last desperate attempt, but Schwarzkopf scrambled over and forced that shot wide to seal the win.
Notes
- The Yale-UConn series started in 1975. Prior to Sunday, the teams had played 35 times and the Huskies had won all 35. That included eight one-goal losses for Yale: 1979, 1980, 1992, 1994 (in double overtime), 2005, 2007, 2011 and 2024.
- Schwarzkopf finished with five saves, not including the stops she made in the shootout.
- Yale is the third team to shut UConn out this season, joining Ivy League rivals No. 4 Harvard (2-0 Sept. 14) and No. 8 Princeton (5-0 Sept. 21).
- Yale's 16 shots were the most by any team against UConn this year.
- Melissa Gonzalez, Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey, played for UConn and was a three-time All-American. The Huskies had an overall record of 74-16 (.822) in her four seasons. Yale assistant coach Belle Bressler played for the Huskies as well, and Bressler's sister Julia is a senior forward for UConn.
- Originally scheduled for 1:00 p.m., the game's start time was moved to 12:00 p.m. due to the impending storm. The rain began falling in the fourth quarter and did not let up after that. High winds blew all afternoon long.
Around the Ivy League
- Columbia at No. 13 Monmouth postponed
- Penn 1, Villanova 0
- Cornell 2, Lehigh 0
Up Next
- Yale hosts Dartmouth Friday at 5:00 p.m.
