NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's lacrosse team has been picked first in the Ivy League Preseason Poll, announced by the league on Tuesday.
Yale aims to build on last year's accomplishments, which included the school record for wins (17), an Ivy League Championship, an Ivy League Tournament Championship and a pair of wins in the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs return 10 players who started at least 15 games last year – and the team's top seven goal scorers. The team captain is senior midfielder
Sophie Straka (Chatham, N.J.).
The season opener is set for Saturday vs. No. 4 Michigan at Reese Stadium. This is Yale's 10th year under
Erica Bamford, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Lacrosse. Assistant coaches
Molly Palella and
Colleen Smith are back for their eighth and ninth years, respectively.
Brooklyn Neumen has joined the staff as an assistant coach.
The Ivy League women's lacrosse tournament, in which the top four teams in the regular season standings compete for the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament, takes place May 2 and May 4 at the site of the No. 1 seed.
2025 Ivy League Women's Lacrosse Preseason Poll
Predicted Order of Finish (first-place votes in parentheses)
1. Yale - 125 (13 first-place votes)
2. Penn - 107 (2 first-place votes)
3. Princeton - 104 (1 first-place vote)
4. Harvard - 71
5. Brown - 62
6. Cornell - 54
7. Dartmouth - 36
8. Columbia - 17
