NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's basketball team (4-11, 0-2 Ivy League) heads to New York State for a pair of games on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. The Bulldogs visit Columbia Saturday (2:00 p.m.,
SNY,
ESPN+,
International Stream,
Live Stats,
Tickets) and Cornell Monday (2:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
International Stream,
Live Stats,
Tickets).
Last Game
A 21-11 scoring advantage for No. 24 Princeton in the third quarter gave the Tigers just what they needed Saturday afternoon against Yale at Lee Amphitheater. The upset-minded Bulldogs had hung around throughout the first half, trailing by no more than nine until the final 4:01 of the second quarter. But Princeton's decisive edge in the third quarter turned a 13 point Tiger halftime lead into a 23 point Tiger lead heading into the fourth. Despite a solid final 10 minutes, the Bulldogs eventually fell 76-50.
Trending Up
Yale has improved its shooting percentage by 31 percentage points from last season (to .392 from .361). The Bulldogs have improved their three point shooting percentage by 65 points (to .294 from .229). They have improved their free throw shooting percentage by 85 points (to .747 from .662).
Finishing Strong
Yale has scored a combined 231 points in the fourth quarters of games this year, more than any other quarter.
That's Deep
Yale has seven players averaging 22 or more minutes per game with a minimum of four games played. Harvard (six) is the only other Ivy League school with more than five players averaging 22 or more minutes per game with a minimum of four games played.
Building Blocks
Yale leads the Ivy League in blocked shots with 68, seven more than any other team. First-year forward
Dorka Kastl (Budapest, Hungary) leads the league with 29 blocks, tied for 15th most in a season by a Yale player. The school record is 63 blocks by
Erica Davis '07 in 2006-07. Kastl is on pace for 58 blocks, which would tie for third on Yale's single-season list. Junior forwards
Mary Meng (Grafton, Ohio) and
Luisa Vydrova (Prague, Czech Republic) are tied for second on the team with 10 blocks each.
Top Scorers
Five different players have led Yale in scoring at least once this season. Here are Yale's leading scorers, including ties, by number of games:
Among the Ivy's Best on the Boards
Junior forward
Mary Meng (Grafton, Ohio) has two of the top five single-game rebound totals in the Ivy League this season. Meng's total of 15 rebounds at High Point Dec. 20 is second only to Brown's Alyssa Moreland's total of 16 at Merrimack Dec. 9. Meng's 14 rebounds at Monmouth Dec. 18 are tied for third with Moreland's 14 at George Washington Dec. 6 and Cornell's Alana Andrews' 14 vs. SUNY Delhi Jan. 13. Meng is currently averaging 10.8 rebounds per game. She would be leading the league and ranked No. 15 in the nation if she had enough games played (75 percent of the team's games). Moreland is the league leader, averaging 10.7 rebounds per game.
Scouting Columbia
Columbia (10-5, 1-1 Ivy League) is coming off a dramatic 58-55 win at Harvard from last Saturday. The Lions led by as many as 17, but got outscored 26-13 in the third quarter and trailed by three with 4:18 left. The game eventually came down to the final seconds, with Perri Page's and-one with 1.9 seconds left making the difference. Columbia had lost its Ivy opener to Cornell, 67-60, to snap a five-game winning streak.
Scouting Cornell
Cornell (7-8, 2-0 Ivy League), which hosts Brown Saturday, is off to a 2-0 start in Ivy League play for the first time since 2017. The Big Red went just 3-11 in league play last year, but knocked off defending Ivy League champion Columbia 67-60 in the season opener and followed up with a 61-52 win at Dartmouth this past Saturday.
Social Media
