NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's lacrosse team has been picked third in the Ivy League Preseason Poll, announced by the league on Tuesday.
Yale aims to build on recent accomplishments, which include winning the Ivy League Tournament and a pair of games in the NCAA Tournament in each of the last two seasons. The Bulldogs return four players who started at least 10 games last year – including three defenders and a goalkeeper who helped the Bulldogs rank No. 4 nationally in scoring defense. The team captain is senior defender
Emmy Pascal (Lorton, Va.).
The season opener is set for Feb. 14 at UMass Lowell. This is Yale's 11th year under
Erica Bamford, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Lacrosse. Associate head coach
Colleen Smith is back for her 10th year, assistant coach
Molly Palella is back for her ninth year and assistant coach
Brooklyn Neumen is back for her second year.
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 1 and May 3 at the site of the No. 1 seed.
2026 Ivy League Women's Lacrosse Preseason Poll
- Princeton - 126 (14 first-place votes)
- Penn - 109 (2 first-place votes)
- Yale - 99
- Brown - 69
- Harvard - 68
- Cornell - 49
- Dartmouth - 40
- Columbia - 16
