NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's basketball team (7-19, 3-10 Ivy League) concludes its season Saturday at No. 23 Princeton (2:00 p.m.,
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Last Game
Yale
beat Cornell 57-45 on Senior Day last Saturday at Lee Amphitheater. Forward
Kiley Capstraw (West Orange, N.J.), the Bulldogs' lone senior, had her second double-double of the season – 15 points and 10 rebounds. Junior forward
Mary Meng (Grafton, Ohio) had her second double-double of the season as well – 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Capping Off Her Career
Saturday will be the final game at Yale for senior forward
Kiley Capstraw (West Orange, N.J.), Yale's captain. Capstraw is the lone senior on the Yale roster. She earned a starting role in her first year, when she was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week five times and finished second on the team in scoring (9.2 ppg). She started all 27 games her sophomore season, when she again ranked second on the team in scoring (11.2 ppg). She also started all 27 games her junior season, when she led the team in assists (70). This season she has established career highs in assists (94) and steals (41) while posting the best shooting percentage of her career (.390). She ranks second in the Ivy League in assists per game (3.9), sixth in the Ivy League in rebounds per game (6.6) and eighth in the Ivy League in steals per game (1.7).
Improved Accuracy
Yale's shooting percentages on field goals, three pointers and free throws have all improved this season as compared to last season. There has also been a corresponding increase in assists per game. Here are the numbers:
| Stat |
2024-25 |
2025-26 |
Improvement |
| Field Goal Percentage |
.361 |
.389 |
+.028 |
| Three-point Field Goal Percentage |
.229 |
.298 |
+.069 |
| Free Throw Percentage |
.662 |
.730 |
+.068 |
| Assists Per Game |
10.0 |
12.7 |
+2.7 |
Trending Up
Since the end of last season, Yale has improved its NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking by 58 spots – from 329 to 271. That is the biggest jump up in that span among Ivy League teams. Brown, which has improved its NET ranking by 56 spots (from 185 to 129) has made the second-biggest jump among Ivy teams. The NET is the contemporary sorting tool used by the NCAA to measure a team's quality and help evaluate team resumes for selection and seeding in the NCAA Tournament. NET ranking is determined by who you played, where you played, how efficiently you played and the result of the game.
Moore Among Ivy's Top Three Scorers
Sophomore guard
Ciniya Moore (Bradenton, Fla.) ranks third in the Ivy League in scoring (17.3 ppg). Moore ranks second in the Ivy League in free throw percentage (.864). The last Yale player to rank among the Ivy League's top three in scoring for a season was
Roxy Barahman '20 in 2019-20. Barahman was third in the league (17.1 ppg) that year.
Meng Controls the Boards
Junior forward
Mary Meng (Grafton, Ohio) is averaging 9.1 rebounds per game, which would rank second in the league if she qualified (Meng has not played enough games). Only Brown's Alyssa Moreland (10.3 rebounds per game) has a higher average.
The Foul Line
Yale is 7-9 when committing 20 or fewer personal fouls in a game and 0-10 when committing 21 or more personal fouls in a game.
Long Time, No See
Saturday marks the second time Yale will play Princeton this year – and the longest stretch of time in between games for Yale and any of its Ivy opponents. The Bulldogs have not seen the Tigers since Jan. 10, and 56 days will have passed since that meeting by the time the teams see each other Saturday. The shortest stretch of time in between games for any of Yale's Ivy League opponents this season was 14 (Dartmouth and Harvard). Here is the list:
| Opponent |
Game 1 |
Game 2 |
Days In Between |
| Princeton |
Jan. 10 |
Mar. 7 |
56 |
| Columbia |
Jan. 17 |
Feb. 27 |
41 |
| Cornell |
Jan. 19 |
Feb. 28 |
40 |
| Brown |
Jan. 5 |
Feb. 7 |
33 |
| Penn |
Jan. 24 |
Feb. 21 |
28 |
| Dartmouth |
Jan. 31 |
Feb. 14 |
14 |
| Harvard |
Jan. 30 |
Feb. 13 |
14 |
Scouting Princeton
Princeton (23-3, 11-2 Ivy League) is tied with Columbia atop the Ivy League standings. A win on Saturday guarantees the Tigers at least a share of the Ivy League title, which would be their 19th.
Saturday in the Ivy League
- Dartmouth at Cornell, 1:00 p.m.
- Yale at No. 23 Princeton, 2:00 p.m.
- Brown at Penn, 2:00 p.m.
- Harvard at Columbia, 2:00 p.m.
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