LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – First year Molly Boyle and Mark Bolding, Susan Cavanagh Head Coach of Yale women's hockey, earned year-end awards from ECAC Hockey. Boyle took home Defender of the Year honors, while Bolding secured the conference Coach of the Year award. The awards were announced at the ECAC Hockey Women's Championship Banquet on Thursday evening in Lake Placid, the site of the conference tournament semifinals and finals.

Boyle had a remarkable debut season for the Bulldogs as a two-way defender. Through 28 games, she recorded 10 goals and 20 assists, finishing as the conference leader in assists. The first year was a First Team All-ECAC Hockey selection, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and a First Team honoree. She also won ECAC weekly honors three times and monthly honors twice. She is the first Yale player to win ECAC Defender of the Year since Emma Seitz in 2023. 

Bolding earned his third ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year award after achieving the honor in back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023. He led the Bulldogs to the program's second-ever ECAC regular-season title and the No. 1 overall seed in the ECAC Tournament. Yale finished the regular season with a 22-8 record, the third-most wins in program history. The Bulldogs also boasted the league's best offense during conference play, tallying 78 goals in 22 games. Bolding guided Yale to a quarterfinal sweep of Union and into the ECAC Hockey semifinals for the fourth time in program history.

Yale will face No. 4 Cornell in the conference semifinals on Friday, March 6, at the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid.