NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale field hockey team has been picked 16th in the NFHCA Preseason National Poll and third in the Ivy League Preseason Poll. Both polls were announced on Tuesday.
The Bulldogs are coming off a historic 2025 season in which they made the program's first appearance in the Ivy League Tournament and the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The team's win total (12) was tied for third-best in program history. Yale was No. 12 in the final NFHCA national poll.
Yale returns a core group of seven players who started 17 games or more last year. That includes five returning 2025 All-Ivy League honorees, tied for the most in the league. A total of 14 players from last season return. The Bulldogs augment that group with six newcomers.
Also back are
Melissa Gonzalez, Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey, and associate head coach
Kerry Kiddoo. They are entering their fifth season leading the Bulldogs.
Hannah Tepper has joined the staff this year as an assistant coach.
The Ivy League field hockey 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 Nov. 6 and Nov. 8 at the site of the No. 1 seed.
NFHCA PRESEASON POLL
Points (First Place Votes)
- Northwestern 220 (11)
- North Carolina 203 (0)
- Princeton 198 (0)
- Harvard 180 (0)
- Virginia 156 (0)
- Duke 155 (0)
- Wake Forest 148 (0)
- Liberty 120 (0)
- Syracuse 112 (0)
- Miami (Ohio) 110 (0)
- UConn 91 (0)
- Iowa 91 (0)
- Maryland 87 (0)
- Michigan 85 (0)
- UMass 69 (0)
- Yale 43 (0)
- Rutgers 35 (0)
- Monmouth 29 (0)
- Louisville 28 (0)
- Saint Joseph's 25 (0)
IVY LEAGUE FIELD HOCKEY PRESEASON POLL
Points (First Place Votes)
- Harvard 121 (10)
- Princeton 118 (6)
- Yale 84
- Cornell 74
- Brown 66
- Penn 53
- Columbia 37
- Dartmouth 23
