NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Junior forward/midfielder
Chiara Picciafuoco scored four goals to lead the No. 19 Yale field hockey team to a 9-1 victory over UAlbany Sunday afternoon at Johnson Field.
Yale improves to 2-0 overall (0-0 Ivy League), while UAlbany falls to 3-1 (0-0 America East).
Summary
- Yale earned a penalty corner in the game's first minute and turned it into a goal, with senior midfielder/forward Emma Ramsey deflecting in a shot by first-year back Emilia Puddicombe.
- Yale scored on another penalty corner less than two minutes into the second, as sophomore back Issy Baileff scored off a stick-stop by sophomore back/midfielder Carys Isherwood and an insertion by junior forward/midfielder Chiara Picciafuoco.
- Yale's third goal came after a spectacular individual effort by first-year forward Maddie Leathem, who intercepted a long pass from the UAlbany zone at midfield, air-dribbled through the defense and crossed it to Picciafuoco for the goal.
- Leathem scored off an assist by junior midfielder Kaitlyn Chang at 29:02, sending the Bulldogs into halftime up 4-0.
- Yale's fifth goal was another penalty corner goal, this one 77 seconds into the third quarter by junior forward/midfielder/back Gigi Caldero. Chang and Ramsey assisted.
- The Bulldogs got a penalty stroke with 10:01 left in the third quarter, but UAlbany's Merle Vaandrager made the save.
- Picciafuco scored unassisted at 35:29 for Yale's sixth goal.
- UAlbany broke up the shutout with a goal at 36:14 by midfielder Mathilda Prada.
- Picciafuco answered that goal quickly, finishing off her hat trick with a goal at 37:27 that made the score 7-1.
- Yale earned another penalty stroke – its third of the weekend – with 3:23 left in the third. Picciafuoco went high for her fourth goal of the day to make the score 8-1.
- UAlbany had a goal waved off with 11:53 left in the fourth after a video review.
- Caldero scored at 49:12, assisted by Picciafuoco, to make it 9-1.
- A defensive save by Baileff on a UAlbany penalty corner with just over eight minutes left kept the Yale lead at eight, and the Bulldogs went on to finish off the 9-1 win.
Notes
- This was Yale's most goals in a game since a 9-1 win vs. Sacred Heart on Sept. 18, 2011.
- The last Yale player to score four goals in a game was Carol Middough '18, who did so in a 7-1 win at Lehigh Oct. 1, 2017.
- Caldero's goals were the first of her career.
- Isherwood, Leathem and Puddicombe had their first career assists.
- Baileff's goal was her first since Oct. 15, 2024.
- Picciafuoco now has six goals this season. She has already surpassed her goal total from last season, two.
- Yale sophomore goalkeeper Amelie Schwarzkopf made three saves.
- UAlbany was 1 for 14 on penalty corners.
Around the Ivy League
- Brown 4, Quinnipiac 2
- Bucknell 3, Cornell 1
- BU 5, Dartmouth 1
- No. 3 Harvard 1, No. 9 UConn 0
- No. 18 Old Dominion 3, Penn 0
- No. 10 North Carolina 1, No. 2 Princeton 0 (SO)
- Columbia at Cal, late
Up Next
- Yale hosts Fairfield Friday at 6:00 p.m.
