With her team tied 5-5 with Boston University in the final seconds of the first half, Kathie Sargent ’05 went to work.
The freshman midfielder sent the women’s lacrosse team into halftime with a flourish, scoring two goals in the final 15 seconds of the half to give Yale (5-1) a 7-5 lead. Those two goals proved to be the difference as the No. 13 Elis held on to edge the No. 20 Terriers (3-3), Wednesday afternoon at BU’s Nickerson Field. The win was Yale’s fourth in a row.
The first half’s final minute catapulted the Elis to victory. With Yale trailing 5-4, Miles Whitman ’04, the team’s leading goal scorer, knotted the game at 5-5 with an unassisted goal at the 44 second mark.
Whitman’s goal set the stage for Yale to take the lead on Sargent’s two tallies, coming at the 15 second and 2 second marks, respectively.
“We really managed to take the ball hard in transition [in the final minute],” Whitman said. “It really made a big difference coming out in the second half.”
The Bulldogs kept up the onslaught 45 seconds into the second half, when Sophie Melniker ’04 scored her second goal of the game to put Yale ahead, 8-5.
The Terriers closed to within one goal, 8-7, with 18:09 remaining, but Yale answered with goals from Anne Graf ’03 and Sarah Queener ’03 within the next two and a half minutes to restore the three-goal advantage, making the score 10-7.
Goalie Caroline Barber ’02 made seven saves for the Elis.
“They controlled the ball more than we did, but we just capitalized more on our opportunities,” said Queener, who led the Elis with three goals on the afternoon. “This kind of game last year was the kind of game we would have lost.”
Whitman agreed.
“We have got a bit more fight in us this year,” she said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we definitely managed to pull it off.”
Increased mental toughness has been a theme for the Bulldogs this season. As Yale continues to stretch its current winning streak, each victory brings increased confidence.
“As a team, we are feeling really strong and confident,” Queener said. “We know we are capable of being so much better than we have been in past years.”
Yale will be looking for its fifth straight win when the team takes the field at home versus Harvard Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. The Elis will look to improve to 3-0 in Ivy League play and stay atop the conference standings with a win over the Crimson.