The women’s field hockey team pulled out yet another overtime win Sunday, overcoming a 1–0 deficit with just five minutes left in regulation to take down the Columbia Lions 2–1 in overtime and improve their season record to 11–5, 5–1 in Ivy League play.

The game was back and forth for much of the first half, but neither team was able to push across a goal in the opening 35 minutes. Goalkeeper Katie Bolling’s ’11 two first-half saves kept Columbia off the board, and the game went to halftime scoreless. With 10 minutes remaining the Bulldogs earned a pair of corners, but could not capitalize.

Despite chances for both sides, the scoreless tie was not broken until just five minutes remained in regulation, when Columbia’s Jane Gartland cashed in on what was Columbia’s third corner in five minutes to give the Lions the 1–0 lead.

As they have all season, however, the Bulldogs fought back. With just three minutes remaining, forward Mia Rosati ’12 tipped an Erin Carter ’12 shot past Columbia goalie Erin Conway to tie the game and send Yale to its fifth overtime of the season.

In the extra period, a familiar face came up big once again to give the Bulldogs the win. Senior Ashley McCauley ’10 took advantage of a pass from sophomore midfielder Dinah Landshut ’12 to give Yale its third overtime win of the season.

“Columbia was tough today,” McCauley said. “They marked really tightly and stepped up to every ball. But Erin and Mia combined for a huge goal to tie it, and Dinah set me up perfectly.”

The goal gives McCauley 28 points on the season, and leaves her one point behind Yale’s all-time career points leader Emily Montgomery ’78.

From a team perspective, the win keeps Yale in second place in the Ivy League behind only Princeton, which is currently undefeated in Ivy League play.

“Our record says a lot about how our team has improved from past seasons,” defender Marissa Waldemore ’11 said. “Other years we have lost these critical OT Ivy games. This year we’ve won three. Although some things didn’t really go our way sometimes, we still came up with the W. In the end that’s what matters.”

In order to gain a share of the Ivy League title, the Bulldogs must take care of business in Saturday’s season finale against Brown at Johnson Field, and hope that Princeton loses one of its remaining Ivy League contests. No matter how it plays out, however, 2009 will go down as one of the best seasons in recent Yale field hockey history.

“I think as a team we are more competitive than we have been in years past, especially with each other,” captain Julia Weiser ’10 said of the season. “We’ve demanded a lot more from each other, which has raised our level of play and has also allowed us to push through games where we weren’t playing our best and still come up with the win.”

The Elis will try to round out their memorable season with a win Saturday when they celebrate senior day in their last home game of the season.