After six straight wins, the Yale field hockey team is certainly enjoying its two-way tie for first place in the Ivy League.
The mood seems to be much more somber in Providence, where Brown has lost all Ancient Eight games this season.
The Bulldogs (10–6, 5–1 Ivy) are looking to clinch its seventh straight win for a share of the Ivy title as they take on the Bears (4–12, 0–6) at Johnson Field this Saturday on Senior Day at 1 p.m.
“I think everyone really wants it badly,” back Lexy Adams ’13 said. “Everyone is really into it. In order to go any farther we have to give it our all.”
The team has not won an Ivy title since 1980. Although recent years have brought agonizingly close results — the past eight years have brought four second-place finishes — midfielder Dinah Landshut ’12 said this year the team is better at bouncing back from an opponent’s goal.
“We don’t get back in our heels anymore,” she said in a previous interview. “Instead we are looking to score the goal and shut the opponent down that way.”
Offensive power play this season has brought Yale up in national rankings. In the latest womensfieldhockey.com poll, Yale ranked 19th in the country. Yale is currently ranked seventh in the nation in terms of goals per game with 3.88.
The individual players are some of the best the team has seen in years. The Bulldogs boast two top-15 players: Landshut — who also holds Yale’s career assist record with 43 — at sixth and forward Erica Borgo ’14 at 13th in assists per game. This is the first time in 32 years of school history that two players reached double digits in assists in the same season. On the defensive line, goalkeeper Emily Cain ’14 ranks 19th in the nation with a save percentage of .750 and 1.95 goals-against average.
Yale started off one of its best weekends with a 3–1 win over Columbia on Friday. On Sunday, back Erin Carter ’12 — three-time Ivy League Player of the Week this season — blasted the 56th goal of the season the Elis’ 8–0 shutout over Holy Cross to break the 13-year-old school record for goals and assists of 53 and drive the field hockey team to its sixth straight win.
Although the Bulldogs fell to the Bears in four of their last six games, forward/midfielder Mary Beth Barham ’13 said that Yale is ready to play and give this match its all this Saturday.
“At this point in the season we know we have to give it our all,” she said in a previous interview. “We want to finish strong.”
Brown will bring two former All-Ivy League honorable mentions: forward Leslie Springmeyer — a three-time All-Ivy pick—and back Laura Iacovetti. The two will face Yale in their final game as seniors on Saturday.
The Class of 2012 — including Carter, Landshut, forward Mia Rosati ’12, back Taylor Sankovich ’12, forward/midfielder Kirsten Krebs ’12 and midfielder/back Chelsey Locarno ’12 — will be honored as part of Senior Day for winning the second most games in Yale history.
By the time the Bulldogs face off with the Bears on Saturday, Yale will know whether this game is for the Ivy League title or a share of it, since Princeton — with whom Yale shares the first-place title — plays Penn on Friday. But back Adamssaid that the team will continue playing its game this weekend.
“We’re all absolutely playing as hard as we can,” she said. “But I definitely think it’s a one-game-at-a-time mentality.”