After a narrow loss against Princeton last weekend, the Yale women’s lacrosse team finished its last home game of the season with an 8–7 victory over Dartmouth on Saturday.

The Bulldogs (7–6, 2–3 Ivy) kept fighting in a close contest with the Big Green, breaking the halftime tie with a series of goals that kept them ahead for the rest of the game. With a record once again over 0.500, the Elis are in a good position to finish the season with the remaining Ivy competition.

“[Saturday’s] game was a battle on both ends of the field,” attacker Hope Hanley ’17 said. “We played with incredible heart and intensity, and in the end, we came out on top with an important win for the team moving forward.”

The game started off slow for both Yale and Dartmouth — the teams played nearly seven minutes before the first shot found the back of the net. The Big Green took the lead first with a pair of goals by midfielder Jaclyn Leto, who would go on to score five of the seven Dartmouth goals in the game.

It took a little longer to get the Bulldogs going, but after attacker Tess McEvoy ’17 got one past Dartmouth goalkeeper Jessica Frieder, the goals kept coming. The Elis went on a four-goal run lasting nine minutes that featured goals from midfielders Christina Doherty ’15 and Maggie Pizzo ’18, as well as captain and attacker Kerri Fleishhacker ’15.

However, the 4–2 Yale lead did not last for long. The Big Green came back near the end, tacking on a pair of goals between the fifth- and seventh-minute marks to tie the score at 4–4, where it would remain until the end of the half. Despite the tie game, Dartmouth led the Bulldogs in shots, draw controls and ground balls.

“At halftime, we felt confident but knew that we would have to come out strong and that Dartmouth wouldn’t let down at all,” defenseman Clare Curran ’15 said. “[Defenseman] Emily Markham ’17 did a great job shutting down one of Dartmouth’s dangerous attackers and she also got a key interception that caused a big momentum shift in our direction in the first half.”

The second half started with an even longer stalemate than the first. It took a full 13 minutes before the Elis entered a scoring run. But when they did, the notched three goals within a minute and three seconds, each separated with a draw control. The second goal in the series was scored by Fleishhacker, who brought her season total up to 20, the best amongst the Bulldogs this season.

Yale held on to the 7–4 lead for seven minutes until the Big Green started to make a comeback. Another pair of goals from Leto within less than a minute put Dartmouth back in contention with only seven minutes remaining.

The match remained 7–6 until the last few moments when midfielder Cathryn Avallone ’15 stretched the Elis’ lead to two. Although Leto managed to put one more up on the board for Dartmouth, with 92 seconds left in the contest, the Big Green could not fend off Yale, and the game ended 8–7 in favor of the Bulldogs.

“Our attack was able to gain some momentum and get a few quick goals early in the half,” midfielder Kelly Anne Sherlock ’16 said. “As always, our defense was solid in coming up with big stops when we needed them.”

With this win, the Elis are in fifth place in the Ivy League, just one game behind Cornell and Harvard, who are tied in third. Yale will face Penn on Saturday, who is undefeated in conference play.

All seven seniors started against Dartmouth, playing their last game in Reese Stadium.

HOPE ALLCHIN