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The Yale women’s basketball team (4–5, 0–0 Ivy) suffered a defeat at the hands of Syracuse University (6–2, 0–0 ACC) on Sunday afternoon, 60–58.

Syracuse handed the Blue and White their first loss at home. The Bulldogs ended the first half up by 12, but the Orange pressured them into turnovers in the second half. Yale gave up the lead with 4:45 left in the fourth quarter and could not win it back by the end of the game.

“[Syracuse is] a second half team, historically,” said head coach Delila Eshe. “If you look, they’ve had a lot of games where they’ve had big deficits early on and then they’ve come back.”

Six minutes into the first quarter, Klara Aastroem ’24 subbed into the game and the Bulldogs went on an eight point run. Aastroem hit a three to start the surge and helped it grow with two more steals. The Bulldogs ended the first quarter 17–8.

“As soon as [Aastroem] comes in you know she’s gonna make an impact.” said Jenna Clark ’24. “Her driving was amazing, we needed it every moment. That’s why we put the ball in her hands at the end of the game. We’ll keep looking to her and she’s gonna do her thing because she works really hard everyday.”

The second quarter saw Syracuse’s offense come alive to match the strength of Yale’s. Both teams went back and forth, yet the Bulldogs increased the margin by three. Yale closed out the half up 37–25.

Syracuse came out of the break with a full-court press that sped up the pace of the game and flustered the Yale offense. The crowd, full of fans in orange, roared when Syracuse made a play.

“It was almost like it was an away game at home,” said Mackenzie Egger ’25.

By the end of the third quarter, the score was 45–42 Yale. The Bulldogs held the lead for much of the fourth quarter but Syracuse took it after the Orange made a three pointer to put them up 56–54 with 4:45 left.

Aastroem and Clark sank jumpers to bring the score to 58–58. With 1:14 remaining, Syracuse made it 60–58 and despite five shot attempts, Yale could not tie it up by the time the buzzer sounded.

“We got a little bit too tight,” Eshe said. “So we weren’t now approaching the game to win the game, we were approaching the game to not lose it.”

Aastroem led the team with 15 points, Nyla Mcgill grabbed 11 rebounds and Jenna Clark had five assists.

The Bulldogs will next play at Quinnipiac on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.