WOMEN’S LACROSSE: Bulldogs fall in heartbreaker against Harvard, drop to No. 19 nationally
The Yale women’s lacrosse team fell 10–9 in a tight, back-and-forth game against their rivals from Cambridge.
Yale Athletics
On a sunny Saturday in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Yale-Harvard rivalry in women’s lacrosse lived up to the hype and delivered an instant classic, with the Crimson barely edging the Bulldogs 10–9.
The game was tight until the very end, as the first quarter ended 2–2, the second 5–5 and the third 8–8 before the Crimson finally took the advantage and outscored the Bulldogs in the final quarter 2–1.
“It is definitely disappointing that we fell to Harvard,” Alex Hopkins ’25 said. “We put up a good fight, but we are ultimately not happy with our end product. Games like this will happen, and all we need to do is accept and learn from our team’s mistakes.”
As Hopkins said after falling to University of Pennsylvania the weekend before, the key will be learning from the mistakes that saw Yale drop back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Most important will be end-of-game situations, as the Bulldogs had an opportunity to tie the game after winning a draw with 2:49 left in the game. After winning the draw, the Elis seemed in control and ready to set up their offense, but they then turned the ball over and were never able to get it back before the final horn blew.
“We never want to be the same team as we were yesterday,” Marymegan Wright ’25 said. “In other words, we’re always striving to get better.”
The Bulldogs now have two games to get back in the win column while they fight to stay in the top four in the Ivy League standings in order to qualify for the league playoffs.
Much of the pressure will come in the first game against Cornell University, who currently sit at 2–3 in the Ivy League — only one game back of the Elis.
“Going into our next Ivy games we are trying to focus on regaining the confidence we had going into the season,” Sophie Straka ’25 said. “And this just comes with a lot of prep. So we’re doing a lot of game-like prep during practice to get us ready for that because Cornell is a must-win.”
The Bulldogs will square off with the Big Red at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday at Reese Stadium.