FIELD HOCKEY: Bulldogs drop two games over weekend to Harvard, Monmouth
Yale Field Hockey returns to New Haven after a tough bout away from home this previous weekend.
Yale Athletics
The Yale Field Hockey team (6–4, 1–2 Ivy) faced rival No. 7 Harvard (9–1, 3–0 Ivy) and Monmouth (7–4, 1–2 CAA) in a weekend of away games. They lost both.
Harvard entered the game undefeated in the Ivy League and on a five game winning streak.
The Crimson grabbed the lead just before the end of the first quarter, with a goal at the 13 minute mark securing a 0–1 lead. In the second quarter, the Crimson netted two more goals within seven minutes of each other to take a commanding 0–3 lead.
Lauren Venter ’26 finally put Yale on the scoreboard in the 41st minute, deflecting a long pass from Hettie Whittington ’27 to bring the score to 1–3. This was Venter’s third goal of the season, tripling her total from last year. Despite their early goals, Harvard was held scoreless for the entire second half of the game as the Bulldogs’ defense held steady.
Neither team had a shot on goal in the final quarter, and the Bulldogs fell to the Crimson with a final score of 1–3. This was Harvard’s twelfth straight Ivy League regular season win. The Crimson had a 12–7 shot advantage, and this game was only the second time this season Yale allowed more than two goals.
With this loss, the Bulldogs fell to 1–2 in the Ivy League, putting them in a four-way tie with Columbia, Cornell and UPenn for fourth place in the conference.
After the tough defeat in Cambridge, the Bulldogs quickly turned around to face Monmouth at their home field in West Long Branch, New Jersey.
Before the team ventured to the Jersey Shore, Head Coach Melissa Gonzalez wanted to ensure her team reflected on their successes against the Crimson.
“I want our team to recognize the competitive moments we had against a talented top ten opponent,” she wrote to the News. “It’s important to take away those lessons and apply them in practice this week and for the rest of season.”
This was the first ever matchup between Monmouth and Yale. Monmouth returned home to this contest on a three-game losing streak: one the Bulldogs looked to extend.
Gonzalez wanted her team to understand the Hawks as a unit, but also focus on their own game plan.
“Going into Monmouth, our strategy focused on understanding their tendencies and how they aligned with our own style of play,” she wrote. “While we always assess each opponent we play against, our core playing principles remain consistent but flexible in application.”
Once on the pitch, the first and second quarters were relatively quiet. Although both sides forced the goalies to make saves, neither could find the back of the net before the half rolled around.
Whatever Monmouth Head Coach Carli Figlio told her team during the break seemed to resonate because Bulldog goalkeeper Alexa Pitts ’25 immediately had her work cut out for her once back on the field. She made two saves within the first two minutes of the third quarter before a penalty corner gave the Hawks the momentum they needed to sink the first goal of the game.
Not long after, another penalty corner awarded Monmouth a second opportunity to extend their lead, pushing past Pitts’ steady defense and driving a goal home. Within only two minutes, the Hawks had established a 0–2 lead.
Despite multiple penalty corners for Yale, no one on the Bulldogs’ offense could muster a goal before the end of the third quarter came to a close.
At the start of the fourth quarter, around 51 minutes into the game, Yale put immense pressure on Monmouth’s defense, pummeling them with consecutive shots. After her first shot missed high, Poppy Beales ’26 took advantage of an assist from Victoria Collee ’28 and cut the deficit in half, 1–2.
The Elis’ offense continued to batter the Hawks with shot after shot as the clock ticked down. With less than 20 seconds left in the game, a shot by Emma Ramsey ’27 appeared to even the score, sending fans at “So Sweet A Cat” Field to their feet. However, it just bounced off the crossbar of the goal, and the Hawks’ defense was able to corral the ball long enough to win.
The final score ended in a loss for the Bulldogs, 1–2, but the Bulldogs are keeping their heads high.
“We will use it to fuel us into our Friday game,” Colette Staadecker ’25 wrote to the News. “We are working to play our game. It is important to keep it simple and stay composed in our circles.”
Yale Field Hockey stays home this weekend to host Cornell University (3–6, 1–2 Ivy) on Friday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m.