Yale Athletics

On Tuesday, Nov. 19, the Yale women’s basketball team (1–4, 0–0 Ivy) hosted the Merrimack Warriors (3–2, 0–0 NEC) inside John J. Lee Amphitheater just a few days after a week of losses to Hofstra (2–2, 0–0 CAA) and Stony Brook (3–1, 0–0 CAA). 

The Bulldogs faced Merrimack last year in the 2023–24 season when the Warriors hosted in North Andover, Mass. Yale lost the game by an 11-point margin.

So far, the season for Yale women’s basketball has not jumped out to the start the team hoped for, losing the last three games going into the match against Merrimack.

The plan going into the Tuesday night game, according to Avery Lee ’25: “limit their three-point attempts and dominate the boards.”

The first period plagued the Bulldogs, whose first basket — a Kiley Capstraw ’26 three-pointer — came once the team was already in a six-point deficit. The rest of the 10-minute period would prove to be a recurrence of much of the same: Blue and White uniforms trying to claw back from an ever-widening gap. An offensively quiet first period ended 7–12, Merrimack.

In a post-game interview after the Stony Brook game, Head Coach Dalila Eshe told the News that her team was “still trying to find the pieces that mesh together” and the age of her guards has limited play because of their inexperience.

In a move that seemed to flesh more pieces out, Eshe substituted guard Lucy Lynn ’27 into the game, who played for a career-high 29:45. 

This seemed to help the Bulldogs get back into sorts as the second period rolled around. More than doubling the points scored in the first, Mackenzie Egger ’25 and Grace Thybulle ’25 propelled their team forward with 11 points combined. The momentum shift hit its peak right at the end when Lee hit a three that turned the score to the favor of Yale. At the half, Yale finally led 24–23.

In the third, Yale looked as though they might take off with the game and run. With a mix of free throws, jumpers and three-pointers, Lynn, Lee and Thybulle crafted together an eight-point lead with less than two minutes before the fourth quarter. 

It was stripped apart in a mere matter of minutes.

Over the course of the third and into the fourth period, Bulldog foul trouble put the Warriors’ feet on the free throw line, guiding them toward the lead. At 7:14, Merrimack had snatched it back. A tug-of-war for the win ensued, a battle of who could sink the last few shots under the pressure of the winding clock. Unfortunately for Eshe’s Bulldogs, the Warriors’ fight outlasted her team’s. Merrimack secured the win with a lay-up and four consecutive free throws.

The final score: 45–50. 

Lee told the News she felt her team succeeded on defense but struggled offensively.

“We are looking forward to bouncing back against Pacific by really running our offense and keeping our rebounding game strong,” she said. “We need to have less lag time on defense and really just put all of our pieces together.”

The Bulldogs stay home to host Pacific (2–3, 0–0 WCC) on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 12 p.m.