Yale Athletics

The Yale women’s soccer team will play their second Ivy league game of this season in a Saturday night bout against the Cornell Big Red under the Reese Stadium lights. In Cornell’s first in-conference game, they fell to Columbia (3–4–2, 1–0 Ivy) by a goal on their own home turf. 

While both teams will be seeking their first win in the Ivy League of the season, Yale is focusing on going into the week with a confidence that they hope their play will reflect. 

“It is time to turn the tides and we all believe we can win every game through the end of the season,” Ashley Kirschner ’26 said. “The team is ready to get a win this weekend against Cornell. We have been training really well and executing our game plans.”

Last weekend, the Elis (2–6–0, 0–1–0 Ivy) were defeated by Brown (7–1–2, 1–0–0 Ivy), with the game ending in a 5-2 score in favor of the Bears.  

However, head coach Sarah Martinez doesn’t see the loss as an early season setback. Instead, she is drawing positives from her team’s performance. 

“Brown is certainly the top team in our league right now,” she said.  “They are very good and have some dangerous attacking players. I think we had some really good stretches in the game that showed our quality and ability to create chances and score goals. Some key moments created some unfortunate swings in the game, but I thought we battled for 90 minutes.”

From the opening whistle, Brown was on the attack. Sophomore midfielder Joy Okonye  scored the game’s first goal in the seventeenth minute. Nine minutes later, a cross from the right side was fired into the net by defender Naya Cardoza to put the Bears up two. Just three minutes after that, Okonye tallied her second of the game. 

Stil, Yale fought back, with junior Anita Thorvaldsdottir ’27 dribbling through the Brown defense and netting the Bulldogs’ first goal in the 31st minute. The game was a stalemate for the rest of the half, and that run of play was indicative of the competitive nature of the entire match. 

“Statistically speaking, it was a very competitive game aside from the scoreline, which unfortunately, is often our sport and something we must clean up,” Martinez said. 

In the second half, Brown found the back of the net three more times. In between their fourth and fifth goals, Yale put another on the board when Vienna Lundstedt ’27 capitalized on an interception made by teammate Logan Jacobs ’25.

That goal was emblematic of the offensive ability that the team has shown in spurts this season. 

“Our attacking and creativity right now is something we are pleased with,” Martinez said. “We are working on fixing some individual defending tendencies from our team which we believe will stop us from conceding some of the goals we are.” 

While the team defense may need some improvement, junior goalie Kyla Holmes ’28 has been solid all season long. In the defeat against Brown, Holmes had seven saves, five in the first half alone. 

“Kyla has continued to shine, unfortunately there’s not much she can do on many of the goals we’ve given up lately as our opponents are finishing at a very high level,” Martinez said.  “She is still consistently making unbelievable saves in each game.”

The Elis will face off against Cornell at 6 p.m. Saturday for their ninth game of the 2025 season.