March 22, 2008
HANOVER, N.H. - No. 14 Yale needed a win Saturday at No. 17 Dartmouth to keep its Ivy League title hopes alive and an NCAA tournament bid within reach. The Bulldogs got what they needed in dramatic fashion, as senior attacker Meredith Callahan's goal with 1:02 left in the first half of overtime provided the winning margin over Dartmouth, 9-8.
Yale only led twice in this game -- for 22 seconds after scoring the first goal, then for 4:02 after scoring the last goal. The game-winner came after Callahan initially lost control of a pass from senior midfielder Lauren Taylor right in front of the net. Callahan was able to stay with the play and fight off a pair of Big Green defenders to regain possession and fire the ball in.
"The game-winning goal was a heads-up play," said Laura Field, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Lacrosse. "Meredith bobbled the ball, but she stayed composed and took advantage of her second opportunity."
Callahan was the seventh different player to score for the Bulldogs.
"Every attacker scored, and we had three assists," Field said. "That's as diverse as we get."
The Bulldogs also got a nine-save effort from senior goalkeeper Ellen Cameron, who helped limit the Big Green to a 2-for-11 performance on free-position shots and made several big stops in the second half as her team rallied from an 8-6 deficit.
"We were called for a lot of penalties but were able to turn them away," Field said. "The defense played well, and Ellen had a great game."
Yale (5-3, 1-1 Ivy League) won the opening draw control and scored 36 seconds in, as Taylor dodged into the 8-meter fan for a goal. But Dartmouth answered 22 seconds later, and Greta Meyer's goal started a three-goal spurt. Kristen Barry and Colleen Olsen added the other two goals.
The Bulldogs snapped the string when junior midfielder Jenn Warden passed to senior midfielder Kat Peetz, whose sidearm shot from just inside the 8-meter arc eluded Dartmouth goalie Julie Wadland.
Dartmouth (3-3, 0-1 Ivy) then built its lead back up with a pair of free-position goals, one by Barry and one by Kat Collins, in a two-minute span midway through the half. Wadland made a nice save to deny sophomore attacker Jessica Sturgill after that, but Sturgill scored on a free-position attempt with 14:32 left.
That sparked a Yale run. After Cameron stopped a free-position shot by Meyer, junior midfielder Taylor Fragapane put in a feed from behind the cage by Taylor at 12:22.
Sturgill continued to assert herself on the next sequence, generating one Dartmouth turnover by drawing a charge and then creating another one by blocking a pass after Yale had turned the ball back over to the Big Green. With seven minutes left in the half, Sturgill created her own shot by coming around the back of the cage and bouncing one high into the net behind Wadland.
That prompted a Dartmouth timeout. The rest of the half was a defensive battle, and Cameron capped it by getting her crosse on a low free-position attempt by Kathleen Wallace with 41 seconds left. The score was 5-5 at halftime.
The teams traded goals right at the start of the second half, as Peetz answered Meyer's goal with a free-position tally. The defenses then settled in, as Yale blocked a free-position attempt by Cate Goytisolo with 25 minutes to play but Wadland answered with a quick save on Sturgill five minutes later. Cameron stopped another free-position attempt, this one by Kate Labrum, with 18 minutes remaining.
Cameron got another save on a free-position shot by Meyer a minute later, but the Big Green got the ball back and Meyer sent it to Eliza Bennett for a goal with 16:59 on the clock.
Dartmouth had a golden chance to increase that lead 30 seconds later, but Cameron got her crosse down to snare a low shot by Goytislo. Wadland made a stop on a shot by Warden with 15 minutes left, and the Big Green drove down the field for a goal by Barry that made it 8-6.
The Bulldogs' final comeback began in unlikely fashion with a memorable goal by Warden. As she drove into the fan, a pair of Big Green defenders converged on her. Warden fell to the turf, losing control of the ball and hanging on to her stick with one hand. The Dartmouth players appeared to expect to be called for a foul but there was no whistle. Warden had stayed with the play, quickly scooping up the ball. From the turf, she got off a one-handed shot on goal that caught the defense by surprise. The goal brought Yale within one with 10:45 to play.
With each possession taking on increased importance, the Bulldogs got a scare when one of their top defenders, senior Jess Champion, hit the turf and stayed down. Champion eventually walked off the field. She would return to the game two minutes later, and just as importantly -- after being silenced briefly while Champion was down -- the Yale sideline helped keep the Bulldogs' energy level up. Even in the spacious and unfriendly confines of Memorial Stadium (normally used only for football games, but pressed into lacrosse duty because of remodeling at Scully-Fahey Field), the Bulldogs and their supporters were heard loud and clear.
"Credit goes to everyone, from the players on the field to the players on the bench and the fans in the stands," Field said. "Dartmouth is very athletic and very talented. We matched that with our energy level. Our players all gave 100 percent. Jess Champion went down but came right back in. You can't ask for much more."
That focus paid off on the very next Yale possession. After the Bulldogs had one shot blocked and one saved by Wadland, they continued to work patiently for their next opportunity. Behind the cage, Callahan spotted a wide-open Linden Ellis 10 feet in front of Wadland, and Ellis pushed in the game-tying goal with 8:18 left on the clock.
The final minutes of regulation were full of threats for the Big Green. With 6:30 remaining Cameron reacted quickly to a high shot from Collins, getting enough of it to deflect it over the cage. A minute later Cameron denied an Eliza Bennett free position shot, and with less than five minutes to play Cameron made a huge save on a free-position shot by Barry.
Meyer appeared to be set up for the go-ahead goal when she got a feed right in front of the net with four minutes to play. But freshman defenseman Kaitlyn Flatley came up with a huge stick check to knock the ball loose, then picked up the ground ball. Yale held on to the ball looking for the last shot of regulation, but when Warden's shot was stopped by Wadland there was still enough time for the Big Green to bring the ball up the field and call timeout with 23 seconds left. But the possession was broken up by a turnover caused by Taylor, who scooped up the ball as time expired.
Fragapane chased down the opening draw control in overtime, putting Yale in command. The Bulldogs worked the clock down until there was one minute left in the first half of the six-minute overtime. Callahan's heroics then gave the Bulldogs the lead.
Because the first overtime is not sudden-death, however, Yale still had work to do. Warden got the draw control after Callahan's goal, and while the Bulldogs were unable to get a goal out of the possession they did run out the clock on the remainder of the half.
"Draw controls were huge," Field said. "We didn't dominate [Dartmouth won 11 of 21], but we won two in overtime. That enabled us to control the ball."
The second half of OT began with another draw control. As Dartmouth's Shannie MacKenzie grabbed the ball, Peetz knocked it loose and it went out of bounds off MacKenzie's stick. The officials initially awarded the ball to the Big Green, but after conferring realized that it belonged to Peetz and the Bulldogs. Yale controlled the ball in the Dartmouth zone and began running down the clock.
A turnover with under a minute to play gave Dartmouth another chance, but Flatley grabbed a crucial ground ball after creating a Big Green turnover in the Yale zone with 30 seconds left. The Bulldogs briefly lost control of the ball again, but sophomore defender Michele Fiorentino was able to regain possession in the midfield and was fouled with 10 seconds left. As play re-started she passed the ball to an open Fragapane, who raced untouched into the Dartmouth end to finish off the game's final seconds.
Yale has now have won three straight games against Dartmouth for the first time in 26 years. The victory snaps a brief two-game slide that dropped Yale's record to 4-3 after a 4-1 start. It also keeps the Bulldogs in the race for the Ivy title after a loss to Penn in the league opener (no team has ever won the Ivy championship with two or more losses in league play).
"To play a game like this, on the road, after two losses -- this is what we needed," Field said.
Yale returns to action Wednesday against UConn at Johnson Field at 3:00.
report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity