Dec. 19, 2006

A trip to California, a seven-match winning streak, several player milestones and a school record-tying 11 Ivy League wins highlighted the 2006 Yale volleyball season. The Bulldogs also said goodbye to two seniors who helped the team compile a 71-28 record during their four years.

Yale opened the season in Stony Brook, N.Y., for the Holiday Inn Express Invitational. The Bulldogs posted impressive wins over Siena and Stony Brook before falling to No. 13 Ohio. After a thrilling, five-game victory over Connecticut in the home opener, it was off to California. Yale went 0-3 in the Golden State, losing an exhibition match to Montreal and a 3-1 decision to Pacific in the Asics Invitational, then falling to a 15th-ranked Cal team that eventually reached the "Sweet 16" of the NCAA Tournament.

The Bulldogs returned to New Haven for the annual Yale Classic and took the tournament title despite a five-game loss to Albany, the same team they defeated in the 2004 NCAA Tournament, in the final match.

The Ivy League season then began in the same place the 2005 campaign ended--Brown's Pizzitola Center. Yale exacted some measure of revenge with a 3-1 victory, then completed a season sweep of the Bears with a 3-0 win at the John J. Lee Amphitheater the following day. The Bulldogs took a firm hold on first place the next weekend by beating Columbia, then Cornell.

Yale defeated Harvard, Dartmouth and Penn to improve to 7-0 at the midway point of the Ivy League season. The Bulldogs were tripped up, 3-1 by Princeton, then lost the rematch with Cornell. Yale recovered to sweep Columbia, but saw its title hopes severely damaged with a loss at Princeton.

The Bulldogs got back on track with a sweep of Penn but needed two wins and some help on the final weekend to force a tie. Yale did its part with three-game sweeps of Dartmouth and Harvard, but Cornell defeated Princeton in its final match of the season to clinch the Ivy League title. At 11-3, Yale finished in second place.

The 11 conference wins tied a school record set in 2005. The Bulldogs also held a 35-12 edge in games won against conference teams and recorded eight three-game sweeps (12 overall).

Departing seniors Shannon Farrell and Anja Perlebach left their mark on the program. Perlebach became Yale's all-time leader with 1,380 career digs, and Farrell was selected first team All-Ivy for the third straight year. She also became just the third player in school history with 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs. Farrell finished her career sixth all-time in kills (1,099) and 10th in digs (1,003). She was joined on the All-Ivy first team by unanimous Ivy League Rookie of the Year Alexis Crusey, who led the conference with 4.59 kills per game. Sophomore Ally Mendenhall earned second team All-Ivy accolades after recording the ninth 1,000-assist season in school history.