March 15, 2008
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - For the first 30 minutes of Saturday afternoon's game at Johnson Field, No. 13 Yale hung with No. 8 Penn. The second half was a different story, however, as the Quakers outscored the Bulldogs 6-0 to claim a 10-4 win in the Ivy League opener.
Penn, the defending Ivy champions, was the only league team to beat Yale last season. The Bulldogs were looking to gain an early edge in the race for the 2008 title but were up against a defense that had held them to just 15 shots and three goals last year. The Quakers were similarly stingy this time around.
Penn midfielder Alison Ambrozy opened the scoring at 20:19 of the first, but the Bulldogs came right back. Junior midfielder Jenn Warden grabbed the draw control, and a minute later senior midfielder Kat Peetz tallied to even the score at one.
The back-and-forth action continued when Penn claimed the next draw control and midfielder Ali DeLuca scored 24 seconds after Peetz' goal. Warden got the next draw, and Peetz bounced one in high at 18:03 to again tie the score.
After Peetz got the next draw control, Warden set up junior midfielder Taylor Fragapane right in front for a goal that gave Yale its first lead, 3-2.
The defenses began digging in after that. After Penn attacker Rachel Manson tied the game at three with 11:27 left in the half, neither team scored for the next seven minutes. Quaker attacker Emma Spiro broke the deadlock with 3:50 remaining, but a minute later senior midfielder Lauren Taylor scored and the teams headed into halftime tied at four.
The Quakers' second-half surge began immediately, as DeLuca scored off the opening draw. Penn goalie Sarah Waxman made two of her 10 saves for the game on shots by Taylor four minutes later, and shortly after that midfielder Melissa Lehman extended the Penn lead to 6-4.
A pair of plays on Penn free position shots kept Yale close with 17 minutes left, as senior defender Jess Champion blocked the first one and senior goalkeeper Ellen Cameron made one of her seven saves on the next one. But after Lehman scored on a free-position shot with 11:21 the Bulldogs called timeout facing a three-goal deficit.
A Yale turnover right after the timeout gave Lehman the chance to extend Penn's lead to 8-4. The Quakers got the next draw control -- they won five of seven draws in the second half -- and soon began slowing the pace of the game down. Manson scored again with 3:54 remaining, and midfielder Giulia Giordano added another with 1:36 as Penn gradually put the game away.
Penn (4-1, 1-0 Ivy) has now won four straight against the Bulldogs.
Yale (4-2, 0-1 Ivy) returns to action Wednesday at No. 18 BU at 4:00 p.m.
report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity