Friday, 5:00 p.m. vs. Princeton
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Ivy League field hockey schedule makers could not have planned it any better. With one game left in the regular season, there is one spot up for grabs in the Ivy League Tournament – and the two teams that are vying for it will play each other. The winner-take-all match at Johnson Field Friday (5:00 p.m.,
ESPN+,
International Stream,
Live Stats) pits Yale against long-time rival Princeton on Senior Night.
Adding to the Ivy intrigue this weekend is the fact that the No. 1 seed in the Ivy League Tournament is also yet to be determined. The two teams vying for that spot will play Saturday at noon, as No. 9 Harvard visits No. 17 Cornell. The winner hosts the tournament Nov. 3-5.
LAST WEEKEND
Yale (7-8, 3-3 Ivy League) beat
Columbia 1-0 Friday and
Richmond 3-2 in overtime Sunday. The Bulldogs have won three in a row and four of their last five.
CLOSE CALLS
Eight of Yale's last nine games have been decided by one goal. The Bulldogs are 5-3 in those one-goal games.
WORKING OVERTIME
Four of Yale's last six games have gone to overtime, with one (at then-No. 17 UMass Oct. 1) going all the way to a shootout. The Bulldogs are 3-1 in those OT games.
CORNER ADVANTAGE
Five times in the last six games, Yale has had more penalty corners than its opponent – including two games in which the Bulldogs did not allow a single corner. Over that span the Bulldogs have totaled 52 penalty corners and their opponents have 29.
SENIOR NIGHT
Prior to the game, the Bulldogs will honor the seniors from both teams. That includes six Bulldogs. This group has been a part of 32 wins since the start of the 2019 season, including a pair of nine-win seasons in 2021 and 2022 that are tied for the most wins by a Yale team since the 2011 Ivy League Championship season. They have also helped Yale Field Hockey earn the NFHCA National Academic Team Award each season of their careers.
Yale's seniors:
BEALES FTW
Sophomore forward
Poppy Beales (King's Lynn, Norfolk, England) has scored the game-winning goal in each of Yale's last four wins, including three in overtime. Four of her nine goals for the season have been game-winners, including the GWG in all three of Yale's Ivy League wins. She is tied for third in the Ivy League in goals and tied for sixth in points (9-0-18). All of her goals and points have come in the last 12 games. She needs one more goal to become the first Bulldog to reach double digit goals in a season since 2019 (
Bridget Condie '20, 11).
BARLOW AMONG LEAGUE LEADERS
Junior midfielder/forward
Ellie Barlow (Dunmow, Essex, England) is tied for sixth in the league with seven assists. She has nine points (2-5-9) in the last eight games and needs one more point to tie her career high, set last season (4-4-12).
TWINNING
Seeing the last name Freedman on Yale's roster may bring back some bad memories for Princeton. Yale junior forward/midfielder
Julia Freedman (Greenwich, Conn.) is the twin sister of Penn midfielder Sophie Freedman, who scored the game-winning goal in Penn's double-overtime 3-2 win vs. Princeton Oct. 4. That was Penn's first win vs. Princeton since 2004, snapping a 17 game losing streak in the series for the Quakers.
CELEBRATING YALE FIELD HOCKEY AT 50 YEARS
The Bulldogs hosted Alum Weekend last month, with alums invited back and recognized at both games Sept. 15-17. The weekend marked the debut of the Celebrating Yale Field Hockey at 50 Years video, produced by
Jan Seeley '82 and directed by videographer Amanda Baker. The video can be viewed
here.
AROUND THE IVY LEAGUE
No. 9 Harvard is the last remaining team that is unbeaten in league play (6-0), and the Crimson has clinched at least a share of the Ivy League Championship. Second-place No. 17 Cornell is one game back and can earn a share of the title by beating Harvard this Saturday in Ithaca. The winner of that game will host the Ivy League Tournament. Along with those two teams Penn has also clinched a spot in the tournament, while Brown, Columbia and Dartmouth have all been eliminated.
Ivy League Standings
| School |
W |
L |
| Harvard |
6 |
0 |
| Cornell |
5 |
1 |
| Penn |
4 |
2 |
| Princeton |
4 |
2 |
| Yale |
3 |
3 |
| Brown |
1 |
5 |
| Dartmouth |
1 |
5 |
| Columbia |
0 |
6 |
Here are the league games coming up this weekend:
Friday Oct. 27
5:00 p.m. Princeton at Yale
Saturday Oct. 28
12:00 p.m. Harvard at Cornell
12:00 p.m. Brown at Penn
12:00 p.m. Columbia at Dartmouth
IVY LEAGUE TOURNAMENT
The Ivy League Tournament takes place at the site of the No. 1 seed and includes the top four teams in the regular season standings. Cornell, Harvard and Penn have clinched tournament berths. The semifinals take place Friday Nov. 3 (times TBD) and the tournament championship game is Sunday Nov. 5 at 1:00 p.m. Tournament games will be streamed on ESPN+.
SCOUTING PRINCETON
A year ago at this time Princeton (6-8, 4-2 Ivy League) was putting the finishing touches on its 20th undefeated Ivy League season, beating Columbia 3-1 in the regular season finale to claim its 27th Ivy League Championship. The Tigers were en route to making their 26th NCAA Tournament appearance. But eight seniors – all starters – from that team graduated, and first team All-American midfielder Beth Yeager is taking this year off from Princeton to compete with the U.S. National Team. The Tigers were the preseason favorite in the media poll, but league losses to Penn (3-2 in double overtime Oct. 4) and Harvard (4-0 Oct. 14) now place them in jeopardy of missing the Ivy League Tournament. Ottilie Sykes leads the team in goals and points (3-2-8), while goalkeeper Robyn Thompson has a .748 save percentage (second in the Ivy League) and 1.91 goals-against average. They are two of seven players from England on the Tigers' roster – one more than Yale has from that country.
Based in part on the rest of the Ivy games this weekend, Princeton could finish as high as the No. 2 seed or could be out of the tournament entirely.
TALE OF THE TAPE
| Stats (Ivy Games Only) |
Yale |
Princeton |
| Goals For |
9 |
10 |
| Goals Against |
11 |
11 |
| Assists |
8 |
8 |
| Shots |
59 |
85 |
| Shots on Goal |
30 |
47 |
| Saves |
22 |
30 |
| Save Percentage |
.667 |
.732 |
| Corners |
38 |
40 |
