DURHAM, N.C. – A matchup between two of the top women's lacrosse teams in the country at Koskinen Field Tuesday night did not disappoint, as No. 16 Yale and No. 15 Duke traded goals and runs all night before a pivotal sequence in the final minutes proved decisive. Trailing 14-13 with 7:22 to play, the Bulldog defense shut down the Blue Devils the rest of the way while a pair of goals – by sophomore midfielder
Sophie Straka and sophomore attacker
Jenna Collignon – eventually gave Yale the lead. The Bulldog defense then forced one final Duke turnover to clinch a thrilling 15-14 win.
Yale (5-2, 1-0 Ivy League) led 6-2 within the game's first 14 minutes, but Duke (4-4, 0-3 ACC) answered with a five-goal run to go ahead for the first time at 12:22 of the second quarter.
The Bulldogs answered almost immediately, with Collignon at the center of it all. She scored the game's next three goals, all unassisted in a span of seven minutes. At one point she had taken four shots and scored four goals; she would finish the night 7-for-11.
Senior attacker
Olivia Penoyer's goal extended the lead to 10-7, but Duke scored two goals in the final 30 seconds of the second quarter to get within one at halftime.
Neither team scored more than two consecutive goals in the second half, keeping the tension high. With 7:59 to play Duke scored to tie the game 13-13 and a yellow card on Yale enabled the Blue Devils to score a player-up goal 37 seconds later to go up 14-13. It was just the second lead of the game for Duke.
But with 6:44 left what would have been Duke's 15th goal was disallowed due to a dangerous follow-through. The yellow cards would keep adding up for the Blue Devils – they finished with five. An unreleasable one led to Straka's free position goal at 3:49 of the fourth that tied the score 14-14.
Duke got the ensuing draw control but turned the ball over under pressure, and the Bulldogs set up on attack with the player-up advantage still intact and less than three minutes to play. Collignon, freed of the face guard Duke had used on her at various points throughout the night, worked a give-and-go with Penoyer. From the far right side of the eight-meter arc she drove towards the middle, then cut back, turned and fired a low shot that eluded Blue Devil goalie Shaye Fitzpatrick at the 2:44 mark.
The Blue Devils once again got the draw control, but threw the ball away in Yale's zone with 73 seconds left. Straka came up with a critical loose ball to keep possession on the clear, and once the Bulldogs got the ball deep into Duke territory they were able to run the clock out. They swarmed the field to celebrate another signature win for the season.
Collignon's seven goals – the most by a Yale player since
Olivia Markert '22 scored seven against Quinnipiac Mar. 1, 2022 – led the way for the Bulldogs offensively. Sophomore midfielder
Fallon Vaughn had three goals and two assists, sophomore midfielder
Taylor Lane scored a pair, and Penoyer, Straka and first-year midfielder
Bella Saviano had one each.
Collignon added six draw controls, while sophomore midfielder
Sky Carrasquillo had five ground balls and four caused turnovers. Junior goalkeeper
Luanna Summer, making her first career start, finished with four saves.
The Bulldogs finished 19-for-19 on clears while limiting Duke to a 9-for-13 (.692) performance.
Yale returns home to host Temple Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
