NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale field hockey team once again found itself up against an opponent that was on a roll Saturday afternoon at Johnson Field, as Cornell came to town with five wins in its last seven games -- and had scored five or more goals in three of those wins. The Bulldogs did their best to contain the Big Red offense, but ultimately Cornell got all the scoring it needed from one penalty corner goal in the first half. The 1-0 win marked the Big Red's fifth shutout of the season.

Yale (2-8, 0-3 Ivy League) had faced three nationally ranked teams in the five games coming into Saturday, and Cornell (6-4, 2-1 Ivy League) proved to be a challenge as well. The Big Red defense limited Yale to eight shots -- and no shots on goal, as goalkeeper Kelly Johnson came away with the shutout without making any saves.

For its part, the Yale defense -- with three freshmen starting in the backfield -- hung tough against a Cornell offense that includes one of the Ivy League's top scorers in forward Krysten Mayers (9-3-21). Mayers was limited to just one shot on Saturday and had a four-game goal scoring streak stopped. The decisive goal for Cornell came at 21:51 of the first from forward Kate Fitzpatrick, who knocked in the rebound of a penalty corner shot by back Marisa Siergiej.

Yale junior goalie Emilie Katz made six saves, including some acrobatic ones that kept the Big Red from posting a bigger margin of victory. Her diving save on a hard penalty corner shot by Siergiej 15 minutes into the game provided an early highlight. Later in the half she made a quick kick save with her right leg to deny a penalty corner shot by back Sam McILwrick.

One of Yale's best chances to score came in the final minute of the first half, when senior midfielder Nicole Wells nearly deflected in a shot by sophomore forward/midfielder Carol Middough. In the waning moments of the second half a green card and a yellow card on Cornell gave the Bulldogs a numbers advantage, but the Big Red got possession and controlled the ball deep in Yale's end of the field to run out the clock.

"We held a high-scoring team to one goal, and that's a tribute to our defense," said Pam Stuper, Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey. "When we possessed the ball, we had some better opportunities on attack than we have had in recent games. I saw some of the things that we worked on in practice start to pay dividends, but we didn't give ourselves a chance to finish. That is also a tribute to Cornell, and how well they have been playing defensively."

Yale faces No. 6 Albany on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

Report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity