NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- After going nearly 22 months without a game, the Yale field hockey team has been making up for lost time early in the 2021 season. Sunday's game with Wagner marked the second time in three games the Bulldogs have gone to overtime, and the third time in four games their game was decided by one goal. Still learning how to win the close ones, the Bulldogs fell to the Seahawks in double overtime, 3-2.
 
"Wagner played well," said Pam Stuper, Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey. "They took advantage of their chances and we did not, and that was the difference in the game."
 
Yale (2-3, 0-0 Ivy League) took an early lead when senior forward/midfielder Kelly Dolan scored off an assist by junior midfielder Théodora Dillman less than eight minutes in. The Bulldogs scored again early in the second half, with Dillman connecting on a penalty corner shot with junior back Katie Pieterse as the stick stopper and sophomore forward Lena Ansari as the inserter. 
 
Wagner (1-5, 0-0 NEC) answered with its first goal less than two minutes later, a sign that the Seahawks would not go quietly. After totaling just five shots in the first half they got 10 in the second half, including the game-tying goal by forward/midfielder Sara Nelson at 43:25.
 
Yale was coming off a 2-0 win over Colgate from Saturday, while Wagner had last played on Friday. On a second straight hot, sunny and cloudless day in New Haven, the Bulldogs had to dig deep as they played games on back-to-back days for the first time since Oct. 19-20 of 2019. Many players on Yale's current roster, including six who played Sunday, were not even around for those games. That group included sophomore midfielder Rachel Brown, who made her first career start Sunday, and first-year forward Lily Ramsey, who generated a team-high five shots -- including a pair in overtime.
 
The Bulldogs controlled the first overtime, outshooting the Seahawks 6-1, but could not get one past Wagner keeper Daisy Ruhle (nine saves). The Seahawks' second shot in the second overtime wound up being the game-winner, by senior midfielder/forward Julia Cruces Pastorino.
 
Yale sophomore goalkeeper Luanna Summer finished with seven saves.
 
Yale returns to Johnson Field next Saturday, hosting Brown in the Ivy League opener at 1:00 p.m.

????Saves by Luanna Summer keep our lead at 2-1 in the 3rd quarter! #ThisIsYale pic.twitter.com/tLAfdtqNrc

— Yale Field Hockey (@YaleFieldHockey) September 19, 2021