Yale Stun Top-Seed Harvard 2-1 In Ivy Semis, Princeton Edge Cornell To Set Up Final
The Ivy League tournament had never seen a No. 4 seed win a game. Yale fixed that on Friday, and they did it against the best team in the country.
The Bulldogs beat top-seed Harvard 2-1 in the semifinals at a rain-soaked Berylson Field in Cambridge, ending a run of 13 straight Harvard wins in the series. Yale hadn’t beaten the Crimson since a 2-1 overtime win back in September 2012. Friday changed all of that.
Yale went 2-0 up with goals in the second and third quarters. Issy Baileff broke the deadlock with a drag flick from a penalty corner at 22:06, and first-year Maddie Leathem poked home a loose ball late in the third after a Harvard defender had blocked the first shot on the line. Harvard pulled one back early in the fourth through a Lara Beekhuis penalty corner at 47:54, then pulled their keeper with five minutes left and threw everything at Yale. The Bulldogs held on. Keeper Amelie Schwarzkopf finished with seven saves.
The numbers tell you how big this was. Harvard came into the day ranked No. 1 in the NCAA’s RPI and had gone 7-0 in Ivy play. Yale were the No. 4 seed, 4-3 in the league. The previous three No. 4 seeds in this tournament had all been shut out, losing by a combined 7-0. Yale are the first to win, and it’s the first Ivy League Tournament game win in school history. Rain and a lightning delay that pushed the start back to 12:45 p.m. only added to the occasion.
The other semi was tighter and just as tense. No. 9 Princeton edged Cornell 1-0, with Pru Lindsey’s goal late in the second quarter the only difference. Cornell’s season ends at 7-10. Princeton, last year’s NCAA finalists, are now 13-4 and one win from the title.
So Sunday’s final, at noon ET, is Princeton against Yale, and the winner takes the Ivy League’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Princeton will start as favourites on ranking and pedigree. But Yale just beat the No. 1 RPI team in the country as a No. 4 seed, in the rain, at Harvard’s place. Nobody should be writing them off now.
