After jumping to a 5-0 lead, Yale held off a UConn comeback attempt to finish with an 11-7 victory over the Huskies Wednesday afternoon at Johnson Field. Lauren Taylor (four goals) and Jenn Warden (two goals) led the way offensively, while goaltender Ellen Cameron contributed seven saves.

Yale's 7-2 halftime lead shrank to 7-5 as the Huskies scored the first three goals of the second half. Taylor's tally at 22:03 stopped that string but was answered just two minutes later by a goal from UConn's Katy Ryan.

The teams then settled into a defensive battle. Cameron made two of her seven saves in one key sequence with 16 minutes to play, denying Kristin Link on a shot from point-blank range and then stopping Link on a free-position attempt. Taylor's free-position goal with 10 minutes to play, her fourth of the game, gave Yale (2-0) some further breathing room.

Link got UConn (1-1) back within two goals with 6:44 remaining but Yale controlled play for most of the remainder of the game, tacking on goals by Kat Peetz and Sara Greenberg. In addition to the four from Taylor and two from Warden, Yale also got goals from Marya Myers, Jessica Sturgill and Lara Melniker. Taylor now has 10 goals in Yale's first two games. UConn's Jenna Moulton finished with nine saves.

The game was originally scheduled to be played at UConn but was shifted to Yale's Johnson Field due to unplayable field conditions after the snow storm in Storrs. The Bulldogs travel to James Madison Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. game.

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (February 28, 2007) - Senior Kristin Link (Slingerlands, N.Y.) scored a career-high four goals to help the University of Connecticut women's lacrosse team come back from a five-goal deficit before falling to Yale University, 11-7, Wednesday afternoon at Johnson Field.

With the loss, the Huskies dip to 1-1 on the season, while the Bulldogs improve to 2-0 overall.

Bolstered by two tallies from Jenn Warden, Yale went up 5-0 over the course of the first 20 minutes of action. Shannon Burke (Camillus, N.Y.) then cut the deficit to 5-1, putting the Huskies on the board at 5:34 with an unassisted tally, effectively lengthening her scoring streak to 40 games, dating back to the 2004 season.

After another score by the Bulldogs, Link put her first of the day in the back of the net off an assist from Laura Trzasko (Plainsboro, N.J.) to bring the score to 6-2 with 1:50 to go in the opening period.

Coming out of the intermission with a 7-2 deficit, the Huskies rattled off three quick goals over the first 5:43 of play to pull within two, their closest margin of the game. Sandwiched between two tallies by Link, Whitney Michele (East Rochester, N.Y.) converted on a pass from Burke during the UConn rally for her fourth goal of the season.

Lauren Taylor then set the Bulldogs in motion, scoring two goals on free position attempts within a span of 12:03 to put them on top, 9-6. Link once again attempted to spur a comeback, tallying her fourth goal of the afternoon with 6:44 to play to cut the lead back to two.

Yale then cemented the win with two final tallies over the last four minutes of the contest to account for the final 11-7 score.

The Huskies head out west for a three-game road swing through California over UConn's Spring Break next week. They will take on Stanford, UC Davis and California before returning home for a Mar. 14 contest against Harvard at 3:00 p.m. at the George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex.

2007-02-28