Yale Athletics

The No. 13 Yale women’s lacrosse team (9–2, 3–0 Ivy) continued its strong season with two more wins against Brown University (5–5, 2–1 Ivy) and No. 14 Army University (11–1, 5–0 Patriot), demonstrating their ability to win games in different ways.

On April 1 against Brown, the Bulldogs followed a familiar script to victory, as attacker Jenna Collignon ’25 led the way in the 18–6 shellacking. The win was a big one for the Elis, as they felt they had something to prove in their third Ivy League game of the season.

“Dartmouth was tough,” midfielder Sophie Straka ’25 said. “It was a really challenging game mentally because it was so freezing and wet. But we still pulled out the win even though it was messy. I think it gave us the motivation to go into Brown with more fire because we wanted to make sure the rest of the Ivy League knew we weren’t going to be a close or an easy game.”

Much of that message was sent by Collignon, as she lit up the scoresheet with four goals and three assists against Brown. For her efforts, the sophomore earned her fourth Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week Award of the season. 

The game also proved to be a historic one for attacker Liv Penoyer ’23, who set a Yale record when she reached 87 career assists on a goal early in the second quarter. 

After the Brown win, the Bulldogs went right back to work as they faced off against undefeated Army just three days later on Tuesday. 

Despite the short rest, the Bulldogs played one of their best games of the season and were able to grind out a 14–13 win over an Army team that sat one spot below them in the national polls.

“We’re focusing a lot on the little details all over the field,” defender Marymegan Wright ’25 wrote to the News. “As we continue to face strong teams, our success has come from our ability to focus on the little details (that often determine the outcome of the game) and play together.”

While the result was the same — a Bulldogs win — the way the team won was very different. 

Army entered the game with a clear defensive gameplan to shut down Collignon, face guarding the Yale star the entire game and not allowing her any free space. However, this man-marking defensive scheme allowed the rest of the Bulldogs’ offense more room to operate, and they capitalized on it in a big way.

Without the offense running through Collignon as usual, three other Bulldogs scored hat tricks, with midfielder Fallon Vaughn ’25 leading the way with four goals in addition to two assists.

“Every single member of our team has an important role,” midfielder Alex Hopkins ’25 said. “Individually, we are all very talented with the same motivation to win and advance. And so collectively, we play as a unit that leads to our tremendous success. Brown and Army are very good teams, but with our personnel and talent we were able to dominate.”

The wins set the stage for a dramatic trip to Philadelphia this weekend for the Bulldogs, as they will square off with No. 22 UPenn, the only other team undefeated in Ivy League play.