The women’s lacrosse team (5-4, 2-1 Ivy League) lost 15-13 on the road against Yale (6-2, 3-0) Saturday. Coming off of a 12-7 win over Dartmouth (2-7, 0-3) the previous Sunday, the Bears could not make up for a slow second quarter.
Brown got off to a hot start, scoring four straight goals to open the game. Reigning Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week Mia Mascone ’24 scored the first two goals of the game and finished with a game high of five scores. Mascone’s performance followed her five-goal, two-assist effort last week against Dartmouth.
“Everyone’s a threat on our team,” she said. “It opens things up for one another.”
Brown’s momentum was halted when the Bulldogs responded with ten consecutive goals across the first and second quarters. Mascone stopped Yale’s run with the last goal of the second quarter, but the Bulldogs entered the second half with a 10-5 lead after outscoring the Bears 8-1 in the second period.
“I think what the game boiled down to was possession,” Claire Jeschke ’22.5 said. “At the start of the game, we won the draw controls and really capitalized on our possessions. If we were (able) to get the ball between the thirties, I think we would have had a very different outcome.”
Brown scored three goals to win the third quarter 3-2, with Leah Caputo ’24.5 scoring two unassisted goals and Maggie Fowler GS adding another off a Jeschke assist.
“Our team did a great job playing as a unit, both offensively and defensively and on the draw,” Jeschke said. “We really had each other's backs all 60 minutes. We did well at communicating and adjusting as we figured out what worked for us and what didn’t.”
The Bears opened the fourth quarter with two more goals to cut the deficit to two, but Yale answered every time Brown came close to tying the game. With three minutes left, Mascone scored to bring the Bears within two goals, but the Bulldogs held on to a 15-13 lead and won the game.
“I thought we battled at both ends of the field and did a good job in the second half making adjustments,” Head Coach Keely McDonald ’00 said. “I liked our effort all over the field, and we will make some adjustments this week in practice as we prepare for our next game.”
Brown will continue its stretch of Ivy play when it hosts Princeton (6-2, 1-0) Saturday.
“Offensively, we really capitalized when we had the ball, but with a good Yale offense and lack of winning the draw controls, we came up short,” Jeschke said. “We’re all excited to work this week and tweak some things (before facing) Princeton on Saturday.”
