Streaking Bulldogs Headed for Pivotal Ivy Road Weekend
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Coming off of its first Ivy
League weekend sweep in three seasons, the Yale women’s
basketball team enters a pivotal Ivy League road weekend as winners
of four of its last five games and sitting in second place in the
Ancient Eight at 4-2. The Bulldogs (9-11 overall) will look to
separate themselves from the pack as they hit the road to challenge
a pair of teams tied in the loss column with Yale: historic rival
Harvard (12-7, 3-2 Ivy) and defending Ivy League Champion Dartmouth
(8-11, 3-2 Ivy). The Bulldogs travel to Cambridge on Friday night,
and Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H. will host Yale and Big Green on
Saturday. Both contests are slated for 7 p.m. starts.
Last Time Out
The Bulldogs earned their first Ivy League weekend sweep in three
seasons with home victories over Cornell (74-50) and Columbia
(81-74). Freshman Megan Vasquez earned Ivy League Rookie of the
Week honors after averaging 13.5 points, 5.5 assists and 3.0
rebounds against Big Red and the Lions.
Scouting Harvard
The Harvard Crimson boast four players averaging double figures,
including Emma Markley, who ranks third in the Ivy League in
scoring with 14.5 points per game. Markley, a four-time Ivy League
Player of the Week, also ranks fifth in the Ancient Eight in
rebounding with 7.4 boards per contest. The Crimson, who are led in
assists by former Ivy League Rookie of Year Brogan Berry (6.0 apg),
has won three of its last four games. In the non-conference season,
Yale and Harvard both won at NJIT, lost at Sacred Heart and hosted
and defeated Holy Cross and Boston University. Both teams have had
the same fate against four Ivy League teams as well, defeating
Cornell and Columbia at home, besting Penn in Philadelphia and
losing at first-place Princeton.
Series History
The Crimson swept the season series in 2008-09 to extend its lead
in the all-time series to 39-30. Harvard has won four of the last
five meetings in the series, which dates back to a Yale win over
Radcliffe on Dec. 7, 1974.
Scouting Dartmouth
The defending Ivy League Champion Dartmouth Big Green has split
its last two Ancient Eight weekends to move to 3-2 in league play
and 8-11 overall. Big Green is led by 12.2 points and 10.3 rebounds
per game from Brittney Smith, the reigning Ivy League Player of the
Year. Both Yale and Dartmouth defeated Holy Cross in the
non-conference season, while Big Green downed a Bryant team that
knocked off Yale. Both teams have bested Ivy League foes Penn and
Cornell, while Yale defeated Columbia, which beat Dartmouth the
previous week. Both teams fell to first-place Princeton.
Series History
Big Green’s sweep of the Bulldogs in 2008-09 en route to an
Ivy League Championship gave them a 49-15 lead the all-time series.
Winners five straight and of the nine of the last 10 meetings in
the series, Dartmouth won the first encounter between the two
programs in Yale’s inaugural varsity season of 1974-75.
Bulldogs Being Offensive
Yale shot over 60% in the first half of last weekend’s wins
over both Cornell and Columbia. The Bulldogs connected on their
first 10 shots from the floor, with the first miss coming on a
half-court heave as the shot clock expired, en route to tallying 40
first-half points in a 74-50 rout of Big Red on Feb. 5. The next
night against Columbia, Yale scored a season-high 47 points in the
opening frame on the heels of 69% (20-29) shooting the floor. The
81 points that the Bulldogs racked up against the Lions accounted
for the most points scored in the Ivy League this season, as did
the combined 155 points tallied by the two teams. Junior Yoyo
Greenfield’s 20 points against Columbia marked a personal
career-best as well as the first 20-point performance of the season
for a Yale player.
Doing It with Defense
In eight of their nine victories this season, the Bulldogs have
held their opponents to just 60 points or fewer. Yale surrendered
less than 20 points in the first half of wins against Army (15) and
Bucknell (19) and limited Brown to just 19 points in the second
half of a 67-43 victory on Jan. 22. UC Davis and Brown (first
meeting, Jan. 15 in Providence) also tallied just 60 points against
Yale, though both squads managed to hold off the Bulldogs and claim
victory.
Freshman Phenom
Freshman Megan Vasquez, who leads Yale with 11.4 points per game
in 2009-10, earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors for the
third time this season after posting 13.5 points and 5.5 assists
per game in the sweep of Cornell and Columbia on the weekend of
Feb. 5. Thus far in 2009-10, Vasquez has made eight starts in 20
games and averages 26.5 minutes of action per contest. In addition
to her team-best scoring output, which ranks her second among Ivy
League freshmen and 10th in the Ancient Eight overall, she ranks
sixth in the league in free throw percentage (.778), ninth in
steals (1.5 spg) and 10th in assists (2.5 apg). Vasquez has scored
in double figures 13 times this season, including a string of nine
straight games from Dec. 9 to Jan. 18.
Climbing the Ladder
Two-time All-Ivy honoree Melissa Colborne is once again one of
Yale’s offensive pacesetters in 2009-10 with 8.7 points per
game. The senior, who ranked second in the Ivy League in scoring in
each of the last two seasons, currently ranks sixth in Yale history
with 1,344 career points. The former Ivy League Rookie of the Year
has already eclipsed the Yale program records for free throws made
in a game (14), a season (156), a career (462) and in a game
without a miss (12-for-12), as well as for free throw attempts in a
career (611). Colborne’s career free throw percentage of .756
is among the best in Yale history.
Doing It All
Junior Mady Gobrecht is the lone Ivy Leaguer to rank in the league
top 10 in field goal percentage (fifth, .453), rebounds (eighth,
6.5 rpg), assists (eighth, 2.8 apg) and blocked shots (seventh, 1.3
bpg). Gobrecht, the only Bulldog to start all 20 games in 2009-10,
also ranks 17th in the Ancient Eight in scoring with 9.5 points per
contest. She has tallied three double-doubles this season.
No Sophomore Slump
Sophomore Michelle Cashen, a 2008-09 All-Ivy Rookie Team
selection, has been one of the Bulldogs’ most consistent
players this season. Cashen is currently one of five Yale players
averaging over 8.0 points per game and is the Bulldogs’ top
rebounder with 7.4 boards per contest, slotting her at fifth in the
Ivy League on the glass. The sophomore, who is also among the
Ancient Eight’s best at the free throw line with a .800
shooting percentage, has tallied four double-doubles in
2009-10.
Block Parties
Junior Mady Gobrecht blocked a career-best six shots in the
Bulldogs’ 68-58 win at NJIT on Jan. 9. Gobrecht, who ranks
seventh in the Ivy League with 1.3 blocked shots per game,
accounted for the most blocks by a Yale player since Erica Davis
’07 turned back seven Sacred Heart offerings on Nov. 25,
2006. Senior Haywood Wright, the third-most prolific shot blocker
in Yale history with 104 rejections in her career, swatted five
shots in the Bulldogs’ next contest at Brown on Jan. 15.
Spreading the Wealth
Though only one Yale player ranks among the top 10 scorers in the
Ivy League (Vasquez, 10th), the Bulldogs boast the only roster in
the Ancient Eight with five active players averaging over 8.5
points per game. The Bulldogs, who have eight players contributing
at least 18 minutes per game, have had five different players lead
them in scoring and six different players lead the way in
rebounding this season.
Swept Away
Last weekend’s victories over Cornell and Columbia marked
the first Ivy League weekend sweep for the Bulldogs since downing
Harvard and Dartmouth on Jan. 26-27, 2007. Yale has now swept
Cornell and Columbia in New Haven on back-to-back days on 13
occasions, while Big Red and the Lions have never knocked off the
Bulldogs in consecutive games at Lee Amphitheater.
New Haven? Where’s That?
The Bulldogs ushered out 2009 and welcomed in 2010 with seven
consecutive games away from the familiar confines of the John J.
Lee Amphitheater. Yale’s 33-day hiatus from action in the Elm
City, which started in nearby Hamden, Conn. at Quinnipiac and
ranged as far west as Boulder, Colo., spanned five states and three
time zones. The Bulldogs also went 33 days without a home game last
season, a stretch spanning six games from Nov. 18 to Dec. 21,
2008.
Schedule Strength
The 2009-10 Yale squad has challenged 2008-09 NCAA Regional
Finalist Arizona State (L, 82-46) and NCAA Second Round participant
Kansas State (L, 78-59) as well as 2008-09 conference champions
Sacred Heart (L, 76-67) and North Carolina A&T (L, 80-79),
which needed a buzzer beater to sneak past the Bulldogs on Nov. 28.
Ivy League rival Dartmouth, last season’s Ancient Eight
champion, will host Yale on Feb. 13 and will visit the John J. Lee
Amphitheater on Feb. 26.
Picking on the Patriot
The Bulldogs went 3-0 against Patriot League foes this season,
besting Holy Cross, Army and Bucknell. Yale was 1-2 against the
same trio of opponents last season, posting a win at Holy Cross
while dropping one-possession decisions to both the Bison (73-70)
and Black Knights (62-60).
Double Double-Doubles
Sophomore Michelle Cashen (13 pts., 15 rebs.) and junior Mady
Gobrecht (12 pts., 10 rebs.) both posted double-doubles in the
Bulldogs’ season-opening victory over Holy Cross on Nov. 13.
The last time two Yale players had double-doubles in the same game
was on Jan. 13, 2007, when Erica Davis ’07 (21 pts., 11
rebs.) and Chinenye Okafor ’07 (10 pts., 13 rebs.) each
performed the feat against Brown.
A Sign of Things to Come
With 15 points in the season-opening win against Holy Cross on
Nov. 13, Megan Vasquez became the first freshman to lead Yale in
scoring in her collegiate debut since Kaitlyn Lillemoe ’09
scored a team-best 19 points against New Hampshire to open the
2005-06 season.
Branches on the Coaching Tree
Chris Gobrecht was very familiar with her counterparts on the
Arizona State bench on Nov. 19. Charli Turner Thorne, the head
coach of the Sun Devils, was an assistant on Gobrecht’s staff
at the University of Washington. In addition, Arizona State
Associate Head Coach Meg (Gallagher) Sanders played collegiately on
Gobrecht’s Cal State Fullerton squad from 1982-85.
That’s a Lot of W’s
With 460 wins in her career entering 2009-10, Chris Gobrecht ranks
30th among active Division I coaches in all-time victories. Among
coaches on Yale’s 2009-10 schedule, only Bill Gibbons of Holy
Cross (476 wins) has more career victories than Gobrecht. Gobrecht
and Gibbons are both topped, however, by another coach from the
Yale sidelines: Associate Head Coach Dianne Nolan, who amassed 517
wins as head coach of St. Francis (N.Y.) and Fairfield.
Making the Rounds
The Bulldogs’ 14 non-conference games featured teams from
nine different conferences: America East, Big 12, Big West, Great
West, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern Athletic, Northeast, Pac-10 and
Patriot. Additionally, Bryant is a Division I Independent in its
probationary period (ineligible for postseason play) with the
Northeast Conference.
Ivy Analysis
With the Ivy League season nearing its halfway point, Princeton
sits in the driver’s seat with a perfect 5-0 record. Yale,
Columbia, Dartmouth and Harvard are all tied in the loss column
with two defeats apiece. Brown sits one game behind the pack at
3-3, while Cornell and Penn, who will play each other in Ithaca on
Friday, remain winless in Ancient Eight play. Columbia’s
Judie Lomax leads the Ivy League in scoring and rebounding with
19.1 points and a Division I-best 14.3 boards per game.
Every Day is Mother’s Day
Junior forward Mady Gobrecht is the daughter of head coach Chris
Gobrecht. They are one of two active mother-daughter, coach-player
tandems in Division I women’s basketball (Southern
Mississippi: Coach Joye Lee-McNelis and Whitney McNelis). This is
the sixth time in Yale’s 156-year athletic history that a
head coach is mentoring his or her child in a varsity sport and the
first where the combo is mother-daughter (men’s fencing:
Robert & Maurice Grasson, 1936-38; baseball: Smoky Joe &
Joseph Wood, 1939-41; men’s basketball: Howard & David
Hobson, 1952-55; men’s squash: John & Jack Skillman,
1954-55; football: Jordan & Harry Olivar, 1957-59).
WBCA Pink Zone
The Feb. 20 game against Penn will be the main event of
Yale’s all-day WBCA Pink Zone event. The annual fundraiser,
formerly known as “Think Pink”, is dedicated to raising
awareness and donations for breast cancer research, with this
year’s proceeds being donated to the Smilow Cancer Hospital.
The festivities, which will take place throughout Payne Whitney
Gymnasium, will begin at 10 a.m. on Feb. 20 with a “Battle of
the Badges” bench press competition. The Yale gymnastics team
will compete at Lee Amphitheater at 1 p.m. against Southern
Connecticut and Bridgeport, while the basketball team takes the
court against Penn at 7 p.m. The day will also consist of a health
fair, a silent auction and many chances to win great prizes and
support an important cause.
report filed by Drew M. Kingsley, Yale Sports Publicity
