Feb. 16, 2006

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THE MATCHUP
Yale will attempt to win their second consecutive home game after rallying from a 20-point second half deficit against Penn their last time in Lee Amphitheater. The task will be difficult as Ivy leaders Dartmouth invade New Haven on Friday before rivals Harvard, who sit fourth in the conference, come to town on Saturday.

SERIES HISTORIES
The Bulldogs trail Dartmouth 43-14 in the all-time series with the Big Green taking the last three meetings, including a 77-60 decision in Leede Arena on Jan. 28. The Bulldog's last win came by way of a 78-71 overtime win in Hanover on Feb. 28, 2004. Yale's last home win in the series came on Feb. 1, 2002, a 76-70 win.

The Crimson hold a 26-22 series lead over the Bulldogs and have won four consecutive including a tight 55-48 win in Cambridge earlier this season. Yale's last wuin in the series came on Feb. 14, 2004 in New Haven, 62-59. That win broke a four-game home losing streak to Harvard.

THE LAST TIME OUT
Yale came away winless from a weekend road swing to Columbia and Cornell. The Bulldogs played a strong first half against the Lions on Friday night, taking a 31-24 lead into the break. The second half wasn't kind to Yale as they managed only 10 points in the stanza and lost 51-41. Erica Davis picked up her first double-double of the season scoring 15 points and pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds. The Bulldogs offense rebounded the next night to drop a season-high 68 points against Cornell. The game, however, turned into a shootout with the Big Red firing in 79 points to come away with the victory.

SCOUTING THE BIG GREEN
Dartmouth enters the weekend with a perfect 7-0 conference mark, just a half game ahead of Brown, and a 16-4 overall record. Senior guard Jeannie Cullen leads the Big Green attack. She ranks second in the league in scoring (15.2 ppg.) and leads the conference in free throw percentage (.900). Ashley Taylor (12.5 ppg.) and Angie Soriaga (11.6 ppg.) are Dartmouth's other main scoring threats, they rank eighth and tenth in the league in scoring respectively. Taylor also ranks seventh in assists (3.25). Kristina Perry ranks fifth in in the league in rebounding (6.6 rpg.) to lead Dartmouth.

SCOUTING THE CRIMSON
Harvard, who plays at Brown on Friday night, enter the weekend 8-12 overall with a 4-3 Ivy League mark, good for fourth. Harvard is led offensively by Laura Robinson and Jessica Holsey. Robinson is averaging 10.4 points and leads the team with a .490 shooting percentage (25 of 51) from three-point land. She also leads the team in assists with 56. Holsey is just behind Robinson, averaging 10.2 points.

UP NEXT
Yale closes out the home portion of the schedule next weekend when Cornell and Columbia come to town. The weekend pair rounds out a four-game home stand, the longest stretch of home games of the season.

COMEBACK KIDS
Yale's 20-point rally against Penn on Feb. 4 was its largest come from behind victory since erasing a 16-point deficit against Morgan State on Dec. 20, 2004. The Bulldogs won that game 79-70.

Chris Gobrecht, JOEL E. SMILOW, CLASS OF 1954 HEAD COACH OF WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Chris Gobrecht, a 25-year Division I coaching veteran and a two-time Pacific-10 Conference Coach of the Year, takes the reins for her first season at Yale. Gobrecht is the ninth coach in the 31-year history of Yale women's basketball, and enters the Ivy League with more career victories than any other active coach in women's or men's basketball with 425.

DOUBLE DIPS
With 15 points and 11 rebounds against Columbia on Feb. 10, junior Erica Davis became the third Bulldog to record a double-double on the season. She joins captain Chinenye Okafor and Sara McCollum who have both picked up a pair of double-doubles. Okafor had the most recent of the group, scoring 17 points and pulling down 10 rebounds against Cornell on Feb. 11. Her other double-dip came on Jan. 27 against Harvard with 10 points and 11 rebounds. McCollum picked up her double-doubles on Jan. 2 against Lehigh and Jan. 14 against Brown. Against the Mountain Hawks she notched 10 points and 11 rebound, and then trumped those numbers against the Bears with 14 points and 15 rebounds. MARCIANO SETS NEW CAREER HIGH
Junior guard Stephanie Marciano set a new career high with 11 points against Cornell, eclipsing her previous mark of 10 which she set just three games earlier. Over the last four games she is averaging 8.5 points, a full 3 points higher than her season average.

OKAFOR STAYS HOT
It has been a tale of two seasons for junior captain Chinenye Okafor. After averaging a slim 6.9 points over her first seven games, Okafor has turned things around in her last 11 to average 10.5 points. Her rebounding also took a dramatic up-turn, going from 3.9 rpg. over the first seven games to 6.5 over the last nine. For the season she is averaging 8.8 points and 4.9 rebounds. She notched her first double-double of the season and the third of her career against Harvard with 10 points and 11 rebounds on Jan. 27.

COMMON OPPONENTS
Yale and Dartmouth share just one non-conference opponent, Quinnipiac, while the Crimson share four non-conference foe's with the Bulldogs. Both Yale and Harvard have faced, and fallen to: Fairfield, Virginia, Boston University and Providence, while Yale and Dartmouth have both fallen to Quinnipiac.

DAVIS NOTCHES 100TH CAREER BLOCK
With a rejection late in the first half of Yale's game at Brown on Jan. 20, junior Erica Davis picked up the 100th block of her Bulldog career. Davis already holds the Yale career record for rejections along with the single season mark (55). She now has 110 for her career.

NOTHING BUT A BLOCK PARTY
Julie Mantilla tied a school record with five blocked shots at Quinnipiac on Jan. 4. It is the third time in her career she has swatted five shots, and the second time against Quinnipiac. Teammate Erica Davis also shares the record, accomplishing the feat twice. Sarah Jacobson `93 and Megan Connick `81 also hold a piece of the record. For the season Mantilla is third in the Ivy League, averaging 1.33 blocks per game.

GOBRECHT PICKS UP FIRST YALE WIN
With a 66-61 win over Lehigh, Chris Gobrecht picked up her first career victory at Yale, snapping a ten-game losing streak by the Bulldogs.

VAN HORNE NAMED ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
On Jan. 30, freshman guard Jamie Van Horne was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week. Van Horne averaged 13 points, including tying her career-high of 17, to earn the honors. It was the first time this season a Bulldog earned conference honors.

LILLEMOE NAMED TO ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Freshman guard Kaitlyn Lillemoe has been impressive through the first 14 games of her Bulldog career and was named to the Coca-Cola St. Louis Billiken Classic All-Tournament team. During the two games she averaged 12.5 points, including a 16- point effort in the Bulldogs narrow loss to the Privateers. She was also clutch in the effort, hitting a key three pointer and picking up a block in the final minutes. She had an impressive Yale debut, scoring a team-high 19 points. On two occasions the freshman buried three-pointers as the shot clock expired as part of her .615 night. She finished 8-13 from the floor and 3-4 from three-point land. She chipped in four rebounds and a pair of assists as well.

FREQUENT FLYER MILES
Yale's non-League road trips this year ranged from as close as Hamden, Conn. (12 miles) to St. Louis, Mo. (1056 miles) and virtually every distance in between. Among their closer road trips, the Bulldogs traveled to nutmeg state rivals Quinnipiac (Hamden) and Sacred Heart (Fairfield). The longest trip of the season knocked two games off the schedule when Yale played in the St. Louis Billiken Classic against host St. Louis and New Orleans. The Bulldogs also participated in the Virginia Cavalier Classic, taking on host Virginia and Boston University in December.